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We are now entering the restricted areas,
There will be no more girls or women,
The presence of the Eves is erased,
There will be only Zeus and no Venus.
No telephone or telegram calls to anyone,
At the most one can receive a postcard,
Or can see a photo in their wallet, if any.
The magazines will be a distant dream.
Gone will be the decorum and grace
Which come by women’s presence,
Gone is the joy, excitement, order,
Copulation permitted with the training.
No woman in this military establishment,
Where the British kept German prisoners,
Except the ‘unclean maid ‘ in the kitchen,
Emanating a wide variety of odors awhile.
We won’t be seeing women for three months,
Except two peaks of Begum Para Hills looking
Like the two alabaster breasts of a woman
Lying in its ready posture of surrender
We console ourselves – there exist women,
Down below the planes of Pune City
And just because of the women we all exist,
Like the military personnel of Purandhar Fort do.
(Thoughts of March 1966 recollected in tranquility in July 2004)
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