Anitha

A blanket from every bed at every hotel. One night, one home, one warm floor. Winter should not be a class thing.

Not a project. A twin. Boarding school and village school for life. Same sports days, same library.

Every full-moon, the streetlamps bow. One night a month, the stars own Coonoor.

The picker's name on the tin. My grandmother picked from these very fields — put her on the label.

The vendor is the teacher. Rs.5 a lesson. Coriander economics beats a textbook every time.

Adopt a metre. Bring your grandchildren every monsoon. The forest remembers who came back.

A little wooden storyteller's chair at each stop. One grandmother, one story, one tin of biscuits. Trains should feel like visits.

A returnable cloth bag at every checkpost. Old cotton saris, stitched by the church women's group. The hills carry what the hills know.