[Transcreation] Reasons

A moustache
Neatly combed hair
A confident smile
Taut English

Wider eyes
A leather bound
Indian Passport
inside of which smarts
a snap of mine
on a Schengen Visa

This is all that I have, and
my co-passenger to France,
the Korean, lacks
and also perhaps the reason why
only I am detained*
at Airports and Railway Stations
by inquisitive Gendarmes



A poem in Malayalam by Pramod K.M.
Transcreation by Vijay © 5th February, 2008

*NB: The word detained is used deliberately but not meant to connote an arrest.