Requiem for a Lost Hat

I’ve lost my hat- just that!
Some might say I still haven’t lost my hair
or teeth yet!
And I still have a head on my shoulders .
Sure, I lose it once in a while on family and friends
but the truth is, my head is still firmly fixed
- not rolling on a gory battlefield
– anonymous , unclaimed, with no one to mourn it.
I have much to be thankful for- yet,
I mourn the loss of my hat! Is it silly or strange?
I am so used to absentmindedly reaching within the folds of my bag
and feeling its familiar jute weave that it was a shock today,
when I realised there was no hat!
I turned my workday bag upside down, then inside out!
It had acquired an ink stain in this one year of use and
a tanned sheen from soaking in the afternoon sun,
the occasional drizzle and the ever growing pollution.
It kept my hair from going crazy after a bike ride
- no yards of duppatta orfussy scarves for me.
It also gave me an edge over the world!
I could look through it’s woven mesh, but no one could see me.
I was at once invisible and invincible in my hat!
I remember the warm smiling Tibetan girl who sold it to me.
The one who added a sweet smelling box of incense for free.
Since then it had travelled with me through forests, farms, parks
and busy streets of several cities, small towns and villages
in buses and trains- both commuter and intercity, cars,
bikes, scooters, and auto rickshaw journeys
both shared and singly undertaken.
Is it gathering dirt from the feet of careless commuters
crushed on a bus floor? Oh no!
Has it fallen under a rain-tree tree gradually turning into fertiliser-
and becoming part of it’s sap and leaves? That’s a happier thought.
And though I still mourn my hat no longer mine, I’d be happiest
if I knew that the boy selling bamboo flutes in the rai,
at the four road crossing has found it on his way home
and now wears it as he plays a merry tune!
(A Song)