Prompt: Where I Come From

I come from these tablas and drums, bells and flute, and I come from Ravi Shankar's sitar. I come from wide-branched banyan trees, neem trees and rubber plants. I come from deep jungle, fresh cow dung and rolled sticks of nag champa incense. I come from lush South Indian mountains with waterfalls and green canyons. Winding roads with pot holes and mad drivers, rickety rickshaws, big Tata trucks that belch black smoke and crowded buses with windows that don't close. I come from bullock carts and bicycles with bells; from Buddhist temples with transistor radios that play American rock and roll songs. I come from fan-headed cobras and snake charmers on the road. I come from roadside coconut stands with stacks of green coconuts, cut with machetes and spraying juice.
   

I come from honking swaying taxis and graceful swaying saris. I come from village wells and mud puddles with naked brown children and mothers with brass pots carried on their heads. I come from long thick braids and mirrored bangles and colored cum-cum on a third eye. I come from monkeys on a high wall and stray three-legged dogs, black beetles crawling on an elephant leaf and elephants standing in the shade under bamboo trees.

I come from silver rivers and Chinese fishing nets, bamboo poles and log canoes and oceans of coconut palms. I come from ashrams and temples, churches and shrines. I come from curries and chutneys and hot Indian chili peppers. I come from chapattis and dosas and hot sambar sauce.