Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Conversations - a patchwork
1.
In discussions we live on -
Half sentences,
A quarter of a story
And death in a
complete round of silence.
2.
Midnight -
Mobile
Disembodied voice
Dismembered words
Mapping the Babel.
3.
Meaningless talks
Pregnant glances
Waiting to birth
A new innings!
4
A hiatus ?
Or Menopausal finality
In massacred conversations;
And two dried souls
Sipping tea in rare china...
5
In a cosy corner
Two eyes spoke volumes
through intertwined fingers.
Two voices looked on
In a quiet comfort.
6.
We spoke more and meant less
They spoke less to mean more
And thus, we all lived our tales.
Prayers at Dawn
ও কি সুর্য নাকি স্বপনের চিতা
ও কি পাখির কুজন নাকি হাহাকার
Grief spills over barriers of space and time, personal conflating the collective, making one big funeral pyre of humanity, under a gluttonous sun sucking away life sap, leaving behind a race scalded, a dying mess of straw humans.
Yet at every dawn, with muezzin's call, prayers rise out of desperation, dug out from the deepest core of consciousness, Oh Sun, send us the light of life, make us whole, send us your healing rays and let there be a new dawn.
*Note - The Bengali lines refer to a song by Jatileshwar Mukhopadhyay -
"Is this the sun or a pyre of dreams
Is it the birds chirping or lamentation?"
(O ki surjonakisoponerchita
O ki pakhirkujonnakihahakar)
