DISCERNIBLE

 

DISCERNIBLE

 

At first sight in life felt dumbstruck,

Surprised to disbelieve the monster moving,

Black smokes shooting in a gush,

Steam hissing out of wheels, horn,

Blaring, shaking me in fear,

Railway coaches, wooden chair rows,

Glass window big enough for view,

Travel on a train as a child etched,

Memory mixture of thrill, pleasure,

Rolling wheels in rhythmic noise,

Music to me at age floats sweetly,

Visiting summer vacation from school,

To maternal grandfather’s house,

A hundred kilometers away from home,

Boarding morning train witness scene,

Running past slowly villages town,

Crossing rivers iron bridge sound,

Middle of a forest, tearing mountain,

Vendors with mixture cake sweets,

Pleasant travel at an early age is memorable,

Grew up studying in a college far city,

Easier to travel by train journey restful,

Empty stations, few vendors shouting,

Fewer crowds watching countryside best,

Poor villagers, suitcases, bags carrying,

Village products, wood for cooking,

Selling in the cities, they used to return to villages,

The train is their lifeline, picturesque attire,

Turban, dirty cloths, chapel, chew beetle,

Smoking near doors sitting on the floor,

Women with bangles vermilion on foreheads,

Shy, face covered with saree, sit aloof,

Gradually changing, people noticed,

Traveling on train shirt pant dresses,

Clean saree females freely mixing,

Talking on trains indulging in gossip,

Beetle, a constant friend, chewing a lot,

Children playing in the corridor smartly,

Coal engines no more diesel engines faster,

Wooden benches changed to cushions,

Longer the train, fast travel crowded,

Marked villages and towns getting bigger,

Getting better, look modern, traffic,

Vehicles, bikes, roads crowded intersect,

Vanishing bullock carts, speeding cars,

Moving trains, I glued to landscape,

The country is now prosperous, populated,

Stations with shops, retiring room facility,

Cement benches, lighted at night, clean,

No more traveling in train twilight years,

Confined to home watching the news,

Bullet trains offing trains gleaming,

Faster travel, air-conditioned coaches,

Serving breakfast, lunch, dinners on board,

Long distance travel thousand miles,

Passing hundreds of station amenities,

Online booking travel got modern,

Million daily travel, business vacation,

Pilgrimage, studies, crowded station,

Coolies in red cloth badge peruse,

Carry baggage on the head, unload from a train,

Platform mile long several platform links,

Life becomes complex, crowded, restless,

Running life trains day and night noisy,

Mile-long bridge, tunnels, crisscross,

Weaving country spider web network,

After independence, travels phenomenal,

Seven decades after, I remember the difference,

Coal engine of my childhood, discernible,

Museum pieces at places steam engines,

Reminisce, our land got freedom,

Cherishing iron cartwheel no more,

Generation metamorphoses, scenes, discernible.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra