INGRESS

INGRESS

 

 

Bedazzle gradually unaware spirit,

Story generation back rural lives,

Born in upper cast childhood pretty,

Accompanied grandfather in evenings,

A small cottage on the village road ends,

Straw mattress mud walls painted,

A kerosene lamp on  a wooden desk,

Burning bright, lighting the book,

Wooden pedestal for a large book,

Cover red-cotton of the book tied.

Grandpa sits near the wall at a  height,

An elevated platform with a mattress,

Senior villagers, women elders,

Sit in a semi-dark room separated,

All sing with grandpa prayers first,

Silence covered with book worshipped,

Scented stick perfumed lit spread,

Quiet evening dark ingresses sanctity,

Silent people, I observed all,

Before us, they were looking calmly,

Mahabharata eighteen books to be read,

Started the first book, simple poems,

In the native language, simple stories,

Grandpa orates hymns lyrical sweetly,

I listen to stories intricate entwined,

There was suspense, thrill, pleasure,

One chapter of each book to be read,

Grandpa explained in simple,

The meeting used to be over in hours,

With lantern lit, we move home,

While sleeping heard the story again,

Grew up much later, recollecting  teenage,

Knew Mahabharata, Ramayana  well,

Myth for some, true philosophy,

Human life complex time is a spider,

Weaving nets trapped killed many,

Plays greed, anger, ego, and envy nicely,

Family trees generations widen long,

Grandson to great grandfather narrates,

Birth, childhood, education, marriage,

Narrated ancient aspirations, lust,

Kingdom, gold, horse, elephant, sword,

Arrows, battles, king won or defeated,

 The story describes generation-wise,

Ended eighteen books a royal race,

Kauravs, a race that prospered, fought,

Brothers, the war was the Mahabharata,

Time erased everybody, wiped the race,

The last king was bitten by a snake,

He died knowing forefathers fought,

Fought for an inch, died most,

Time wiped out the race of cowherd-boy,

Avatar, considered was killed,

Teaching  now a grandfather to kids,

Sat eagerly listening to my story,

Ingress clearly winkling, surprised,

Grandkids  were asking me the point,

Disbelief in their eyes was socked,

Grandpa, an inch of land war broke!

Calmly I was confirmed, yes dear,

It never could ingress for millennia,

Human races much wiped out,

Again and again, Mahabharata begins,

Different time, name,  and place happens,

Same was dear time erases all,

Claimant contester all get wiped out,

Land even an inch questions humans,

Eraser the time, a fact, ingress belies.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra