STANCE

 STANCE

 

Story beautiful decades-old remind,

Four brothers, a sister, a family existing,

Parents loving, mother housewife,

Father was a teacher in a city school,

Favorite teacher, evening tuition at home,

No electricity, fan; children squatting,

Kerosene lamp, lantern polished,

Students bring a personal lantern.

Siblings joined one by one at the school,

Attended tuition with other guys,

Circulated stealthily, father unaware,

Best student’s notebooks were prized possession,

Brothers burned oil lamps at midnight,

Dusk to dawn study for high school,

A time we siblings were reading,

Attending college, the cost of study higher,

Hardly father can meet our expenses,

By selling cakes, stitching at home,

Mother supplemented few to father,

Father was doing puja at other homes,

Get some monthly contributions,

Children passed, graduated timely,

Now very well know parents hardship,

Obliged, all were thinking of jobs,

The eldest one got a job in a post office,

Salary helped the youngest sister for study,

She could finish post-graduation,

We brother in few years got jobs,

Bank, railway, electricity, service,

Four brothers got settled in life,

All with modest income clerical,

Happy brothers with monthly salary,

Satisfaction is more than dad’s salary,

Our family is now affluent, established,

Thatched cottage to a brick mansion,

Each of us has a scooter, home TV,

We could keep a domestic help,

She sweeps the floor, washes disks,

Youngest-daughter got a higher job,

Administrative post a jeep servant,

Quarter she got near her office,

On Sunday, we dined together, a must,

Sister comes by her official jeep,

We promised our parents one day,

All siblings decided to be united,

One house in town with parents,

Brother wives will stay at home,

We excused sister to be separate,

She assured us to visit on puja,

Festivals every month puja at home,

We shall worship family idol together,

The stance took shape in reality, true,

Home n childen were never noisier,

It was a big mansion large family,

Stance to stay with parents,

Known in the locality, the clan famous,

Gradual, it was sudden, collapsed,

Brothers, we preferred transfers,

We accused one by one a reason,

Children have gone astray by not studying,

Wives refute the stance as unreasonable,

Small house kids for better care,

We left one by one, parents, alone,

The home stands lonely, stance broken.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra