A SPARK

 

A SPARK

 

A moment arrives in life, stays,

Watershed, confidence displays,

Shining glory for Nation, Alma Mater,

Dream of youth swinging remote,

After a decade n graduation in the state,

Watch often my Institute in a picture,

Wanted to touch the sacred soil,

Missed graduation, I must join,

Seven years as an engineer working,

Desperate to be master in degree,

Loved to become an expert in computers,

Electronics, telecommunication cap,

Graduated with honors flying color,

Thirst for growing digital age intense,

Wanted to learn with technology,

Artificial intelligence programming,

That day I got a master's degree well,

Alma Mater proud place of the nation,

Two-room hostel cooking my food,

Meditating first in life for two hours,

Resolved to excel most competitive,

Must get a grade; of A plus in certificate,

Missed convocation, collected after,

Stood before Gokhale Hall in silence,

A year and half of my life stayed alone,

From dusk to dawn, I was awake my fight,

Went, in front of the Institute,

Looked lovingly at my Alma Mater,

With warm tears, I kissed in air,

Read dedicated to service of the nation,

Promised to serve my state Orissa,

Worked for computerization of state,

Service for two decades, I noticed,

India entered to digital age beyond,

I once more visited Gokhale Hostel,

Watched my room no 101 a minute,

Last time in life, moved to the canteen,

My hunting place in between classes,

A cup of tea n India King smoking,

It was empty, closed, sat under a tree,

Smoked favorite cigarette, thinking,

My state is poor, wishes flourished,

I could not know an hour passed,

It is my last visit to my Alma Mater,

Suddenly heart choked with emotion,

I was crying, lonely, prayed dearly,

Another life after another, I wished,

Never believed in rebirth but thought,

What will be Institute after a century?

My teachers, my batch mates, missing,

Will, there be computer science a topic,

If humanoids crowd the campus,

Neelachal express speeding for home,

Orissa was my home, workplace,

For a lifetime I served, to die here,

It was a daily routine to be in the capital,

It was the working life of an engineer,

Worked, but I learned much more,

To learn in life, not in books, more,

The Alma Mater gave a spark of life,

The fire never extinguished in me.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

SANE

 

SANE

 

 

Heaven changes to hell widely,

Differs sane from sanity, socks,

Youthful, healthy mind, alert, wise,

Education touchstone transforms,

Transforms illiterate to speak clearly,

Words tumbled out of a tongue, exact,

Insight mind acquires incisive acute,

Dissects words, manifold meaning,

Writes literate language gift of divine,

Flows directly from a heart spontaneous,

Golden lines depict life, real absolute,

Poet writer novelist paint canvas,

Panorama of landscape gets alive,

Your soul will travel over the globe,

Infinite stories, legends, myths, history,

Keep you sleepy, motion picture run,

Imaginary to your mind colored,

Enriches human heart learned,

Learns culture, art, customs, myriad,

If knowledge, is an ocean, a long beach,

Walk sane, not sanity essential,

Judgment understanding subtle,

Superfine, surreal, under a veil,

The world never portrays true meaning,

It takes years, decades, lifetimes,

Hardly could you fathom the fact of life,

Complex life investigates, with scissors,

Physical hearts you dissect, find little,

Expands heart with love, touch cosmos,

Place of heaven watch pleasure a song,

Luxurious life in comfort, satiated,

Satiate lust, hunger, all-dimensional,

You dreamed, desired for a lifetime,

The place is heart, for hell, you know,

Knife chops heart to minute pieces,

Cannot find dear suffering, misery,

Hell is a place for those, life is tortured,

The immensity of pain, hurt, humiliation,

Eats flesh, savoring, drinks wine,

Intoxicated, forget sickness, disease,

Drug blossoms in valleys, life roams,

Willfully loses mind to think least,

Buoyant in a vacuum feels a void real,

Soul hypnotized floats in dark space,

Turns to a prism globe spectral,

Merges existence to the unreal realm,

This heart, dear spirit, this heart only,

Probes scientists desperate insane,

Failed to find the nature of sane,

Sane is heart, beholds paradise,

Sanity present, alert, heart insane,

Takes you to a kingdom of demons,

Hellish to realize, wine sinks life,

Forget human chaos, pain, death,

Forget wounds raw, heart bleeding,

World, that born must die, O’ life,

Good or bad, everything to perish,

Slippery path slope vertical path,

Sane heart wise walks on struggle,

Each step poses dangers, limbs slip,

Alerted entire life, learned moves up,

Just sleep for a moment, lost is life,

Lost freedom, eternal truth, shackle,

Insane heart lifelong stays blind,

A day in Church, Masjid, or temple,

Ever change your heart sane.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

Picture: Courtesy, Google

 

SHACKLE

 

SHACKLE

 

 

Life mysteriously differs at birth,

Varied class, community, religion,

Varies caste, color, language bitter,

On the lap of a mother, same is a baby,

Human beliefs define divinity,

Innocence never finds baby shares,

Simple smiles ignore any dislike or anger,

Plays with people, little differentiates,

Hugs simply, play fun with evil,

Tell me, if a baby fears death,

Ever fear of injury, pain for insult,

Answer smiling baby resembles God,

Mother first teacher instills a voice,

The tongue of a child replicates her talk,

Language thousand human voices,

World over baby differed instantly,

Laughed silently, baby on soil,

Differ nationality acquire automatic,

Tongues differentiate instantly,

Some English, next German, a list,

Grows baby, as a child learns,

Dress, food, and lifestyle change widely,

A child in Sahara to Tundra,

A child white in color or Africa,

Face mongoloid golden color, east,

Generation on earth follow their races,

Human seeks God worldwide, pray,

Could not find the physical presence of God,

Millions pray in church Masjid temple,

Jihadist, Allah love your heart,

Hands colored with human blood,

Crusader still Jesus love you,

Ignores killing forgive instantly,

Hello, Hindu warrior, behead other,

Lord has forgiven you serving faith,

Lord listens to prayers desperate,

Lack of innocence of a baby newborn,

Crying a baby mother at side feeds,

Less differentiated breast oozes instantly,

Lord with motherly love, O’ human,

Ever you observed Lord is mother,

Look minutely at the soil under feet,

Land, your mother, least differentiate,

No difference for her, jihad, crusade,

Differentiate less a swastika, feeds,

All her children, her breasts oozing,

Oozed millet, milk, you drink,

Muslim, you grow, hell and hearty,

Christian, you are wealthy,

Hindu, a billion on her bosom,

A child learns as Kashmiri or Kerali,

Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya,

How many types of Mother’s milk,

Taste water of Kavery, Godavari, Ganga,

Ever O’ Bharatiya felt differently,

Mother feeds you a baby for her,

Bountiful fertile soil, golden grains,

Tilak red-colored or crescent,

Grains stamped with a cross, answer,

Ever motherland denied you,

The shackle self-chosen, you show,

You show Bible, Quran, Gita barricade,

Shackled children on tongue speak,

Shackle on cast, Jadav, Brahmin,  

Rajput, Kshyatriya, Thakur, gender,

Caste longer than Ganges Baby in shackles,

In shackle, life seeks God, freedom,

Shackle subtle humanity cursed,

Freedom illusory Almighty is invisible.

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

DEBACLE

 

DEBACLE

 

Exorbitant constructions near,

Villagers build embankment high,

The river bends near the village,

Wider river bed sandy year long,

Bluewater for months rest muddy,

Worth sight children swimming happy,

Bathing ghat villagers delight,

Wonderful sight washerman busy,

Women bathe in separate ghat,

Brushing teeth, washing cloth,

Collect water carry earthen pots,

Astonishing pot on head balanced,

They walked miles to the village,

Village life is never happier river helps,

White furs long stick outgrowth,

A sight nostalgic play with the wind,

Village life is likewise wavy ecstatic,

Early morning peasants get busy,

Lifts water from the river by well-pole,

Shaduf hundred raise water to canals,

Much later, diesel pump with pipes,

Irrigated fertile soil vegetation,

I was thinking of fresh vegetable millet,

Big banyan trees on the other side,

An earthen road rises to embankments,

Acres of empty field shaded by trees,

Village hat my mesmerizing youth,

From buttons to wooden furniture on sale,

Pumpkins to potatoes, A to Z,

Corn, millets, grain bargain watching,

Worth bargain barter for rice, cattle,

Cows, bullock, and ox are sold at a  price,

Goat, hen, sheep marketed in a market,

Early dawn once a week to evening,

A cluster of nearby villages depends totally,

Women purchase saree, vermilion, bangle,

Comb, hairpin, safety pin, needle, thread,

Monthly need for mother, they purchase,

Steamed rice grains, potato curry,

Millet cakes with curd, spices,

Dreams for eateries, aromatic young life,

I was lost in thoughts night was dark,

Sleeping on highway pitch road,

A canvas tent with a kerosene stove,

Stay with family, my children,

Brought our domestic cow few goats,

Tied to my tent with lined tents,

Thousand villagers, womenfolk,

Children crying loudly, sick, hungry,

It was pouring rain-soaked to the bone,

Few serve cooked rice, biscuit, cloth,

Medicine for the sick, milk powder, soap,

Water canes distributed to marooned,

Below water covers till the horizon, gray,

No sign of our village, trees only top,

Calm waters or flooded river silent,

Fortunate, at midday, the river intruded,

Embankment gave way to flooding water,

It was a night I was alert for snakes,

Large construction took years,

A week back crashed with flood furry,

For decades people thought safe, secure,

The debacle tore our belief marooned,

A debacle death, horror, imprinted,

Thank God the highway saved us.  

 

@ Bijayananda Mishra

 

 

 

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