#RhymeIndia by Times Of India!!

Okay, so be it!!


The OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT is here, and I am so, so, so glad to have won this one! :)

:) :)

ও মেয়ে, জলকে চল!

গর্ভিণী মেঘ হাওয়ায় ভাসে

আকাশপথের যান -

বাস্প চিরে বজ্র ডাকে,

তাও - অটুট অভিমান!

আকাশ জোড়া আলোর হদিশ,

নিরুদ্দেশে প্রাণ।

একূল ওকূল ছাপিয়ে পড়ে,

ঝাঁপিয়ে পড়ে বান!

A princess story

This poetry has been published in the anthology "She The Shakti" which can be purchased HERE!


Once upon a time

(They say)

It started,

It all started...

Epitaph / এপিটাফ

- তুমি সুখ উপলব্ধি করেছ?

- করেছি তো।

- সত্যি বলছ?

- সত্যিই!

- তাহলে বলো, কেমন সে অনুভূতি? কেমন, সুখ?

Rainbow...

Fought, made up,

Looked away, 

Stole a gaze.

Loved, laboured, 

And lost again,
Was that a poetry,

Or, just a maze?

Re-United at the Sea...

This has also been published in Women's Web.



Days are long, bright and sunny -

Silver of water, blue of shades,

Vastness of the world at large -

The commerce, the many trades…

Epitaph

- তুমি সুখ উপলব্ধি করেছ?

- করেছি তো।

- সত্যি বলছ?

Mistakes, memories...

This poetry has been published in the anthology "She The Shakti" which can be purchased HERE!


There, the storm -

Bygone,

Winds -

Blow no more.

Sands -

Lie on each other,

Calm - 

Like they never tore.

Waves - there were

Fierce, a’roar.

Stones -

They did turn around.

The mosses try hard

They hide the scratch

The green -

Tower the brown

One Wish!

One wish, just?

Alright.

Listen to me, here.

Melt me into him,

God, whoever you are!

আমার সন্তান যেন থাকে দুধে-ভাতে

বরং -

বর্ম খুলে রাখব তোমার পায়ে,

বা যদি চাও, 

ঈশ্বর ডাকো যাকে।

ঘুণাক্ষরেও বুঝতে দেবো না, জেনো -

ঈশ্বর মানিনা আমি, 

শুধু মানি - আপনাকে।

Rest in peace, Nirbhaya. We will not.

This poetry has been published in the anthology "She The Shakti" which can be purchased HERE!

------------------------------------

I can't say why - 

But have you not noticed too?

That,

Decembers...

These days..

They got colder

Colder than before

Colder than ever

colder in a different way?

It is a chill of another kind - 

Oh, it is! It is!

অতলের পথে...

অন্তর্নিহিত শূন্যতাই হোক 

অথবা, অতল খাদ।

ডুবুরিদের বোলো,

শ্বাস চেপে তুলে আনে যেন 

প্রাণ -

নির্মোহ, নিস্পন্দ,

ঝিনুক আঁটা মুক্তোর মতো, স্থির।

এখনও আছে আগুন

ক্লান্ত ছিলে।

ছায়া দিতে চেয়ে
বনস্পতি সেজেছি,
নিবিড়ে ঢেকেছি শুকনো কাঠ খড় যত
স্নিগ্ধতায়।

কল্পতরু সেজেছি
তোমার জন্য।

নিজেকে বদলে 
নিয়েছি -
নিজেকে ছেঁকে 
দিয়েছি -

সাজিয়েছি নারীর সাজে
নিজেকে।

কারণ -
পুরুষ ডাকটা আজও তোমার বড় প্রিয়।

দুর্বল বলে ভুল করো নি তো, তুমি?

অসহায় ভেবে -
অথবা, নেহাতই মূর্খ?

করো না ভুল।

আমার এই রূপ -
আমার স্বেচ্ছারোপিত,
জেনো।

জেনো,
এখনো বারুদ জমে আছে -
এখনো আছে আগুন।

জেনো,
এখনো জ্বালিয়ে দিতে পারি আসমুদ্র -
পারি, দাবানল।

অথবা,
আপাদমস্তক -
নিজেকে,
এবং -
তোমাকে।

শুধু ভালোবাসাকে আমি আজও ঈশ্বর মনে করি।

করবও - আজীবন।

আর তাই,

বাসবো আবারও ভালো -
তোমাকেই,

এবারে - আগুন নিয়ে।

Of confessions and fears..

This poetry has been published in the anthology "She The Shakti" which can be purchased HERE!


From the old photo album -

She looks back at me and smiles.

Her eyes twinkle like a cunning fox,

Her smile is of a hyena.

Her lips purse in vengeance -

All the vengeance the whole of mankind can ever conjure.

I can see her claws from beyond the frame.

She looks back at me
Eye to eye,

And takes my present away

In a way no one else can ever notice.

She is evil.

In a way no one understands,

In a way no one would, ever!

All that you can give me...

This poetry has been published in the anthology "She The Shakti" which can be purchased HERE!


What could you give me, you ask?

Well, here's my list -

Give me a full-moon that will see me sleep like a child a nightlong sleep, interrupted only by happy dreams that hang at the corner of the lips as an unaware smile.

Give me a sunrise that will wake me up bright and fresh the morning next, looking forward to the day for once. Tell me it's me you woke up for.

Give me raindrops. We will make puddles and never regret how much bigger the sea is.

Grant me a wish - tell me I can remain. That the world will change if need be, but not me. Because, you will define the world that way.

Give me a story - the best you'd ever write, the best that will ever be. Tell me I am that girl. Tell me I am the one you will choose to write stories about, twenty years from now.

Give me a boon. Let me live like we'll live forever.

Let me live like we'll die tomorrow.

You know, what that means! Don't you?

And, until then, do not give me anything. ANYTHING. Please!

What's the point, pray?

Musings... 2

A hope of belief,
A belief in the Self.

A dream of rising
Like the Sun on the cliff.
 
World, that has killed the mind,
Eyes, that still look up,
 
What, pray, is Love, forbidden?
What's a deed, if undone!

My unfair demands

What I need in you is neither passion nor compassion. I need in you a sea of curiosity. A curiosity to search and to find me, the whole of me. To excavate my mind, like a man frantically searching for a long-buried treasure known to exist only in myth. To ask, demand and extort every fine details, that I may forget, deny, defy or not even know. To seek all the problems of my life, and to spend your whole life solving them for me.

You may need to rob my body, as not all words can be spoken out. You may need to invade my mind ruthlessly, causing me to revive the trauma I should rather overcome. But at the end of it, we will tall stand two souls - blissful, naked and brazen - facing each other and holding our faces up to the sky, saying -

And thus we lived our times!

The Blessed Damozel (Dante Gabriel Rossetti)

The blessed damozel lean'd out
From the gold bar of Heaven;
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters still'd at even;
She had three lilies in her hand,
And the stars in her hair were seven.

Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,
No wrought flowers did adorn,
But a white rose of Mary's gift,
For service meetly worn;
Her hair that lay along her back
Was yellow like ripe corn.

Her seem'd she scarce had been a day
One of God's choristers;
The wonder was not yet quite gone
From that still look of hers;
Albeit, to them she left, her day
Had counted as ten years.

(To one, it is ten years of years.
. . . Yet now, and in this place,
Surely she lean'd o'er me--her hair
Fell all about my face ....
Nothing: the autumn-fall of leaves.
The whole year sets apace.)

It was the rampart of God's house
That she was standing on;
By God built over the sheer depth
The which is Space begun;
So high, that looking downward thence
She scarce could see the sun.

It lies in Heaven, across the flood
Of ether, as a bridge.
Beneath, the tides of day and night
With flame and darkness ridge
The void, as low as where this earth
Spins like a fretful midge.

Around her, lovers, newly met
'Mid deathless love's acclaims,
Spoke evermore among themselves
Their heart-remember'd names;
And the souls mounting up to God
Went by her like thin flames.

And still she bow'd herself and stoop'd
Out of the circling charm;
Until her bosom must have made
The bar she lean'd on warm,
And the lilies lay as if asleep
Along her bended arm.

From the fix'd place of Heaven she saw
Time like a pulse shake fierce
Through all the worlds. Her gaze still strove
Within the gulf to pierce
Its path; and now she spoke as when
The stars sang in their spheres.

The sun was gone now; the curl'd moon
Was like a little feather
Fluttering far down the gulf; and now
She spoke through the still weather.
Her voice was like the voice the stars
Had when they sang together.

(Ah sweet! Even now, in that bird's song,
Strove not her accents there,
Fain to be hearken'd? When those bells
Possess'd the mid-day air,
Strove not her steps to reach my side
Down all the echoing stair?)

"I wish that he were come to me,
For he will come," she said.
"Have I not pray'd in Heaven?--on earth,
Lord, Lord, has he not pray'd?
Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
And shall I feel afraid?

"When round his head the aureole clings,
And he is cloth'd in white,
I'll take his hand and go with him
To the deep wells of light;
As unto a stream we will step down,
And bathe there in God's sight.

"We two will stand beside that shrine,
Occult, withheld, untrod,
Whose lamps are stirr'd continually
With prayer sent up to God;
And see our old prayers, granted, melt
Each like a little cloud.

"We two will lie i' the shadow of
That living mystic tree
Within whose secret growth the Dove
Is sometimes felt to be,
While every leaf that His plumes touch
Saith His Name audibly.

"And I myself will teach to him,
I myself, lying so,
The songs I sing here; which his voice
Shall pause in, hush'd and slow,
And find some knowledge at each pause,
Or some new thing to know."

(Alas! We two, we two, thou say'st!
Yea, one wast thou with me
That once of old. But shall God lift
To endless unity
The soul whose likeness with thy soul
Was but its love for thee?)

"We two," she said, "will seek the groves
Where the lady Mary is,
With her five handmaidens, whose names
Are five sweet symphonies,
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
Margaret and Rosalys.

"Circlewise sit they, with bound locks
And foreheads garlanded;
Into the fine cloth white like flame
Weaving the golden thread,
To fashion the birth-robes for them
Who are just born, being dead.

"He shall fear, haply, and be dumb:
Then will I lay my cheek
To his, and tell about our love,
Not once abash'd or weak:
And the dear Mother will approve
My pride, and let me speak.

"Herself shall bring us, hand in hand,
To Him round whom all souls
Kneel, the clear-rang'd unnumber'd heads
Bow'd with their aureoles:
And angels meeting us shall sing
To their citherns and citoles.

"There will I ask of Christ the Lord
Thus much for him and me:--
Only to live as once on earth
With Love,--only to be,
As then awhile, for ever now
Together, I and he."

She gaz'd and listen'd and then said,
Less sad of speech than mild,--
"All this is when he comes." She ceas'd.
The light thrill'd towards her, fill'd
With angels in strong level flight.
Her eyes pray'd, and she smil'd.

(I saw her smile.) But soon their path
Was vague in distant spheres:
And then she cast her arms along
The golden barriers,
And laid her face between her hands,
And wept. (I heard her tears.)       

(Another piece of literature that had it's say in deciding who I became.)

পাণি গ্রহণ, নবনীতা দেবসেন

"কাছে থাকো। ভয় করছে। মনে হচ্ছে 
এই মুহুর্ত বুঝি সত্য নয়। ছুঁয়ে থাকো।

তোকেই

আবার
নতুন করে
গল্প সাজাবো॥

আবার নদী হবো একদিন,
ভাসাবো দুকুল॥