Sujit Traverses a Spectrum

Author: 
Sujit Sinha

Sujit Kumar Sinha was a student of history at Hindu College. He secured a PhD scholarship at JNU but quit his dream of being an academic as he became unhappy there. Instead he joined the Indian Revenue Service as a civil servant. During his service days at the Customs and Central Excise, Suijt held some very crucial charges. He was also appointed as Advisor to the Government of Afghanistan for the period 2007-2008. Upon retirement, Sujit joined the legal fraternity. He often visits Boston to be with his daughter’s family. His status has recently been upgraded to Nana.

Poems:--

  1. The War in Kabul
  2. Make me You
  3. Mother
  4. The Little Black Ant

The War in Kabul

Editor's Note: This poem is based on a real life incident in which 32 cadets were blown to bits in a suicide attack on 2nd October 2007 near a tree on Salang Watt in Kabul.

My heart felt like a stone
Mind sank in to a freeze,
The news has spread,

A bomb blew
Thirty and two cadets,
Into smithereens.

Those that have gone are
People of past
Army lads fated to
Part with their bayonets before
They raised their barrels,
Fated to fade before the combat.

Fathers have bowed before
The ground where
Their bodies were said to be
And near the place

They tie a black cloth each,
To the witnesses of the massacre,
The branches of the lone pavid tree.

The last remembrance of their dead boy,
Hang dull and greyed
Under the lone splendid summer sun
Sans humour and joy.

The plinth you level today
Braces the columns of tomorrow.
The now of life
Is the womb of destiny.

Make peace not war
Make peace not war.


Make me You

Today I dreamt
not when I was exactly asleep
In the isthmus between alert wakefulness and dead slumber

I dreamt that I stood
Pressed back in a niche
on the steep slope of a treacherous hill
And steel automated doors slid
Cramming me within

Oh Lord! what horrors you have!
Life worse than peaceful death
Death that is seductive like a dream
And life sans dream
A nightmare ruled from Hell

Between the living and the dead
Is You.

Oh Lord take us in your wings
Take me with You and You become Me
And I You.

Amen.


Mother

Mother I know
That when I was born
I was just an organ
That sprang from you,
But Mother you knew better.
You looked at me and saw
Apple of Man's eyes
Some one who has come
To fulfil Human hopes.

For every child is a dream born to mankind.

Unquestioningly you cared.
Your hands reached me before mine,
You knew the answers before
I learnt to question.
You draped and walked me
Stood by me in times bad and good.

For every child is a dream born to mankind.

And mother, I know
I out grew your loving hands
Became bold and vain
I squandered and wasted
but, to you Mother,
I remained the same.

The child who came as a dream.

-- 4th January 2008, Kabul


The Little Black Ant

Straddling the rugged uneven red earth
The little black ant scuttles from spec to spec
Urgent urgently searching for a certain thing
Of its interest and great worth

What moves the miserable creature with such zest I ponder
A boy's careless foot and its game is all over
Crushed and mingled with grime and mud
Do these ugly things speak to us I wonder.

Today that is sown is in future reaped
We all so love to fly with our successes
So I tell myself and then sulk
Which future which successes.

My lover sits across my desk
Doleful eyes of mercy
Oh my boy my beloved boy
Wish you would now be what I know you can be

In all the times that man sees
The dark days when silence is barren
When the present exists but not really
When the past is forgotten and the future is passed

Tell the tale of the ugly little black ant
Follow it as it crawls and scampers
Look bravely into your sweet hearts eyes
Say yes I shall.

Comments

I am not someone who is into 'poetry' - it's one level higher than where I am. But, I am glad to see it here. Let's have more!

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