'The Question' - Selected Poem from the book 'Mirror of Time - An Anthology of Poems' by Gautam Maitra

In the star-studded hot summer night,

The kid asked me

While sitting on the roof,

Dad, when I will become a star-like your dad?

In such a novice mind,

how will I make him realise

the play of life and death?

Once in a while,

sitting at a family get together,

he came running down the lane,

and sat beside me and asked,

why men and women wear different formal wears?

Why my aunts and mother carry the red mark of marriage

on the border of the forehead where the hair split,

but you have none?

He was surprised.



I didn't know how to explain the patriarchal aggression.

One day, he angrily asked,

Why some get burnt on death, while others preserved in burial.

I told the kid , that’s the death wish.

Then he pleaded for favour, papa when I will die,

Put me up in the banyan tree in the backyard,

So I could chat with the crows and play with sparrows

When sun rays would enter my nest.

And in the night, when you will switch off light

And look at the banyan tree to say goodnight,

I will still not sleep, papa

As the owl couple would return for a meal.


When I said, okay, I will call the carpenter tomorrow,

He would fly away like a sparrow.

One day he would suddenly come to my room

And sit next to me, and ask,

Why do we worship idols and the scavenger uncles who come here weekly

Told me, they worship only the trees.

I told the kid, listen, don’t worry much.

They are not us. They are an ancient native tribe.

The kid listened and flew away like a sparrow.

After a long time, one day as I was staring on the balcony

watching two quarrelling sparrows in a debate,

The Kid came running down and joined me,

Suddenly an eagle came in a flash and

Took away in its claw, one of the sparrows.


The Kid became angry and shouted at the eagle.

I told the kid, that’s the way we live on earth.

If we quarrel, another would take advantage.

The Kid nodded and again flew away like a sparrow.


     xxxxx

Poem - Question (Audio Link ) - Recited by Jayanti M

https://youtu.be/ed4TYl_BMD0



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed4TYl_BMD0&feature=youtu.be





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