“Mein Tenu Pher Milangi”

By Amrita Pritam

Translated into English by Dr Jasbir Kaur

“I will meet you again"

Where and how I don’t know

Perhaps I’ll become an inspiration for your imagination,

And will descend on your canvas.

Or I’ll be a mysterious line on your canvas,

Silently admiring  you.

I’ll meet you again

Where ?

How?

I don’t know.

Perhaps I’ll be the flame of the sun

And melt into your colors

Or I’ll sit in the arms of the colors

And spread  across your canvas.

I don’t know how in which way, where?

But I’ll surely meet you.

Perhaps I’ll be a waterfall

And as the water sprays from the fountain

I’ll rub the droplets of water on your body

I’ll spread my balmy coolness

On your bosom.

I don’t know anything more

But I do know…

That whatever time might do,

It’ll walk with me in my present birth.

When the body perishes,

Then everything will finish.

But the threads of memories,

Are like ions of memory bits.

I’ll pick up those tiny memories,

Thread them,

Then I’ll meet you again.

COVID-19 Pandemic

O God on top

Please stop!

We’ve learnt our lessons

That You’ve angrily sent in . 

Though we know the soul is immortal,

We’re extremely happy to be mortal!

Let us live life,

And enjoy Thy bounties!

Dear God

Down on our knees

we beg

STOP  IT!

Made in China : Horrendous Corona

Loss of crores,

with  the virus Corona

Is taking its toll

On the rolls.

Death that seemed so far away

Seems on its way.

Fear writ large on each face

Will it clear us off the world’s face?

Is the Judgment  Day on us?

Time to exit like the mighty dinosaurs?

Is the Corona a Malthusian Catastrophe_

A positive check

On the burgeoning population

Because we’ve failed the preventive checks?

Witnessing an unnerving phenomenon,

Quarantine and what not!

The reality so stark.

Envisioning perhaps God’s annihilation plan.

Yes a  silver lining,

the world has taken a sabbatical

From strife ,hate ,bullying for a while.

The itsy bitsy,teeny weeny microbe

Has taken our breath away.

Slowly realization dawning on us

Not to take for granted

God’s breathtaking creations!

In its wake it has given mankind a rueful l lesson

In  Globalisation, at large.

Learning from each other

Today we stand in unity against this invisible scourge!

FRUITS

Sweetmeats of sorts

In a variety of mouthwatering flavours

Apple,Pineapple,Mango,Banana

Berries: Straw,Blue,,Goose,Ras.

I for one prefer

A fruit as a dessert.

To eat the drab meal,

The carrot is an apple

The apple of my eye

Fruits.

Often tummy abloat  with gas and acidity

Finally went to see a doctor

With a stomachful of complaints.

In a jiffy he flashed out a bio-chem  lesson

HCL, Ferment,Bile

Gosh ! the entire food on a spoil!

CURE?

Simple he said.

Simply eat fruits

Two hours before or after meals.

It’ll have an impact magical

You’ll be the owner of a detoxified body

Energized exterior,

A radiant face!

I have none of the above

But my tummy troubles have truncated!

A Tussle: Mother and Child

 She yelled

You’re here on this 

Beautiful earth

Because of me

I am your creator.

You’re enervated to the position of a mother

Because of me

I gave you that tittle

And with that

All the adjectives describing a mom

Are yours to keep,

And enrich you as a person

And complete you as a woman

Bah Humbug,

Oh go on man!

Mother’s Day

This is a day for,

Extolling the virtues of mothers.

I do for mine too.

So grateful for my darling mother 

Like there is no other

I forget I’m also a mother

And sometimes that’s  a bother.

 I look inside outside me,

No motherlike qualities I see.

I can’t see beyond my nose!
Everything I want him to get

A good job, income, wife, family…

To boast “my son…”

All the time I’m after the poor soul

Do this, Do that , Don’t do that.

Your age, this this this was that,

You? Look at that.

Often I wonder

About my voice like a thunder

I use, to calm myself at his behest.

Listening to his thunderous silence

I list his faults,

Like a gurgling stream

He too can’t see beyond his nose!

Nonchalantly he goes on as he has to go  

And here I fail to comprehend as always

All my raving and ranting

Can’t change him

Unless he desires so…

That’s that!

Woman's Day

Woman’s Day

We poor women have to make a noise to say,

Give us a day,

To prove we’re great as the men!

Ad nauseam we quote examples

To drive in,  our point.

What’s the point?

Indulgently the guy’s   state

Lucky you!

We have no such days!!

We know…

The rest of the days

Are yours to celebrate.

Wow! You’ve given us a day

To revel in the phrase…Happy Women’s Day’

Great roles: a friend’s, a daughter’s, a sister’s,

Wife ‘s,  mother’s, home maker’s, a worker…

Are reiterated and plastered smilingly

By the molly coddling guys…

Happy in the thought the Day’

They bequeathed on us

Has been appreciated, enjoyed

And  thanked  for.

Thank you !

Never the less.

Less is more!

Don’t forget

It’s the first step

That does it!

Isn’t it!!