Book, My friend !

 

Dear Book !

You are my friend since childhood

Even before I could speak

My Grandma was telling fairy tales from your pages

She told us stories of great epics like Mahabharat and Ramayan

Since then I fell in love with you and you became my constant  companion.

I have seen you in different forms and colours

Many books full with pictures in glossy pages

Some are voluminous filled with small letters

carrying wisdom of sages

Story books ,textbooks ,novels ,algebra or trigonometry

I have relished my reading pleasures in your company.

 

I have lost count how many books I have read

Nor do I have remembered their names

But I can recall some of them which interested me too high

Treasure Island ,Gulliver Travels,Tom Sawyer ,

Uncle Tom’s Cabin,Mayor of Casterbridge and Robinon Crusoe 

Short stories by Rabindranath Tagore,novels by Sarat Chandra and Ashapurna Devi

Books by Manoj Das ,Bibhuti Pattnaik ,Prativa Ray and Kanhu Charan were my favourites.

Be it a short story ,novel , poetry  or a detective series

I was always engrossed in reading

Sometimes I forget to sleep if the book is thrilling

 

Books fire my imagination  and take me to the wonderland in a joy ride

From the pages of books speaks Mahatma Gandhi,Dostoevsky  and Maxim Gorky

I can interact with their thoughts and understand what these great people are saying

 

If I am  asked, “What books have given to us ?”

I will say,’All ‘

 what I am today ,what my children are today

Because of the knowledge stored in books.

 

Books inspire us through stories and sayings of noble people.

Books connect people to people

In a nutshell ,had there been no books

There would have been no civilization.

 

A Log

 

I have  once been ,a part of a big banyan tree

Full with thousands of green leaves

The leaves sway their little heads

When sweet breeze play with them

Their murmuring sound was like a soothing song

As if they are in prayer for the Lord .

Beautiful birds and squirrels built

their houses in  my  hollow trunks .

Their noise and tweets

Were filling the atmosphere with lovely sounds.

Some monkeys used to jump from branches to branches

Carrying their babies with joyful abundance.

When sun shines hot overhead

I see tired travelers seek shelter under my shade.

Not only men ,but cattle and other creatures gather around me

And I feel as if I am a part of their family.

Some take afternoon nap under my canopy

While village children play like swings

Holding the roots hanging from my branches.

My history goes to hundred years back

I have seen   when village brides

Were bade farewell in ‘Sabaris ‘

The carriers of Sabaris and Palinkis

Walk in matching steps

singing in chorus

some beautiful song

The bride,bridegroom and marriage party

Used to halt near me

To offer prayers to Grama Devati

I have seen silent tears  flowing

from the eyes of the new bride.

I have seen the village turning into a town

When thatched houses were replaced

By houses made of bricks and cement

I did not know that

A  great danger for me was lurking around

As one day,some labourers from nearby town

Came with their axes and saw

They cut me down mercilessly

And I heard them talking

That there would come  up a big industry

The area has to be cleared

To make wide roads and a planned town.

Nobody was hearing my cries

When  axes were cutting my branches

My white blood oozing from wounds

My limbs were falling one by one.

Lastly they uprooted me from the hard earth

Which was holding me tight

Not letting me go from her embrace.

Alas ! All in vain !

They threw me on the way side

My green leaves ,branches and roots are scattered here and there

Oh! The sun is now burning us

And I am waiting to die ,cell by cell.

 

@Bharati Nayak