HOMECOMING…

Abha Vishwakarma

 

We celebrate your homecoming today

your return to Ayodhya Ram

fourteen faraway years

arduous, onerous, gruelling and grinding

was not plain sailing

without you and Ma Sita.

 

I look around

everywhere and anywhere

my eyes can lay hold of

to have a glimpse of you

amidst the gleaming and glowing diyas

of amber, fire, gold, mustard and honey.

 

The resplendent air

is fragrant with the myriad shades

of colourful outfits

of singing and dancing

of joy and jubilance.

 

I see you in a pensive mood

your looks forlorn and lost

with your encompassing smile intact

your confidant and consort

Sita beside you.

 

You must be

wondering and contemplating

reasoning and ruminating

is the greed for throne

so expensive?

so insecure?

and so parochial?

 

I see your silent, dedicated follower

Laxman behind you

a brother par excellence

a friend in need and deed.

 

But Urmila awaits answers

to her questions

of pain, of sorrow, of loneliness and grief

to her questions

of her fourteen long years of exile

devoid of his companionship and LOVE.

 

I wonder,

will the millions of illuminated lamps

replenish her lost years!

 

 

KRISHNA….

Abha Vishwakarma

 

Krishna!

I become the whirling and dancing ‘dervish’

when your fingers move fervently

on the seven holes

of the bamboo BANSURI

deftly, proficiently and dexterously.

 

I become me, myself

in consonance and congruence

with your melodious tune

as they enrobe, enwrap and clothe

the expansive azure sky.

 

I dabble, dampen and immerse

my soiled, sullied and tainted robe

in your notes and chords

in your presence and attendance

and step on your footprints

to feel, perceive and sense

the Krishna in me.

 

I am reborn on JANMASTAMI

I become Gopal, Gopi and Govind

I emerge as your flute, your song, your music

I put on your dark complexion to become SHYAM

and wear your mysterious yet innocent smile.

 

Tonight,

I am ecstatic, euphoric and elated

in the incessant, unremitting rain

did you transmute and mutate

as RADHA or MEERA

for me Krishna!

 

 

Abha Vishwakarma is an Assistant Professor at Arka Jain University in Jamshedpur, with over 35 years of teaching experience. A Fulbright scholar, she specialized in teaching methodologies at Kent State University, Ohio, in 2012. Vishwakarma has earned numerous awards including the ‘Pratibha Samman Award’ and ‘Teacher Of the Year Award’. She has authored a chapter in the book Promoting Active Learning Through The Integration of Mobile and Ubiquitous Technologies and has contributed articles to various academic publications. Her poetry has appeared in national dailies, academic collections, and has been featured on All India Radio.

 

Contact:

Address: 168 New Baradwari, Sakchi, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand – 831001

Mobile: 9835147926

Email: abhavishwa@gmail.com