Creative Writing

With a menacing gait and deafening roar,

It trundles down the city lanes and roads,

Sending shockwaves and chilly shivers

Through the crowd, enveloped in gloom and despair,

The old, the young and the very young

All in a daze, with incomprehension

Writ large on their ashen faces

Seething with impotent rage.

Power cuts, dry taps, polluted air

Chaos on roads, insecurity, lawlessness

All this they bore with patience for too long,

Hoping against hope for better days to dawn.

Alas! As reward for their patient suffering what do they get?

A man-made disaster after natural calamities!

Bribery, bribery, bribery all the way

Bribery to ‘build’ and bribery to ‘save’.

Soon the multitude explodes in an equally deafering roar

“Send this monster back to where it belongs-

Let it raze first the fountainhead of all Corruption

All Evil, all Misgovernance and countless indiscretions

The so-called august Parliament House”.

* P.S. Nindra formerly Reader in English, School of Correspondence, University of Delhi.

* Article first published in FORTELL newsletter, January 2007

In the horizon far away,

The sun filling the sky –

With crimson, violet, purple, azure,—

As if going into its dark bed,

Letting the stars and the moon wake,

This is something you all can see,

But I can feel it deep inside me…

The breeze blows as soft as it can,

The pleasant drizzle speak—

The grass beneath enjoys a bath,

The trees dance in the music of the breeze,

Afar the meadow lets the water meander,

This is something you all can see,

But I can feel it deep inside me…

Touching your face with the delicate palm,

Feeling the softness of your skin,

Your exhaling warm air,

Falls on my palm with affection,

Your fluffy hairs move gently in the air,

This is something you all can see,

But I can feel it deep inside me…

The hard, irregular rocks on the side,

Was speaking about the nature’s care,

But underneath the heels, the artificial pathway,

Utters what harsh human beings dare,

Try to conquer every bit of nature,

This is something you all can see,

But I can feel it deep inside me…

The sun shining brightly in the day,

Or the moon galloping faster in the sky,

The whole visible world, O dear,

Only through you will be close to me,

All the works of nature I can only feel,

Cause now my eyes will never be able to see…

Saw every joy once with clarity,

Also felt them deep inside me,

Every pain that utter with agony,

Suffered them, and sensed in me,

Now with darkness everywhere,

Only sense feelings that are innate,

But no qualms, no grudges, no grievances either,

Because I know you are there with me, within me…

* Himadri Roy is Lecturer in English at Rajdhani College, University of Delhi. himadri14@gmail.com

* Article first published in FORTELL newsletter, January 2007

Rain drops on the skin of river
rippling frissons of excitement,
life swells, streams onwards.

Rapid waters, fast flowing streams,
tumultuous journeys in between,
Tales of the river begin …

The indulgent waves
Wrinkle in soft laughter, As denizens of the lake
dive in searching depths in the Cyclops’ blue eye.

* Article first published in FORTELL newsletter, issue no. 15

Here I am Lord !
Devoid of the innocence of childhood;
Barren heath where despair dwells,
Confusion and experience unfair!

At your threshold I stand
Without the exuberant wisdom I had
A Victim of Circumstance?”
Lonesome, yet still the intellect outrage!

To You I yield, my oasis
In this burning injustice to men;
Still struggling to exist amidst
The gluttons who glare from the Chair!

Here I am Lord !
I surrender to possess and retain
All that’s true, all that’s fair
I’ll await the long eternal wait!

* Article first published in FORTELL newsletter, issue no. 15