Friday 6 May 2016

An Old Father


A young one year old child, pointing to a crow that was sitting on the branch of a tree, enquired, “Father, what is this?”
The father, almost startled, replied,"It’s a crow, my child.” The child again repeated the same question, “What is this, father?”
The father replied the same with same enthusiasm. The child kept asking the same question for countless times till the crow flew away. They went home.

The child is grown up now. He is healthy and robust. He is busy now in his own trade. The father has wrinkles on his limbs and countenance. He sits almost frantically alone in that house.

One evening, bored out of his loneliness, on the sudden arrival of his son, something queer happened. “Where are you coming from, my child?” the father questioned. The son nonchalantly replied, “From nowhere.”
The father was taken aback but did not utter a word. After few minutes he was going out.

“Where are you going, my son?’ the father questioned to break his silence almost as hysteric as a paranoiac.

“Don’t you have any business to be engaged in, except poking noses into other’s business? Why do you always fall into my personal affairs unnecessarily and ask nonsense questions? Can’t you remain silent and mind your own business?” the son jeered and went out of the house chafing his nose.


The father did not emit any word but nostalgically reminisced those old days of his young son when he never got tired of repeating the same nonsense sentence “It’s a crow, my child”.

                                                                                                              © Written by Manoj Kumar Mishra

What shall it profit a man?

Bygone days had swifter wings
That flied over the assorted lands
And brought the harmonious peace
To tune the music and the gong.

But present borrowed mind is leaning
Forward and backward
Backward and forward
Out and in
In and out
Of the closed room.

No knock, no sound, no stem
Comes from the crowded corridor
After a wavering noise of unbreakable syllables
After the heterogeneous mouth’s utterance
After the pronounced morpheme
From the outside room.

The inside room quivers
In fear, in horror it shudders.
On the bed mind struggles
Struggles and cracks, aches and breaks
Breaks and shakes
For no hand comes to weave
The torn fabric in silent peace.

Winning, defeating, defeating and winning
It runs its own spinning
Of worn out fabric like man made machine
Of iron and steel, of hardest wheel.

I have no rest. We have no rest.
Where should I go now? Where shall I run?
Shall I go to a bookstall or to station?
Or shall I take an aspirin and rest in oscillation?
What shall I do?
What shall we ever do?
Get up at five and on the bed at ten.
And if hungry, a satisfying lunch
And if thirsty, few drops of filtered water
And if no work at seven in the evening
Either a boasting chat or fifty-two playing cards
And if free at nine in the night
 The cosmic news on the screen
And if no sleep at twelve in the midnight
A man of full ambivalence.

We do our formal routine
With respected mind and cunning brain
With cunning brain and respected mind
Like a tired desire of the oldest kind.

The world treads searching
The sense from nonsense
Like a poor young maid
Collecting wastes and fuel
Fuel and food
To us also feed just to the full.

This time offers no rest.
No rest to rest in peace
Except the duty and routine and daily an aspirin.

What shall it profit?
What shall it profit a man
If he wins the whole world
And loses his own soul.
                                 © Written by Manoj Kumar Mishra

An Intelligent Child


To test the intelligence of his son, a father calls his son outside his house. No sooner had the son reached near his father than they heard a piercing  sound  faring out of the kitchen.
 
The father postulated his son, “Go to the kitchen and see who makes the utensils  fall down.”
 
The son instantly responded almost electrified without moving a step, “It is none else, father, but the mother.”
 
The father jeered at this and rebuked his son on being rude and disobedient. Angrily he inquired, “How come you know it is your mother only?”
 
“Had it been someone else, the mother could have shouted like a bull. Since there is no sound booming out of kitchen, it could be mother only and none else” the son countered.

The father outspreads his smile with a gratified expression.
                                                                                                         © Written by Manoj Kumar Mishra

For It was Just a Dream

I ever dwindle 
Between two worlds 
Of faith and disbelief 
That she has thwarted me into despair 
And made my senses 
And flamed frame numb.
  
I know not why I charge her 
For being unfaithful to me 
For it was not she but I 
Who thought to be one with her 
Virtuous blessed soul. 
And for a moment I forgot
The snarling world of living 
“That I am the part of this universe, 
A part of the inhuman humanity, 
Where Faith lies in the secrecy of relations 
Preserved within the treasure of heart.”
  
I was in time so overwhelmed 
That I divulged myself so soon 
To be inspired to transcend beyond 
The living abode of human life. 
But it was just a dream, and dream 
That came while sleeping and be bygone 
Ere I woke up from the deep slumber 
Of half lunacy. 
  
Alas! 
What was great before is now so mean! 
The sea of Faith was once full of tide, 
But now, no Intimacy, no Love, no Faith, no Relation 
Do live in the world of wolfish fair. 
Every living lives with a certain philosophy 
Of give and take, and be apart. 
For this is the man, and this is the life. 
This is the grace, and glory of Age. 
The journeys of men now pass like this 
Treading hopelessly, having no greater bliss.
                                               © Written by Manoj Kumar Mishra

Nor can Time Stale Thy Grace

O bare beauty’s bride of immortals
You enrapt silence of mystery,
who can't tell your flowery history
And Fair Youth? And unstinted admiration you bear,
All profuse versifiers to your truth begotten,
They lie; of your mystic gracious beauty, swear.
This your stately grace can never stale time
Nor can eternity touch the untouched hymn
Of passionate heart-breathing passions all.

Ah! happy begotten days cannot shed
Luster, on your unveiled truth, soft to the ear still,
Nor ever can bid the spring adieu, till
Your soft heard voices are forlorn on horizon
And ceased in high sounding pant;
Your beauty and chanted incantation
Shall pass through men to men
On beaded wreaths, and ways trodden
Will recall the numbers of holy verses read.

O Fair Youth! You do tease us
As does heaven laugh
On our mortality, weak and half !
When old ages pass on Achilles’s heel
And days are crossed in burden, we feel
What immortal souls were given
But this generation is over on linen,
And past the eyes remain days numbered
We sleep, thus, in deep slumber.

You, ours, a friend to all breathing human passions
Of unwearied men and women, to whom he does say:
Time surpasses the immortality taught
And days of ecstasy, too, shall be wrought
Generations swift come and go
As souls and tide that flow.
But your unuttered voices will be heard
Till the Day of Judgment in peace
And your unspoken tales will ever exist
For today, tomorrow and all the ages I drift.
                                            © Written by Manoj Kumar Mishra

Life halts on the pavement

A mad man kept lying on the pavement of Bhopal. He was unaware of the hustle and bustle of the busy city. Pedestrians passed by. But no movement in the body! His tangled  and matted hair told the unspoken tales of his life. The broad day light made no difference. Birds and roaming dogs did not touch his food. It remained scattered & uneaten, perhaps untouched. Untidy and blackened dresses covered his limbs. Blackened feet and face were motionless. Folded hands perhaps were muttering silent prayers in deep slumber. His sky bound lying body exerted the feeling that he was no more. The truth defied the feelings. Lo! he breathed ceaselessly.

He has nothing to recall, nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing to count, nothing to complain, only to cipher the numbered breaths that carry his flamed frame.

What a life of insanity! 

God, it is only You who know your creation! I dare not comment upon.

An insane is never demented with the mania of owning things! It is we who do. His occasional feeble giggles defied the worldly possessions of sane humanity. He spoke but unintelligible words in his serene silence.

Many such unspoken  tales are buried in the wombs of this Mother earth. A simple touch of sympathy may spark the rays of hope in many lives.

Our indifference to such bubbling issues has made us pygmy by the side of our needs. The life halts with a jolt on the pavement thus.

Who knows tomorrow? Who can predict the next dawn? Neither I nor you. Journey of life continues..............
                                                                                                                 © Written by Manoj Kumar Mishra

Lines Written in Solitude

Sweet aching sounds come
From an unknown land,
Breaking the organised chords of life;
They enter into pure soul.

This sound that was once the melody,
The motion which afforded the paused breath 
A dancing life like a mermaid
And vision, chasing the phantom delight,
Are  now the tangled mists of burnt-out passion.

Ah, you sound, you motion, you life !
All are gone to strained land
Haply never to come back.
And moist ashes are scattered solely
Past me to sit gazing like flying fogs.

Hark ! this big bang honks
Of unfeigned relation
Where certitude of faith lives
And love gets its full fruition.
                                     © Written by Manoj Kumar Mishra

Love is but the Celestial Ecstasy

Living hangs swinging
On the two perches of life
And death. Death is a mysterious
Dream land and life a sweetest reverie
Of the day’s sleep.
Love is her sister
And passion passionate friend
Of which you and I were
The two inmates unknown.

Time with us travelled forlorn
And we made the desert
An oasis so sweet.
There were thus the flowers and buds
In which methink
Are now we players most known.

One day, a humming sound
Jaunted from Heaven
That you my heavenly Moon are
And I, your star,
Created by Lord
To live always afar.

But you and I and I and you
Played ever countless hide and seek,
Sat for a moment
In the Eden,
The loveliest place of God,
Conjuring the hymn of Love.
“For I am your blessed moon”, you said
“And I your brightest star”, I murmured.

Chirping of the birds,
And humming of the bees,
And bliss of the unknown
Thrilled our nerves
To be forgotten in the eternity—
Where there is neither life nor death
Beyond eternity.

And we sensed together incense of rose
In the sweet darkness of embalmed night
And took the wings of poesy
And had the longest flight
Where I and you were only dreamers
Nor any living, nor even singer.
You again muttered, “I am your Moon lovely bright,
Will you me forget ever sprite?”
I then reposed for a moment in brooding
And patched her gently thus asserting:
“I am not the part of this yucky world
Where men always live but love for a moment
I loved you ever and will love you ever
You are my part and part for ever.
Though we live always afar,
You are my moon and I your star.
I have promised to keep it alive
And I will do it till I survive.
If you keep it or don’t you know
I will live with this, and have my bliss!
And I will live with this to make you immortal
Like a melodious song of Nightingale.”

After I paused I saw her sobbing
Sobbing incessantly, dropping her pearls priceless
None was there to behold her grace
I only saw but half her passion
I became numb, and my sense was out
She lost herself and I myself
“Don’t do that”, said I, “O, don’t do that.
I am always yours and yours always be
Seeing like this I die and live
I live and die, don’t you see?”
She broke her silence by “you my star,
I cannot be living by living afar.”
The passionate feeling was never so intense.
She like Goddess embraced me now
And I, her part, had lost myself
With rolling tears in her eyes
She again thought to have her flight
But I said, “No, no, don’t do that.”
She became silent and I her embraced.
Thus she spoke as an elf mysterious:
“For women never forget once any loved
You may desert me but I never will
And will keep my promises till the decay
And even will live without ever you
Bracing your love in my tender heart
I never will but you may desert.
Women know well how to live with the name
But men only know how to live with the fame
I promise and promise and promise again
And will be the same and same I remain.”

This is the light you flung off to me
Which lighted my life with superb glee.
And have my bliss to the core of my heart
To stand out shining my sweet bright star.
I your inspiration always be and you be mine
And I and you and you and I would always shine.”

We came down then soon to the sense
We were now on the real living land
Where we saw the two paralyzed hands.
If they were the hands of the wicked eyed man,
We would have fallen prey to the omen. 
God's grace showered! 
He always saves the innocent and the weak
Whosoever asks for his bliss.
We turned to rejoice placid sea.
It was now the world at dawn.
We watched the ebbs of the tides
Coming and going, up and down
Like a sporting joyous fawn
Roaring with the pebbles and singing with the foam
Ships on the water dancing on the isles
As if a mermaid offering her prayers

And the another shore!
A blue crystal plate,
Prepared to give up the offerings of grace
Spotted sky as if its flowers
Golden sunbeams being its wreaths
Forged to meet limitless horizon.
Night was over and darkness bygone
We on the shore were souls lone
Scarlet was East and West had Moon.

It seemed to both living souls
That they were uttering divine philosophy
That they were then but frail incarnate
And on the pilgrimage to known infinite
Leaving behind mortal eyes
That all are fast subject to decay.
Drops of dew wailed silently
But we had had the immortal way
That Love is but the celestial ecstasy
Of the two blessed souls
Finding their rest in the Supreme Unknown.

                                                    © Written by Manoj Kumar Mishra

Beauty!

O, it must not die,
For it enlightens the human heart
And lowers the burden of heightened mind!

Oh! The thing that is affable to serene valleys
How can we seize it in our grip
With a single bond of faithfulness?

Beauty, the perennial source of ecstasy,
Smiles but in its lone
And never in the crowd!
                                 © Written by Manoj Kumar Mishra