Enchanted dreams still hangs on every green cliffs
Confused among the conspiracies that hatched without a sound
As the twenty four hour channel portrayed the scenario like in a daily soap
Where the writers head winds up like our hilly roads
Conjuring up stories after stories
Leaving the hills muted left only to talk in wispers, even when she is the queen
She is the imprisoned and forced to gulp venom
Darjeeling being poisened is growing purple bit a bit
The land has been raided once again
Sounds of boots, thuds,thuds,thudding every corner of the streets
Voilence making remedy to suppress the voice of the masses
Simple common citizens just asking a big hearted country for their rights which they swiftly denies
As the state sends forces after forces to shut the mouth of the million gorkha voices
That’s not enough
Terrorist! Who? We
They label you for free
Yes, for free
When your brothers are in borders
As country’s respected army men
But where is that respect?
Lost ? Gone,tossed aside, inside that dirty bin.
Dirty,Oh very dirty dictatorship prevails in the heated hilly air
O! Wait was Hitler born twice?
Banning internet was such a clever move
The rest is left dark, blank,that fear of revealing the truth.
But we the Gorkhas are spread worldwide
So suppressing a few will not stop our fight,our birth right.
We forgot when last we enjoyed the thunder, the lightening and the glistening monsoon rain
A sip of a coffee or the Darjeeling tea who is now quiet and in pains
Because what showered in the hills and gardens were rains of gunshots and thunders from rifles
Deafening the mountains, leaving her with bloody bloodstains,
Erasing the faces of the three Gorkha voices, martyred men as the soil drenched.
Drenched with tears from a mother, a father, a daughter, a son, a wife, a sister, or a brother, friends or the entire Gorkha generation.
This is what you wanted. Right?
When will your tyranny end?
When will we breathe the free air?
When will your rule end?
Yes the art of Colonisation painted the hills even after the coloniser’s end
Your wrath may have fell upon us
Like a meaningless curse
But do not worry
Weapons we do not carry
With only a thread and a needle
We will March forward in solidarity
Sewing and stitching broken wounds that are still fresh
Sewing all that you ripped apart
Your attack on language was indeed a blessing in disguise. Yes
I don’t wanna lose my mother
I don’t wanna cut her tongue
I don’t wanna stay forever dumb.
Together we stand and voice more clearly, our demands
I watched that blue,deep blue ocean
As it’s waves twirled and move forward
I felt at once to swipe myself off and leave with it’s to and fro motion, without a trace.
Until my body,tired of holding the weight gets exhausted
My existence becomes extinct
As the ocean slowly swallows me in.
So deeply did I delve in the thought
That I found no difference between you and that vast ocean.
It’s color resembled your eyes.
Yes, your blue eyes where I had so long sailed
Didn’t realize that the weather change
be it in your eyes or that Ocean,it’s same.
And at last I became that old Titanic
Sinking, gradually sinking in the pains
That left me all broken and paralysed
But you are too unworthy to be called an ocean
That harbours thousand different lives.
Never does it abuse or leave others bruised.
As I viewed the blue universe
It taught me lessons in silence
So letting everything go
I stand before it, peeling off that paralysed self,in an outfit,
That mirrors its color.
My mind and my heart all blue
Resembling the powerful
Blue,Yes,deep blue ocean.
I am quoting my words from my poem Azaleas posted a week before in my blog.
“I still have that old photograph
Me and my mother beside
That new mother happily
bursting with pink azaleas
It was last winter,
Grandpa had to cut it short
I still remember that expression
Of discomfort and regret
“Don’t be disheartened baba
They will grow again”, I said.
But his reply gave me a shock
,“They knew I would cut them.
It gives me much pain to inflict the same upon the plant I planted and nursed.”
“But they will grow next year”, he consoled himself.
Weeks haven’t past
My mom sick and in pain,
Tortured me more…
Yes, there is a strong connection
Between a mother and her child
It was then I realised
My grandpa though a Father figure
Had already become a Mother
To the plant life he was giving birth
With every passing year,
Trees,plants,orchids and so on…”
How I Became a Tree very much reminds me of my Thulobaba, baba and boju who are very much one with the green friends growing around us- pines, Azaleas, orchid trees( bahunia.sp), bottle brush( my favourite), Oranges (tall and dwarf), lemon, roses, lalupathey,chinaroses, Gauva, orchids and many more I cannot name.I have grown up with the hills, the trees around me, soaking in the aroma of the fresh tea leaves.I have grown up with the orange trees in our orchard. Some are of my father’s age, some even older than him, some are of my age and others are still younger and growing, all so very taller than me. Each winter, they bless us and when we were kids we would spend the whole day in the orchard, often skipping our lunch…
And reading Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian, “set in modern-day Seoul,tells the story of Yeong-hye, a home-maker, whose decision to stop eating meat after a bloody, nightmarish dream about human cruelty leads to devastating consequences in her personal and familial life”. What struck me more are the lines in part 3.flaming Trees where she explains her dream“
[…] “Do you know how I found out? Well, I was in a dream, and I was standing on my head…leaves were growing from my body, and roots were sprouting from my hands…they delve down into the earth. Endlessly,Endlessly…. yes, I spread my legs because I wanted flowers to bloom from my crotch; I spread them wide…” .
This description goes so well with this amazing book cover.Isn’t the cover amazing ?
And here is the book with its subtle contemplative narrative “Among all desires to become a tree, the most urgent was the need to escape the noise; one was the noise of the humans, the other was the vocabulary of silence of the active life of trees” –How I Became A Tree by Sumana Roy is one remarkable book you never want to lose at any cost. I ordered this book from Flipkart (Of course it is available in Amazon). The more you read the more you get absorbed into the detailed photographic experiences and glimpses of the authors’ life. The more you read, the more you feel trees and flowers becoming more alive before your eyes. The way she thinks is unmatched and unparalleled, with her unique comparisons and interesting terms like the “tree-time”. There are chapters like Women as flowers and Women as trees. This is an exceptional book where one is awestruck and mesmerised at the same time. This book helps you come a hundred steps closer to the plant kingdom and feel each senses of a variety of flora breathing together with us. This is a book which is not hard to understand. Written in a simple lucid manner, we are sure to explore every flavour of memoir, literary history, nature studies, spiritual philosophies and botanical research.
I am still reading this book and by the end I am sure I will understand more and discover the heart beating inside every plant life.I hope I am not the same person after finishing this book.
Since I haven’t completed the book, I cannot produce a full book review. But below 👇 are the few links where you can read the full book reviews-
This is my copy of ‘How I Became a Tree.’ Isn’t the cover Beautiful and expressive?
Well not every one is blessed as I am right now😇😇😇.
My copy signed by Ma’am Sumana Roy
Well I got my copy signed by the author who fortunately turns out to be our beautiful Teacher. She is one of the best teachers on Earth with a beautiful heart and a gorgeous smile.A picture with our Dear beautiful Ma’am. How can I miss this opportunity…
From the Aleph book publisher-“In this remarkable and often unsettling book, Sumana Roy gives us a new vision of what it means to be human in the natural world. Increasingly disturbed by the violence, hate, insincerity, greed and selfishness of her kind, the author is drawn to the idea of becoming a tree. ‘I was tired of speed’, she writes, ‘I wanted to live to tree time.’ Besides wanting to emulate the spacious, relaxed rhythm of trees, she is drawn to their non-violent ways of being, how they tread lightly upon the earth, their ability to cope with loneliness and pain, the unselfishness with which they give freely of themselves and much more. She gives us new readings of the works of writers, painters, photographers and poets (Rabindranath Tagore and D. H. Lawrence among them) to show how trees and plants have always fascinated us. She studies the work of remarkable scientists like Jagadish Chandra Bose and key spiritual figures like the Buddha to gain even deeper insights into the world of trees. She writes of those who have wondered what it would be like to have sex with a tree, looks into why people marry trees, explores the death and rebirth of trees and tells us why a tree was thought by forest-dwellers to be equal to ten sons.
Mixing memoir, literary history, nature studies, spiritual philosophies and botanical research, How I Became a Tree is a book that will prompt readers to think of themselves and the natural world that they are an intrinsic part of, in fresh ways. It is that rarest of things – A truly original work of art. How I Became a Tree a book that will prompt readers to think of themselves and the natural world that they are an intrinsic part of, in fresh ways. It is that rarest of things – A truly original work of art.” (Blurb)
Book – How I Became a Tree
Author- Sumana Roy
Genre- Non-fiction
‛How I Became a Tree by Sumana Roy’ is available in Amazon or other online book stores by Aleph book company For only Rs.599 (discounts are available) https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/farce/
Good Morning ! WordPress family. So sharing my picture which I took yesterday 16th of May’17. Its not just a picture but the play of memories I had with it. So a short poem added to the picture. Enjoy😇😀. I know I look not so beautiful😂 but its the golden flowers…..
When it is the Marigolds
All I can think of , is their delicate festoon
Garlanding each door and every windows
That fusion of their distinctive sweet-pungent fragrance ,
Blended with pure potent odour of the cow-dung,
Senses still melting with the subtle aroma of ‛ kera -ko-patta’
That intense smell from incense swiftly explodes
Together with the slow soft smoke from a hundred and one Diyas
Flickering and fusing into the delicious evening air
With them is possible the ‛darkness visible’
While spreading warmth in the still cold autumn hours.
That “Aausi ko Raata”
Bhailini ,Bhailey Ram, and Dewsi ko ‘Jilimili’
Flow of Songs and Rhythms,
Madals mixed with the melody of guitars and dance.
Children, adults all sprinkling verbal blessings,
visiting every home near or far.
Selrotis and Dakshinas
warming both palates and palms…
They are the rich sun-kissed marigolds
Stirring those precipitated memories and emotions
Rekindling – faith and paralyzed hopes…
Prinking fingers after plucking and weaving them into Garlands in a row-
Crows,dogs,cows,houses and dear brothers
Without forgetting a ‘lota’ or a ‘gagri’
Beside the portrait of the wealth -showering Laxmi mata-
generous and impartial in blessing each home.
But I could hear someone uttering the line,
“Will She visit our home this time”?….
So after being an expert tailor
I tend to forget keeping one for myself
So missing our Dear Tihar
Here am I with moments and memories that stays behind
In the college campus,
Crowning myself while cliking this odd picture.
😇😇😇😇😇😀😀 #dussehra #deepawali #marigolds #flowers
**kera -ko-patta– banana leaves; Aausi ko rata – new moon night;Bhailini/ bhailoram /Dewsey-Bhailo and Deusi Re are traditional songs that are sung during the festival of light .Dipavali and also called “Tihar. [1] Children and teenagers[2] sing the songs and dance as they go to various homes in their community, collecting money, sweets, food and giving blessings for prosperity. Bhailo is generally sung by girls, while Deusi is sung by boys. At the end of these songs, the woman of the house serve food and give money to these deusi/bhailo singers and dancers. In return, the Deusi/Bhailo team gives blessings for high income and prosperity. ;Selrotis-roundel made of rice flour and sugar).
Lota or Kalash is a metal (brass, copper, silver or gold) pot with a large base and small mouth, large enough to hold a coconut. Sometimes “Kalasha” also refers to such a pot filled with water and topped with a coronet of mango leaves and a coconut. This combination is often used in Hindu rituals
Gagri or Gagar is a metal pitcher used to store water in earlier.
Diyas or diyo is an oil lamp used in India and Nepal, usually made from clay, with a cotton wick dipped in ghee or vegetable oils.
This is the stone below which our people from the village used to keep their child (instead of burying them )who could not survive after their birth.
Thankful to my grandparents and his generation who planted these trees.
Keeping the tradition alive wishing everyone a very happy World Earth Day.
Below writing 👇👇👇Via http://www.indiacelebrating.com/events/world-earth-day/
“World Earth Day is celebrated every year as an annual event by the people all across the world on 22nd of April in order to increase the awareness among people about the environment safety as well as to demonstrate the environmental protection measures. First time, the world earth day was celebrated in the year 1970 and then started celebrating annually on global basis by almost 192 countries.
World Earth Day observance was started to celebrate as an annual event to get national support in order to better take care of the environmental safety by solving its issues. In 1969, there was a peace activist of the San Francisco named John McConnell who actively involved in starting this event and proposed a day to get together for the environmental safety. John McConnell had chosen this event to be celebrated in the spring equinox on 21st of March in 1970 whereas United States Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson had chosen this event to be celebrated on 22nd of April in 1970.
They had contacted the people to join this event to get together for solving their environmental issues for better future. During the first time celebration of the earth day millions of people shown their interest and participated to understand the motto of the event. Instead of deciding one date for the celebration of the earth day, it has been started celebrating on both of the dates. Generally, the earth day event celebration starts with the common practice of new trees plantation in the required areas worldwide.”
"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect"
