Budhdhadeb - The Hector of our times The enemy is at your gate, laying a grueling month-long siege, Savagest of kinsmen, they are coming in numbers from the sea, Armed with firearms they have thronged the busiest streets, Hacking off heads of your men, detaining women who were once free. When the overpowering gloom engulfs everything around When all of the flickering hope is gone and the doom is near The city gates open and out comes Hector, the hero of our times. The protector of our lives, the tempest that knows no fear The gaping wounds, the bloodstained shield gleams in moonlight The battered sword, swooping down heavily upon the foe Like a herd of cows maddened by the attack of a lion They retreat to the damned trenches, burying their heads low All hail Hector! The noblest of souls. Till he is there….All is not lost Till he is there….There is hope Jibendu Narayan Mazumder

Missed my chance

Missed my chance

The globe of fire poured its wrath
When, she blew like an “August” breeze
And all the withering flora blossomed
Took to flight, all the weary geese
She smelled of untamed ambergris
Her stroke that of gentle misty rain
Then she rushed into a hasty retreat
Leaving the world in gruesome pain.

Jibendu Narayan Mazumder

For one last time

For one last time

The living light has faded over the drowsy lake
Filling the sky with a tinge of brilliant cinnabar
And for one last time I have come to meet you
When the world embraces a routine slumber.
See me till your heart brims with content
Hold me till the causeway fires up the night sky
For the profound oneness binding us together
Will cease forever when the dawn comes by
The sun will be up in a splendour to behold
And the spring back with its vigorous bloom
But, that was unspoken will linger within
The sentient tenderness buried till doom.
Feel me when the waves wash the lighthouse
Hear me in the scarlet tanager’s chime
I loved you more than anything else
I pronounce to you for one last time.

Jibendu Narayan Mazumder

Through the glazed windows

The Gore-Tex hooded raincoat in radiant yellow,
Hung from a tinted peg in the wall growing pale.
Reminiscent of the erratic rain and thunderstorms,
And how smart Charu looked in the bridal veil.

Ominous clouds formed in distinctive patterns,
Coalescing and swelling every now and then.
Charu gazed intently at the forming upheaval,
Through the glazed window, till it started to rain.

The blazing days of the vertical rays are gone,
It was 2nd August; the day of pitiful Gaisal event.
When Charu was born in a clumsy Kolkata hospital,
And for the Duttas it was the day of merriment.

A full long year has Charu waited with dried tears,
Bani’s dad escorted her to school, a friend so dear.
Charu has eternally envied the glee on Bani’s face,
“But, today is another day and my Papa will be here.”

He was not there last year, or the year before,
But, Mama has pledged this time to bring him.
Dressed in her finest burgundy frock, she waited,
Till the gutters overflowed and the skies began to dim.

The age old Kassel wood table clock was ticking fast,
She looked outside through the misty panes.
The mysterious dark clouds rekindled her hopes.
While the traffic dwindled on the otherwise busy lanes.

Long did she wait through the silent hours of shade,
Till when she could no more stay awake and fell asleep,
Till when last of the yellow cabs stopped plying.
Memories and hopes were still forming in the deep.

---Jibendu Narayan Mazumder

It was not to be…

It had drizzled all the hours of darkness,
The space in the woods had a tang of rain,
All over the ranch was a hint of mess,
As if the soil was in angst and pain.

A lone stallion treaded the mucky farm,
Chill was the gust of the lake not so great,
The sun was nowhere to keep him warm,
Everything else was tranquil by fate.

Till, rapidly out of the thriving green,
Surfaced a cute mare with full pace,
A lustrous splendor never before seen,
Tandem they resolved to sprint the race,

And all was azure in the heavens,
Pledges were made never to fail,
Silent words found language of Cavens,
The lone vessel got the waft to sail.

Together they trotted the fencing wire,
Off went the tarnished muddy plain,
Steering the way through snow and fire,
Delight knew no bounds and was insane.

Long did they trek secured to each other,
Till one day the path forked in two,
Promised trail was dreary but bright another,
An impasse!! She knew not what to do.

He took the much sworn perilous lane,
She strode the one with dazzling light,
Both of them in hideous pain,
They scampered their ways with full might.

Till, one day both of them tire,
Till, when they desire to flee,
The urge to meet was dire,
But alas! It was not to be.

---Jibendu Narayan Mazumder

Never met the sea

Vibrant hues of crimson and cherry red,
Swelled over the rambling hilltop,
Land of the potent cliffs and feral green,
All were unvoiced at the sun drop.

A soothing hum that wanes one to sleep,
Ensued from beneath the mossy rocks,
Where breeds a cluster of white blossoms,
A transient spring emerged from the hillocks.

Bantam trickles of chastity in jolly swirls,
Rolled down with copious shining foam,
Reinforced by other brooks fed by the rain,
Hauling with it the gravel and the loam.

Winding it surged through the fiercest gorge,
Deluging the eroded banks and making way,
Bulging the white waves in a thousand rapids,
The bountiful raged on towards the bay.

It reached the plains, land of ornate people,
Running through wider canals and flatter land,
Giving life to the exuberant gaudy culture,
The watercourse flooded past the fertile band.

It left behind the forts and the placid lakes,
Medieval stronghold of the Rajputs, they say,
The wild profusion of flora was behind,
It raged on to fuse with the sea one day.

Till when the downpour declined to nurture it,
Till when it entered the perilous arid zone,
Losing its force in the sterile shifting sands,
Dwindling in volume and flowing alone.

Obliterated it ran through the salty clay,
Where all the migratory birds take a lee,
Finally disappeared in the marshy wastes,
And, the bountiful never met the sea.

---Jibendu Narayan Mazumder