Have you found your shore yet?

We get washed away from one shore to another

in search of a land to stay..

We spend moments at a shore, fall in love and,

we realize that's not what we longed..

It is hard to leave

but we have to...

We look back for the last time to the lost love..

and then we get washed away...

On a dreamy day, we yearn to go back

But we see a castaway...

And then we float again, 

Until we reach a shore, embracing a green bay

Possessive

Everything just get bottled up right before your lips..

I wish to speak up but your voice makes me weak

Gobbled down some more when  I tried to speak out loud,

but still I couldn't blast off cause I can't see you down.

Its hard to live that way, distance grows with unspoken words.

Can you understand we are drifting apart

behind smiles and careless cuddles...

Love it is that I am deeply with you,

your absence makes it strong.

Your presence makes me long for more

but I want silence all around.

Call me selfish, yes I am..

Possessive! Yes true..

I can share you with all, when am with you alone.

Not sure what am writing!

 

The breathing is now easy
and I hardly care about the world..
It’s not that I am dying,
If you have thought so then you are insane..

It is funny that I still care about the language that I use
See how Grammar restricts me… I am turning into a Correction Cell

Pity being brought up in a mediocre family,
I can’t honor the foreign language I paid highly to learn,
But I don’t care what you say
Cause mother tongue keeps me sane

Gulping down the second wave
I never felt stronger than before…
But still I kept correcting my Grammar
See how White has left us sored 

Neo-colonial domination that’s what I call you
because am a slave of thee
It pays my bill and other relish in life
Grammar I bow down to you.. see!

কোরোনার মায়া!

না না, একদম হাসবেন না!

মাথা ব্যাথা শুধু এই পায়রাটার একার নয়, আমরা প্রত্যেকটা মানুষ হয়তো একই কথা ভাবছি, শুধুমাত্র ভাবার ধরণটা আলাদা।
যেমন ধরুন বাড়ির গিন্নিরা হয়তো ভাবছেন যে কবে সব ঠিক হবে, বাড়িতে থাকা এই লোকগুলোর জন্যে রাতদিন রান্না করতে হবেনা আর কাজের লোক ফিরে আসবে।
(নেপথ্যে হয়তো কাভি খুশি কাভি গাম –এর সংগীত বাজবে আর জয়ার জায়গায় গিন্নি থাকবেন কাজের দিদি বরণ করে নেয়ার জন্যে।)

বা হয়তো ধরুন, ছোট পিকু ভাবছে যে কবে স্কুলে যাবে আর শেষ বেঞ্চে বসে ক্লাস ফাঁকি দেবে। বাড়িতে তো সেটারও উপায় নেই।

অবশেষে চাকুরিজীবিরা ভাবছেন, বাড়িতে এত খাটার থেকে অফিসে যাওয়া ভাল। অন্তত একটা বাধা সময় থাকে। এখন ঘরের কাজ আর অফিসের কাজ নিয়ে হাবুডুবু হাল।    

এগুলো নাহয় বেদনাদায়ক ভাবনা, দেবী করোনাময়ীর অবির্ভাবে, কিছু  অদ্ভুত ইচ্ছাও মনে টহল দিয়ে চলেছে। এই যেমন ধরুন, সেদিন বাজারে গিয়ে আমার মাছের  মাথা দিয়ে ডাল খাবার শখ হল, এদিকে আমি মাছের মাথা খাইনা,  তাও  কিনে নিয়ে এলাম, কিন্তু রান্নাটা  যখন হল আমি খেলাম শুধু ডাল বাড়ির অন্যরা রসিয়ে মাথা খেলো ।

আবার ধরুন এইতো পরশুদিন, রাতে হঠাৎ নিশ্বাস নিতে পারছিলাম না, ভাবলাম দেবীর কি করুনা হল আমার ওপরে! তারপর দুচামচ Carmozyme দিব্য মেরে ঘুমিয়ে সকলে চাঙ্গা। কিন্তু তারপর যেটা হল সেটা হল মায়ার খেলা। এই ল্যাধখোর শরীরকে ব্যস্ত করে, সকাল বেলায় হাত দুটোকে শূন্যে ছুড়ে ছুড়ে ছাদে হাঁটলাম এবং নাকের এক ফুটো দিয়ে হাওয়া টেনে অন্যটা দিয়ে বের করলাম।   

মোদ্দা কথা হল, আপনি যেগুলো করেননা, করোনার ঠেলায় সেগুলো আলবাত করে বসবেন ...... ভারী মুশকিল!

Fly Away Phoenix

Fly away my phoenix

come back when you want to return

I will be waiting here for your care and love

Fly away my phoenix

I don't want to see you in pain

for the pain you bear to bring me here

can't be the same that tears you apart now

Born again from those ashes 

from those hopes and love I have always, 

fly away to rear me up again in your cozy arms, 

protected..

Fly away my Phoenix...
fly away...

Goodbye Earth!

Oh dear sky, strapped in wires, 

no dark clouds around, and earth is on fire,

The leaves turn yellow, the young fruits die,

birds fly away, but no trees to stand high

The bears hunt for fish,

but the streams are now dry,

bones are all they get,

and the poles are left without ice.

Humans, are you done with growth?

Digging out the oil for greed?

Melting the mountains to make roads

and for other ravening needs…

Did you see the tears evaporate

from your eyes like the water from streams?

The heartless building stood lifeless now,

like the windless open streets..

Now you wail, now you cry,

Blame the world when you are about to die.

While the earth cried harder to tell you she needs care,

You were busy making wars and creating religious fear.

It's time now to leave the earth that once She loved and reared,

to someplace somewhere in the void, where someone will always care.

The Sage Singers - Baul Fakir Utsav, 2018

Looking at those people singing on the stage, wearing a knee-length attire kept me wondering, why do they choose a life like that?

Bauls..... that is how the world knows them, are basically the wandering monks, but there are many who taunt them as vagabonds. 

Renouncing wealth and proclaiming love is what they tune their life with. But don’t they need money to live a life? What is this life they look for even in this world where 2 months baby get raped or a man is killed because of his religion?

Sitting on the straws under a tent in a winter evening, I was enthralled watching them performing at the Baul Fakir Utsav, 2018. But these questions hovered my mind all the time.

This 2-day congress brings Bauls from various corners of Bengal. The embracing, selfless voice without an ego is enticing; and maybe that is what captures the heart most. You have to listen every word to understand what they want to convey. They talk of humanity, unity, truth of life, basic living and love. They sing songs of Lalan Fakir and their Gurus, they sing their own creation while whirling with their musical instruments lost in translating the meaning of life.

Wearing an ocher-colored attire and playing an Ektara doesn’t make a Baul. A real Baul lives a life based on Deho Sadhana, and Mana Sadhana, and that is not easy. Some say, they live a repulsive life, whereas, some say they are free birds.

This Utsav starts at 6 am in the morning and ends at 4 am. You can hop in at any point of time, only if you want to understand them.

A song is not only made of music, but it combines words as well. So when you hear them, listen to what they say. The songs have a rustic touch without any classy elements, yet very true to every strata of society. Bauls never bind themselves to the conservatism existing in the society and their songs reflect that belief.

A Baul once said, “The entire world is my home. We walk anywhere and are welcome anywhere. When you walk, you are freed from the worries of ordinary life, from the imprisonment of being rooted in the same place."

It is hard to realize what the Bauls have achieved, but these so called ignorant dancing monks are way more learned than the mass, and you can tell that from their songs. So, if you are in Shantiniketan during the time of Keduli Mela, or if you are in Kolkata during the Baul Fakir Utsav, give yourself a chance to experience the divine, love, mysticism from the earthen voices of the vagabonds and step into a land of fraternity.