I walk
By Chandra Shekhar Dubey
What makes me to walk
on the road leaving a world behind.?
A world that I made of my choice
Leaving my fragrant home
Old banyan tree , mango groves
and rippling crops on field
Where cattle graze and goats
Bleat in full throated ease.
Where days were bright
And nights tranquil nursing
Me in moments weary.
Is it a world that I dreamt
Listening stories from my granny?
Is it a world I cursed many a time
Buried under my sobbing desires?
To be lost and to be found everyday
At worksites ?
I have no answers –
As I walk on the road with thousands
Like me leaving a world behind?
My steps lead me to my village
Roads beyond the glittering malls
Shopping centres and sky scrappers
Where I toiled and soiled my body.
I smell the fragrance of corns
and ripe watermelons in fields
Filling strength in my stray steps.
Neither my dream nor my lost place
Pricks my naked soles on the road.
I walk to walk over my past
in land of my memories and dreams.
In those stories of my granny
Beyond the worries of the world
that lies behind.
Reminds me of the song ” Aa ab laut chale”…
The illusion of city and the roots of village connected by the road and the native. The misery of migrants is depicted emphatically. The poem gives a picture of their outer and inner world with sensitive portrayal. A heart touching poem.
A thought provoking poem that sensitively articulates the dichotomy of the migrants forced to return to their native lands amid lockdown , the theme encapsulates a myriad of issues that needs contemplation by each of us .
Beautiful
Very poignant piece about going on a journey alone. Moving words