A Stranger

Kumud Biswas

I have come from a time that is far.

When I came to your time I found

Companions I have none

Along the way

At various disembarkation points

One by one

They must have got down.

Somewhere far behind

I also exhausted the morsels

I received as gifts from life -

Those small habitual comforts

Things I needed to remain alive.

When I first set my feet on this life's way

In my friendly exchanges with my fellow beings

Through what I said or meant

Through what I actually did

Or what I wanted to do

My right on that time became firmer each day.

I thought

In fun and merriment with others

It was enough to survive somehow -

By my mere presence in the pageant of life

To give some speed to the flow of life

To add to the crowd.

But today in your time

I find I am an alien

I am unknown.

In your speech

The nuances of our words

Have assumed new meanings.

The seasons have changed

In changing whirlwinds

The landscape has changed colours too

Small factious groups, elbowing each other

Derisively smile.

Tastes, hopes and expectations

All that give life its relish

Have themselves lost their taste.

By my presence

Whatever I gave to our times

However little be its value

Bringing men closer in a thread

It gave a shape to that age -

By your mundane measure

Today it doesn't fit.

In my garden do not grow

The modish flowers that are needed

To welcome these passing times.

For the corner of your house now I occupy

I have nothing to pay as its rent.

So in a daring act of giving

I'll have to give you something big.

It will not be something

To satisfy the demands of the present

And if you find

My gift is not to your taste

Leave it for your judgment at a later date.

Yet with what little I have

I want to repay my debt of this life

And leave you indebted.

May I give you to my last

Whatever I have

Beyond my profits and losses

Beyond my joys and sorrows

Without caring

Whether I am abused or praised.

(Transcreation of the poem Agantuk from the collection Parishesh by Rabindranath Tagore.)

One Of A Kind

Pedro Jamir

Nativity, mine was special

Neighbours had sweets

Mom,chicken soup;

They said, daddy shed tears.

The cute, four kilogram 'Chinese' boy

Was the hope, the future -

Is still the hope, the future,........

I blew out sixteen candles,

No girlfriends.

Same story even at twenty-eight.

Peers speak volumes

of their escapades,

Mine's of unconventional experiences

but of nom de guerre.

I look in the mirror, like you

Flaws and flaws, but helpless;

My prayers too had been "why me?"

Now, I say no more

Realised, the unique, the special, the different,......

of everybody

Whate'er be my orientation

He did design me - gay.