Rose Forever

Whether you  keep me in a vase

to decorate your room or

lay me down on the table  or

hang me from the ceiling or

fix me on your coloured wall.

I don't mind as it's my nature

to smile and spread fragrance

till my last petals shrink and fall.

Some pin me on their lapels,

some offer me to deities,

lovers present me with pride,

some tie me with the tricolour.
some put me on the coffins of martyr,
I don't mind as  it's my nature 
to smile and spread cheers

never to cloud my face with tears.

They say I am love, a symbol

of the heart's softer nuances

yes, I know and I am proud

being the queen of flowers

I bow down to my Maker who lavished
the vigour of red in love colour

I am born to spread love

as Rose and Rose forever.


Sabita Sahu

The conquest of fear

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Civilization’s primary struggle is against fear- the fear of hunger,disease, war and death. The fear of the unknown is now mostly conquered. We know to a great extent what causes the fear. If it is poverty and hunger we  know what causes it and make all efforts to overcome it. The victims of hunger are now much less. Famine is no more an existential threat as it was in the past. The Bengal famine of 1843 or the Na Ankha Famine (in the 9^th Regnal year of the  King) of Odisha in 1866-67 are now history. Civilization has taught us to save man from dying of hunger anywhere in the world. Our problem today is over-eating, obesity and related health issues. But malnutrition and poverty are not fully conquered. In 2010 one million people died in the world of malnutrition and poverty but about three million died of obesity.

Our fight against epidemics and infectious diseases is a continuous process but we have ensured survival despite plague, cholera, small pox, malaria and many such killers. As new life saving medicines are released into the markets, new bacteria and gases are detected in the air but we have succeeded in eliminating or controlling these enemies. Ebola, Zika and other exotic names enter our health vocabulary and the resultant panic leads us to inventing new medicines. In our bid to improve our physical conditions – our living conditions and life-styles - we give way to new diseases. For instance Aids is a lifestyle disease which threatens humanity. We might claim temporary victory but death and extinction lurk at every crossroad of civilization.

The other and more horrendous enemy of life is war. Turn the pages of history and at every  page there will be a reference to war. Civilization has also advanced in war technology-from pelting stones to dropping atomic bombs has been a long journey to shorten life and the sustained values of civilization. But after the two great World Wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45 human civilization has been chastised enough to desist from organized warfare. But everyday war clouds loom large against the horizon. Today Iraq, Syria tomorrow may be North Korea, Pakistan will go up in flames. The atomic stockpiles of the world  may destroy the world a thousand times over but our craze  for destruction is never satiated. But more than declared and organized wars terrorism is the greatest threat to the survival of civilization. If wars were fought over land, water, minerals, oil and racial issues terrorism like the off shoot of civilization is ‘fought’ without heroism or glamour, for ideology. Religious ideology or political ideology is no more a menace, it threatens to take over the world by  eliminating everyone that does not subscribe to a particular value –system. We may term it as a more violent and mindless form of Nazism. But Hitler would have been ashamed  by the masked face of unheroic and cowardly terror which now ushers in midnight doom.

What surprises me is man’s quest for immortality which began at the religious phase as a post-death possibility for soul, is now a quest for physical immortality. Human Rights Organizations declare death as an enemy to the Right to life. The scientists now think of death as a technical problem. Google in 2013 has launched a company called Calico, under the directorship of Kurzweil, to solve death: Many small and big companies as well as laboratories are now busy inventing medicines to give eternal youth and immortality to man. But man should ask himself, be he Kurzweil or any Silicon Valley Gerontologist, what will man do with eternal youth and immortality? As long as man has  not developed any armour against the bomb or the bacteria, death will certainly overpower him. At best man can prolong his life. But the challenges to life will not die. If man  lives for centuries all desires will be dead, all anxieties  would be effete. The ecstasy or anxiety of living will go. In their absence life will be dull and boring. Death is the greatest assurance to life. If the fear of death vanishes all religious, military and civilizational values will become meaningless. Man will be reduced to a rock of perpetual existence without essence.

Fear of anything- existential or spiritual- challenges life to a new awakening, without fear the effort of man to overcome fear will die down. Man then will become a thing: His being will be compromised.

Gift

What can I give you?
Only this Rose; Hold it carefully
I have given my smiles to
The petals, blood to colour it,
My eyes to make it shine and
My heart beats to convey
My message to you; I admit
The gift is small-Yet
Too large to contain the universe.

Never lose heart my love, see
The sun has spread the carpet
Of pearly dew; The moon for you
Will illuminate the entire blanket
Star studded and beautiful,
The breeze is  ready with its trumpet
To synchronize with the Nightingale.

Just step out of your palace dear
See the world is waiting to shower
Blessings on you, Face the world
With my Rose of love and sing,
I will join you wherever I be.


Sabita Sahu

Talaq

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

If marriages are made in heaven, where are divorces made? Today people argue divorce is built into marriage like opposition to the Ruling group in a democracy. But all religions believe that marriage is a sacrament. A man and woman create an order of life. They create their personal world. The male and female are equal partners in the family and all rational constructs associated with it. But when the cementing factor which is love,weakens, things fall apart. But in Muslim marriages it was made so easy that divorce was almost a funny game. Say talaq three times and the woman has no place in her husband’s family. The responsibility of the children is  also on the wife. She has no claim on the property of her husband. No provision for alimony. And all this in the name of religion. The All India Muslim Personal law Board never bothered about the plight of woman. The women is always the second sex. Always unequal  to man. Always the victim of patriarchy.

 In India the patriarchal system has a long history. The Hindus too never respected woman as an equal partner in life. The daughter in the family is always meant for the 'other house.' She was not permitted to study the Vedas. She was denied education. Her lot was to keep the  home to please the husband and to bring up the children.The girl child was also discriminated against even by mothers at home. The male child will become a bread winner but the girl child has to be given away in marriage with a lot of  dowry. Although the Hindu Code Bill has given equal rights the  hindu woman is not given her due. But the hindu society is evolving and women are not considered playthings anymore.They are no more commodified.  But the psychic fixation that woman is the weaker sex and should not be trusted with responsibilities still continues in certain spheres, despite our efforts to educate and empower them.

But in India the so called muslim scholars and religious authorities justify tripple talaq and refuse to treat woman with respect.This tripple tataq business went to such a ridiculous extent that talaq could be given over the telephone or a whatsapp message. This 1400 year old practice has now been struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of India. Welcome.

But why should there be a divorce? Marriage is not a mere license for sex. It is a spiritual, if not legal, commitment to raise a family, create a personal world where both the spouses are equal partners. Whatever be the constraints - financial, temperamental or personality maladjustment – man can overcome, that’s why he is Man who aspires to be Homo Deus not dence. Ofcourse in case of death or terminal sickness, if the family cannot advance, divorce could be considered. Sexual delinquency, promiscuity and cheating on either side should also lead to divorce. But what is commonly said as incompatibility, in my view, is a personal inadequacy superimposed on the partner to bail out one's insolent ego. In cases where the spouses are both professionals, have their career ambitions, they must make adjustments in time management and mutual ego feeding. They must be proud of each other’s achievements instead of cowering under personality towers. Mutual trust and a determined approach to carve out a joyful arcade of relationship to show to the world that you can build a beautiful family as you have built your overarching careers will make you more successful specimens of humanity. It must, however, be admitted that in spite of efforts often marriages fail but divorce as the Muslim scriptures say is a sin. All religions dissuade; yet divorces happen.

Divorce breaks a family, causes a directional deviant often leading to pernicious perdition. Life becomes half lived. If the men and women are poor the children chase the mysteries of devilment. The society does not bother about half - lived failures. Governments try to rehabilitate them but a life has failed. A life could not fulfill its potential. I hold this against divorce. Tripple talaq was a man made monster causing a midstream disaster. But any talaq anywhere is inhuman and socially unacceptable. Men should overcome their patriarchy and respect woman as a beautiful unit of life. It should not go waste.

Who Is At The Wrong End!

My train was late, I had to wait,
choiceless boredom made me  unmindful

of passengers moving with luggage,
family and hurried noise, the vendors

chaiwallas shouting and selling yards

of tea to gullible passengers, pocketing

money with practised hands.

A limping beggar  thudded from left
diverting my attention to sympathy:

asked me for a rupee, a man

may be in his thirties, broad  chested
hefty with sharp eyes stood in a half pant

just touching knees; I was curious
my sympathy changed to a slow anger

the mismatch  of the body and outstretched
hands made me shoot questions: Why

who, where and how?- Will you secure

your future by begging on railway platforms?

I sank within thinking he would be angry 

and may be rude and unmannerly but
to my surprise he met my eyes and
said in an even voice, polite and firm

he owns a three storyed building , his
fixed deposit- Why do you beg then?

This is the safest and most secured job,

exploiting the kindness, sympathy and

goodness of people who are my ATM-

All time money you know.

Then he left, there was no limp

I was awestruck and thought,

Who is at the wrong end??

He or me and picked up my bag 

as the horn of the train alerted me.

Sabita sahu

TV Serials

Prafulla kumar Mohanty

It seems we are a bored set of morons watching insipid serials in the so called entertainment channels, all afternoon and evening just to relieve the tedium of being alive. The modern reality does not, perhaps, offer any excitement to engage ourselves creatively. And what is the fare offered by the thousands of TV serial directors and story tellers? Superstitions, ghosts, black art and adulterous relationships going sour or some historicals without history. We watch middle class and upper middle class homes as the serial writers mostly pander to the taste of the middle class. The women folk comprise the audience as they enjoy leisure in the post –lunch hours at home and pass the time waiting for the children to return from schools. The rich and the fashionable enjoy the kit parties, card games on high stakes or certain other clandestine games beyond the ken of ordinary mortals. The poor move from house to house washing, scrubbing and sweeping and return in the evening to suffer erratic temper at home. These women too watch the TV jealously looking at the sarees, jewellery, carpets, and interior decorations of well lighted homes in the Mithaiwalla or Daruwalla families. But the small screen in their lone  bulb hanging kholis arouse petty desires only- like  imitation jewellery.

The serials are never ending. The director will argue, we are giving you the joys of joint family where three generations live together. They share the problems with equal concern. We show you how adjustments are made to maintain the glory of a clan....etc. But in reality what is shown is competition among the members to break the family. They eat together, sitting at a massive and attractive dining table, but more than food gossip and conspiracy make the food saucy.  The twists and turns which are shown by brilliant directors will shame the Master who ( if at all) makes us dance  to his tunes. The sudden shifts from, sublime to ridiculous, romantic to bathos make the viewer  scratch his head in utter confusion. And when you watch the wife spying on her husband, the mother on daughter you are flabbergasted. You forget the primitive instinct when you see nagins taking human shape- often sexy dolls – for revenge, you start questioning Hamlet’s procrastination, did it end with one life? Or it lingered on to the next? The TV serials play with our credulity at the cost of credibility.

Well, we are all entertainment hungry. A little fantasy on the TV screen may give us good sleep after a day’s struggle. But the directors do not know how to fantasize for they make the fantasy too fantastic to please. Imagination may run riot but it should not ruin the very fabric of reality without which life is inconceivable. The dialogues in most serials are meant for the non- serious people who never feel that they belong to the rooted culture of the human race; as if man is a small creature constantly moved by passions. Jealousy, revenge, conspiracy, scheming, plotting and cheating are more prominently shown than love, sympathy, respect for values and love of all graces of life. The serials demonstrate  that woman is the worst enemy of woman. While all governments in the states and at the centre are being blamed for their failure to protect women, the serials show stalking, chases, kidnapping and all such ignominious things with impunity. The director argues –  in the end nemesis catches up with evil. The guilty are punished, yes, but what is shown in the name of reality is not art, it is  sheer commercialization of negativity to overwhelm  us with bold visuals.

We need good serials but if the serial's longevity is more than that of the proverbial nine lives of a cat it plays on your nerves. A story must end without hacking our sense of moral justice. The Reality Show often appears to be pre- scripted. The faces in such shows are dumb and they play the banal reality of their minds. The KS shows do not provoke laughter- the hilarity of a release- only pity that the presiding judge of the shows gets clean bowled at every caper.

We need entertainment .We need bold serials on the graver issues of life, not advertisements of saree, jewellery and interior decorations. Give us pure entertainment, bold themes of social veracity and dialogue which would enrich our taste. We don’t hate serials but make them loveworthy.

Mother Arrives

The Autumnal drums’ frenzy peaks,

the corn ears of ripening paddy

sway in the breeze in happy pregnancy

the earth moist and wet is now ready

to receive you goddess for your stay

for nine nights of fond revelry.

The city, the street corners and homes

resonate with prayers for your victory

you have come to trounce evil and

vile demons and celebrate the end of sin.

The Trinity created you to raise

the victory flag over evil and guile

teach us O’Mother the courage and

strength to fight the earthly demons

which we encounter at home and abroad

and infuse in us power to fight back

all onslaughts of untruth and deceit.

Teach us to walk on the path shown by you

grant us wisdom and light and bless

the earth with seeds of hope

fill the earth with your fragrance

fet this year be the year of plenty

turn the world into a beautiful event

for mankind to remember in tuneful

measures of joy and gratitude.

Sabita sahu