Resolve

How many times do I need

to wear my armour to fight

the unending battles of life’s
phoenix falling to rise again?

How long can I enflame

my desire to live , how long

enforce my weak shoulders

to carry the arms in this

time eaten body and mind?

My growing years have slowed

my pace,my steps infirm,

my  memory unresponsive,

I depend on my family to remind me

I am not sick and lost.

But I can’t sit here to brood,

analyse and ask, although

I am frail bereft of zeal,

I have to fight my battles

long and deep with my love’s

empowering and indomitable will.

I have done my worldly duty

yet I’m not done, I still

have dreams forlorn.Come my love,

my dearest friend hold me tight

and breathe your magic into me

send me again to fight and heal.


Sabita Sahu

Festivals

 Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

Festivals are always a celebration of Man Alive. As integral parts of  religious rituals festivals are life celebrations. Man’s joys, sorrows, hopes and frustrations in the pastoral and agrarian contexts of life are expressed through the festivals. A cynic may say that festivals are  psychic  compensation for social boredom. But such compensations were required when man depended  on agriculture and no other avenues of life sustenance were available.

Festivals are at times totemic, at times celebratory, often propitiatory. These are expressions of ideological faith of a human collective. In ancient Greece too  we had festivals as the Greeks had created a mythic order above man  for life management. In the other civilizations too we  have festivals. Christmas is, perhaps , the greatest festival celebrated all over the world. Hindus have multiplicity of gods and goddesses and almost every other day there is some festival.  In Odisha since Jagannath is the chief deity of the people as per the temple tradition, 13 festivals are observed in 12 months. But the most important festivals for the Hindus  are Dussehra, Diwali and Holi. Nowdays  the Ganesh festival is rivalling the Durga puja. Festivals always unite people for a common cause. The famous car festival of Puri is always an occasion for almost an International meet. In the ancient days  the King of Puri had consultations with his spies spread all around and the kings of other kingdoms for precautions against attacks etc. The cultures of different states and people had a chance for contact and mutual enrichment.

But today festivals are a platform for the vulgar display of the nouve riche. Commercialization leads to dilution of faith, individual display or group display of snobbish pomposity leads to more competition: as a consequence mutuality and intermingling gets negated. Moreover we now experience communalization of such festivals, which compels us to rethink. If festivals are celebrated for communal passions and competitive display of wealth or local pride the purpose is lost. The younger generation has more competitive tests for survival in the global situation. Festivals for them are waste of working days on passionate beliefs which are not relevant to the new challenges to life in the changed order of things.

History is witness to the change and evolution of new forms of worship, new forms of faith. In the process of cultural evolution many a form loses relevance and new forms emerge. Like the changes in human evolution from the amoeba to the Homo Sapiens culture too changes its tone, tenor and at times culture gets destroyed. Today festivals are at critical crossroads facing even extinction. The reasons are not far to seek.

Today man is not integrally connected to the society; he is a self – contained world in himself. The scientific temper may not have replaced our fear-induced mindset altogether but the medieval, pre- modern and emotional approach to life has definitely changed. A rationalist way of thinking is slowly entering the society. The individual by his schooling and exposure to technology is slowly moving away from the ritualistic frame which religion imposed. In Hinduism, specially, there is no regimentation. In Islam reading Namaz at least five times a day and going to the mosque are compulsory. The dress code and the culture codes are thrust on muslim children right from the Madrassa days. The Madrassas do not promote scientific ways of thinking nor do they permit cultural individualism. In Christianity too attending the church every Sunday is mandatory and those who do not attend Church services are termed agnostics or non- believers.

But their number gradually increases in the Christian world as there is no regimentation.The Hindus in this respect are more liberal. One who never goes to a temple or prays for a day is also a Hindu till death. Modern education and awareness of environment protection and ecological problems make the educated generations turn away from age old rituals. Comparatively green deepavali this year is illustrative of the change in the mindset of the younger generation. They consider pollution a greater evil than Ravana and Ram should destroy the evil of pollution. Hence no no to crackers. The rivers are polluted by our traditional belief which now must change to save the greatest monument – the Earth.

The knowledge of reality and awareness gradually move the new generation away from celebrating festivals. There are other greener ways of celebrations and hopefully in the days to come ways and means will be found to combine tradition and modernity in our festivals so that the air, water and other elements do not get polluted. The joys of triumph or love or devotion can be expressed in environment- friendly ways if we do not imperil our own survival by following the traditional ways with ostentatious snobbery. The slogan now is : Think green , Live green.

In Memorium ( Remembering My Brother- in –law)

I was your last companion

at the bed side when
your breath stuck to unreality,

you fell like a broken bough

softly on our tear drenched eyes,

you went to rest in peace,leaving

behind endless tasks, as tough

as you were soft while you breathed.

I could not read the signs;
the candle did not light up,the

dogs howled all night and the

amiable lift man chose to be rash,

the swipe machine did not function,

the premonitions went unread.

I could not give you the food you

asked before surgery, could not

stop the flow of blood, could not feel

your time was up, your dreams ended

the reckoning was over forever,

prayers and doctor’s efforts turned

futile, the rest was a dark silence.

Your dear ones cried, wailed but

I was stoned to brave the moment

listening to the call of duty, to take

your lifeless body for final farewell,

but why did you part half way when

the entire road was open for you

to reach your destiny – maybe it
was your destiny to leave us destitute.


Sabita Sahu

Gambling

 Prafulla Kumar Mohanty


No man is ever happy with what he has or what he is – women too. In the evolutionary process of Homo Sapiens we have seen changes in body and mind. Attitudinally too man changes and wishes to change according to his imaginative perceptions of life. If a chance comes to take a risk he jumps at it. If no chance comes he creates, manipulates even conspires for it and gambles. Antony and Cleopatra gambled away half of the world for a kiss. Shakuni in  the Mahabharata gambled away his family  for revenge. He could bear with stony fortitude the sight of death of his parents, brothers and friends in the stonewalled prison house of Duryodhan only to destroy the Kuru clan. It was a great gamble with fate and a human challenge to destiny. Hitler’s gamble with the Russian campaign has been recorded as a compulsive war mongering bound to fail as he was trying to alter the destiny of the world and human beings.

Gambling is a challenge to destiny. Man wishes to gain what is not his in the normal course of reality. All men gamble overtly or covertly, consciously or accidentally; Those who don’t are timid and are satisfied with what they have. They never take risks, never disturb the apple cart. A gambler takes risks, even the risk of losing what he has and what he is. The desire to possess the desired objects which a person is denied in the regular course of his life makes him gamble. He risks his reputation and at times his existence. Gambling is like magic which gives the illusion of seeing or getting something which is not there. When a saint or a sage gives a magic mango he definitely takes a risk: If his tantric knowledge fails or his tricks are exposed he will lose his identity.

No business will ever thrive without risk taking. A speculative release of a product may by chance catch the imagination of the people and become a universal favourite. Jeans for example, is one such chancy product, which gambled its way into success. All big Industrialists take risks. Oil exploration too is a gamble in fact all ventures are fraught with elements of risk  .

Politics is the art of chance manipulation and risk management. The kings of yore as well as the politicians of the modern world often gamble on an issue or a situation. They bet on the mindset of a people or a ruler. China thought that the Indian mind still carried the old traces of timidity and fear of war, and would step back to escape a risky situation. Hence the Doklam threat, but when India stood eyeball to eyeball without banter or ferocity China withdrew, the gamble failed. Indira Gandhi’s Emergency was, perhaps, the greatest gamble in Indian Political history - post –independence. But it failed.  The Demonitisation of Narendra Modi was also a political gamble. It succeeded politically but failed to a great extent, however, temporary it might be, in terms of economics. Yudhistira  in the Mahabharata is a great example of a gambler. He is an expert in soldier mobilization which he practised on the dice board. When the invitation to play dice came from Dhritarastra, he accepted it and played with Sakuni’s deceitful dice. He lost everything including his brothers and his wife and was exiled for 13 years, the last year being the underground year.  Why should a truthful, honest and wise man like Yudhistira play dice? Was it for kingdom or wealth? No, Yudhistira played for political strategy. Had he won he would have returned everything to Duryodhan but Shakuni’s loaded dice had another gamble, changing the course of the plot of the epic.

Seniors always  admonish against gambling but gambling goes on – if not in the public places, in licensed casinos. Las Vegas is perhaps , the most glamorous gambling city in the world, a playhouse of billionaires. On Kumar Purnima  in the South and Diwali in the  North –West people gamble as  a religious ritual. Gambling, betting will never stop. Kalidas gambled and wrote the best in Sanskrit poetry. Dosteovsky ruined himself at the gambling dens but wrote great novels. Gambling is ‘bad’ but alluring. It is risky but irresistible.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

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