NAMITA
RANI PANDA
A Paradise in Paradise
I
If a
Paradise really exists, it is this
With its
impeccable natural beauty:
Snow-capped
mountains with gurgling streams
That hum
gleefully in silvery gleam,
Pine
trees stand like tall towers,
Valleys decked
with lovely flowers,
Lush
green expanse of meadows
A feast
for eyes, a bewitching show!
She
adorns herself with a new look in every morn
In a
fresh hue and aroma in every season:
Trees
laden with apples wet with dew in apple season
She looks
as if a teen in blush pink drenched in rain,
Buoyant
bees and beautiful butterflies fly around in great excitement,
Through
the shifting leaves sunlight peeps and dapples,
Air is
perfumed with the sweet smell of apple,
Chinar
leaves turn from olive green to golden in autumn,
She turns
to a queen in her regal robe
Studded
with orange gemstones,
She seems
a lovely lass reclining in deep satisfaction
Draped
with a flowery shawl of saffron,
In
winter, a fairy in spotless white
Supremely
pristine and a divine delight!
II
The jewel
of paradise is shrinking
Plastic
water bottles and wrappers are freely floating,
The
shikaras, with muggy smell, wait for tourists,
Shopkeepers
wait expectantly in the floating market,
Beautifully
embroidered dresses hung outside
Faded and
covered with dust particles.
From
every corner rings the same question:
“Do you
feel any violence here?
Tourists
are our living Gods,
Nowadays,
no profit in business,
Won’t you
take another?
Special
discount I do offer,
Especially
for you dear!”
III
Asif, the
guide, on the last day
Invites
the tourists to his small cottage with immense joy,
His mom
immediately offered blanket to warm our weary feet
And
khawa, to our tired body, a sumptuous treat,
His
father recounted the reminiscences of the old golden days
And
insisted ,“Next visit, not in any hotel, here you must stay.”
His
sisters were still working in the carpet factory
Weaving
dreams with their tender fingers
Like the
intricate designs of embroidery,
Aman, his
brother, a graduate with high ambition
Loves his
native land as well as the Nation,
Genuinely
generous enough to gift us walnuts when we depart,
His
mother kissed our forehead and carved a niche in our heart,
Mothers
are like air, water and sunshine,
Impartially
they scatter warmth and love, supremely benign!
That
small cottage in that paradise I do earnestly yearn to revisit
And those
golden hearts I do intensely cherish to meet!
#(c)
Namita Rani Panda
An Invincible Moon
I wax or
wane,
Make or
break,
Appear or
hide
Completely
or partially
Like the
lonesome moon:
Crescent
or gibbous
New moon
or full moon.
I appear
in varied lunar shades:
Blue,
pink, yellow, orange or red
To suit
your ever-changing mood,
A
perpetual process
To fit
myself to any role or situation
To act as
per the Time’s dictations.
When you
remain absorbed in your own world
Like the
sanguine sun,
After you
ceaselessly I run
Scattering
silvery affection,
An
invincible moon I'm!
Cancer
Cancer
rose in my body like a river,
That
flowed forcefully
Spreading
her distributaries in every direction
Without
obstruction.
Cancer is
a river in flood,
That
carries away with her
My
unshakable hopes, big dreams like powerless boulders
And
reduces them to small pebbles.
Now it
seems as if life is flowing in slow motion,
When I
wait the river to mingle with the ocean
Holding
tightly the grains of my diminishing dreams and hopes
That slip
easily through my feeble fingers.
NAMITA
RANI PANDA
Mrs
NAMITA RANI PANDA is a poet, story writer and translator from Sambalpur
district of Odisha, India. She now works as Vice-Principal of Jawahar Navodaya
Vidyalaya, Cuttack under the Ministry of HRD, Deptt. of School Education and
Literacy, Govt. of India. Her three published Anthologies of poems are Blue
Butterflies, Rippling Feelings and A Slice of Sky. Her signature words are
love, optimism and self-confidence. The
main themes of her concerns are social injustices, love and other issues
related to life. She is an active member of Cosmic Crew, a literary group of
women poets in Odisha working with the motto “My pen for the world.”
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