NAMITA RANI PANDA

 

NAMITA RANI PANDA

 

I Love You Strangers

 

My class room now is my laptop screen

With small heads peeping at me

With ever widening curiosity

And utmost sincerity,

Sometimes silent

Sometimes complaining:

" Ma'am, your voice inaudible,

Ma'am, black board not visible,

Ma'am, what's that word written next to 'the'?"

The same question asked one after another,

Or together

Like packs of jackals

And I try to answer as loud as I can,

Feel desperate

For my inability to reach you,

To make you disciplined

I scream

" Mute your mike,

Please in the chat box do post your doubts!

Please don't shout!

Please listen to me first!"

But in vain.

Feel disheartened

As if crying in wilderness,

My treasure being blown away

In a storm to some land unknown.

 

And when your response is correct

I feel highly delighted,

As if a devotee

Whose prayer is listened by the Almighty,

I wish to pat on your back,

Stoke your head with affection

As a mark of appreciation,

But alas! No avail.

 

Still I love you strangers

As I love the Supreme Power

Invisible, impalpable yet omnipresent

For I know you listen to me with much patience,

Struggle hard to comprehend my every word and sentence,

I know, you too wait every morning this stranger

With much hope to build your future,

Let's bear one another

Till the demon of fear disappears forever

And we will meet again

In a bright morn

In a school full of endless laughter and fun

Learning through hand, head and heart together

With much zeal and boundless pleasure.

 

 

 

Video Call

 

In the quandary of present pandemic situation

When in my cocoon in isolation,

A glimpse of your face

Is the only solace,

And seeing you talking and laughing on my screen

Is just like watching the lovely drops of rain

So soothing and serene,

Which are on the other side of the glass panes

That I can intensely glance,

So close yet beyond my reach

As if to open the window, they implore and beseech,

But for fear of the lurking death

I keep myself away from mirth,

The sweet fragrance of earth,

Your loving warmth,

The fragrance of your breath

And wait patiently for a better day

When like black clouds we will drift

Freely and fearlessly

In the vast blue sky

High above

Pregnant with divine love,

Merge with each other

Without fear

Exchange pain and pleasure

And fall down together

As one drop of rain

To return to the blue ocean.

 

 

 

Long Live Poet!

 

Long live poet

By writing and publishing

Countless poems on your selfless love for me,

For my preservation,

Gain name and fame

And limitless felicitations

As the best seller

Or an earnest lover of Nature.

I’m ready to be reduced to pulp and papers

To propagate your philosophy

To be a part of your struggle to save me,

I’m ready to die thousand times

With a distant dream to live and breathe peacefully,

An extremely helpful but helpless tree I’m!

 

NAMITA RANI PANDA

 

Mrs NAMITA RANI PANDA is a multilingual 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 four published Anthologies of poems are Blue Butterflies , Rippling Feelings , A Slice of Sky and A Song for Myself. Her signature words are love, optimism which can be felt in most of her creations.  The main themes of her concerns are social injustices, love and other issues related to life. Her poems are also translated into other languages like Albanian and Azerbaijani. 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.”