Written piece
Home season
Sushma A. Singh
India
About this piece
No matter where or who we are,in the journey of life, home remains that enduring thread,anchoring us to our memories, experiences, as well as the values and traditions passed down the generations.
"Home season" attempts to delve into this veritable space of comfort and belonging.
Home season
(Migrant labourers kiss the ground upon arrival in Bihar- The Hindu 2020)
I imagine the kneeled
figures
draw in the scent
of their native
soil,
sweat soaked faces
pressed into vermilion
dust
swept from the ruins
of Nalanda, the ancient
hub of learning .
How engaging, this
ardent supplication
to a homeland-
a boundless, pillarless,
temple, unassuming
in its vastness.
Absence is a basket
that fills ,
the more you pluck
from it. Perched
on the brink of the ice
age,I am pulled back
several thousand years
in time,
into a heroic saga ,
where a younger sibling
of king Rama
in a gesture of reverence,
places the latter's slippers
on his throne,
and waits for him
to emerge out
of a fourteen year long
exile. I witness
an epochal homecoming,
watch a dark night
flare
into a carnival
of lights-
million suns shining
in unison,
celebrated every year,
to this day.
On this side
of time, son
of a humble labourer
is learning to recite shlokas
rooted in one of the oldest
languages chronicled
in scriptures
and intellection
of sages, its
chants and incantations
of mantras, adepts
of sound,
while he waits
for a father
he has often glimpsed
in his mother's vignettes
and rustic verses.
Vasudhaiva kutumbakam,*
( the world is a family) , dots
of patter
from the tender throat
riffle the air.
Summer disburdens.
note: * sanskrit phrase
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