Abode of Peace
Memories of a long-ago visit to Shantiniketan
Not that I enjoy discomfort per se but isn’t it exciting the way soot and cinders come flying in the compartment’s open window and settle on my hair and skin?
The train chugs through the countryside rice paddies to the left and right a shade of green hard to imagine if you haven’t seen West Bengal at the end of the monsoon.
The sky at noon a hazy grayish blue Pale plumes of pampas grass Dark thatch on round mud huts Buffalo wallow in a village pond Children splash and wave.
Of Bolpur I remember this: the Poet’s wooden sandals left untouched upon the floor, his spartan room glimpsed reverently framed by the cordoned door.
The pathways and the banyan tree — He liked to teach in open air… A little girl walks up to me, arms full of pink lotus buds on long, leafless stalks, for sale.
“They are Lord Krishna’s favorite,” she says, too shy to look me in the eye. I’d love to buy them all from her but as a traveller, what can I do? I am only passing through.
“The Poet” refers to Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, who founded Shantiniketan (“Abode of Peace”), now called Vishva-Bharati University, in 1921.
This unpublished poem dates from circa 2000, and is based on my vivid memories of an unforgettable experience in 1975. I felt compelled to dig it up from among my old papers after reading this lovely haiku by Harsh Kundulli.
Priyanka Srivastava Shringi Kumari FILZA CHAUDHRY Runjhun Noopur Desiree Driesenaar Salam Khan Christine Van den Hove Shelley Schanfield Hadjira Hussain Khan Mziqbalk Dr Mehmetyildiz Holly Jahangiri Roz Warren
