TRANSLATED FROM MARATHI BY PAROMITA GOSWAMI
Multi-attitude towards Adivasi
Adivasi, in other words
trees, grass, jungle
naked women-men
… …
Adivasi
a fantastic topic
for academic interpretation.
For the missionary
wrap in religious cloth,
For volunteers
objects to be ‘purified’.
For Naxalites
a proven weapon,
useful in battle
… …
Adivasi means
a pliable tool
the politician’s
trump card.
… …
Adivasi means
dream contracts
in cultural conservatism
for so-called
environmentalist NGOs.
… …
Adivasi
rare items on display
in shopping malls
a toy in a child’s hands
a mere toy.
… …
Adivasi means
each one’s
private laboratory.
…
Which Evening should I Write a Poem About
The hurried evening of my childhood
my age of playfulness that passed
chasing water at the municipal public tap?
The summer evening which descended
Before Mother and I reached home from the forest
with the fuelwood?
The evening I swept the house clean
and lit a lamp beneath the Tulsi
not knowing when Mother would return
transplanting paddy in the rains
The evening that did not wait
for my laboring, surviving mother
but completed all the evening chores?
The blaring announcements all over town
‘No water-supply this evening, this or that reason’
I dug away the riverbed sand with bare hands
the distant river
I waited for clean water to fill the pot or the bucket
balanced it home on head or shoulder, and then back to the river …
That evening?
Or my mother’s evening?
When she scolded me roundly for not
catching the Municipality water on time?
A lecturer I knew came to meet me once, riding a cycle-rickshaw
And I, with a towel tucked around my waist, sat waiting
for my turn at the public tap
That evening?
My sweat-bathed body thrown into the crowded local train
The evening of hanging on till the journey’s end?
Travelling through forest-laden villages
carrying back my grimy body alongside the driver
That evening?
Exactly which evening would suit a poem …
This evening at Nagpur
the poetic discussion on evenings made me suddenly ponder
Which evening of my life
would suit a nice poem?
Perhaps
the evening many years ago when my beloved
stood next to me in the local train, chatting the evening away
or
when I stood beside the railway station gate
and evening crowds disgorged from the local
Once and for all, which evening
should I recall
to write an evening poem for your pleasure?
I am waiting these days for an evening
to find an ‘evening’ for a poem.
I Love Women
I
love women
working beside their men in the fields
love women
digging drains alongside their men
love women
collecting scraps with their men
love women
with their men at the narega work sites
love women
harvesting paddy, bent over from their waists
Love Adivasi women
out with their men in the forest dawn, collecting tendu leaves
Love women
Shoulder to shoulder with men, shouting slogans in streets protests
A bundle on the head, a child on the back
calling out – buy my herbs!
love those women too.
Women of Shaheen Bagh
Singhu border, Tikri border – love them as well
All women
some educated, others barely so
unschooled, illiterate
Women in their distinct attires,
holding the flag, standing upright for justice
I love strong women
Gun in hand, walking beside their partner
I love those women too.
And I love to salute
all these women.
Also, read Virus by Kesra Ram, translated from Punjabi by Sabir Chadha, and published by The Antonym.
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