Voices Within: Raja Chakraborty

Raja Chakraborty was born in 1966 and brought up in Kolkata. He grew up in ambient literary surroundings. He is a bilingual poet writing in Bengali and English. He has published four books of 'nonsense rhymes' in Bengali four books of English poems all of which has been well-received and critically acclaimed. A complete read of his works clearly indicates that he is more towards the serious and philosophical in his English and Bengali poems while his flair for humour and satire finds expanse in his Bengali rhymes. He has just published in his new title in English, ‘About Maya and Other Poems’.

In Between and the Labrador

Between now and sunset

I live a thousand lives

A father, a son, a memory

(Count the shadows also)

In the eyes of retrospection 

Fallen leaves on trodden paths

For the beloved

Love letters and after-year songs

For the mother and daughter 

Rivers and pillars alike 

And then I am, believe me

A mother too

And a daughter 

And a brother

And…..

The fire burns

Consuming all and sundry

To breathe new life 

In the end one who keeps

The fire burning 

Is burnt to perfection 

Like your Labrador

So, a square meal and

A bed is there 

Between

In the innocent warmth of

Fir and paws 

And the occasional twitch 

You sleep, reassured

Of an even tomorrow

***

Shame be Us

She waited

For the gap to be bridged

Outskirts of her toe

Poised over the fall

Hot air from the tarmac 

(Pungent from sweat)

Brought a seasoned handkerchief 

Out of the soiled leather

That the air hostess 

With a raised eyebrow 

Had allowed 

(Uniformed non-entities 

Pushing a dream forward

To touch base)

She took to the steps 

Like a bird to air

Jittery with the fear of the unknown 

Only there was no nest

And no song to sing 

For she keeps dying

In motel beds

That murders her soul every night

In different cities

With different breaths

And will keep doing so until 

She has no death left in her 

Probably it will get 

A corner reference in a

Local daily 

Probably she will go unnoticed 

Like so many tears

Probably she’ll have many rebirths

Destined to the same ending

Till we stop writing obituaries 

In the name of an excuse

Called shame

***

Bougainvillea

When the bougainvillea wilted

I knew it was time

For the count to begin

Summer is always a cruel month

Bitter rays brandishing terror

Heat of the moment and thereafter

Smoked dreams

Sweat lines on eyebrows-

The only memory of the last shower

Weather-beaten hours 

Melt down, in submission 

The bougainvillea

Endures it all

In a rush of defying colors 

To cover the rough-used tar

In elegance 

Like my many faults 

Absolved, in the depth of your eyes

***

---

Setu, February 2022