Jaishree Shanker (Children's World)

Jaishree Shanker

Sarla Aunty

 

Sarla aunty is an angel I am deeply fond of

Though Mom and Dad tell me she is our maid.

She does all the random chores, from cooking to cleaning to washing

Besides taking care of me and my little sister and even changing her soiled nappies

As mom and dad come late from their office, too tired to find time for the two of us

Our world, mine and my little sister's, hinges upon Sarla aunty.

 

She too loves us a lot and takes care to feed us both

Morsels of fondly cooked tasty food soaked in her love

I am sure if she had gone to school,

She would have helped us with our homework too.

 

My heart longs to call her Sarla Mom

But I don't, for fear it might hurt my mother.

 

 

The Small Child

 

They all call me a small child; I am in the fourth grade

And how mesmerized I always am by the Google-like efficiency

 Of my father and my father's father to answer readily and promptly

All my queries related to Maths, Science and other school subjects

 

But you know how it puzzles and quaintly amuses me to see them turnaround

And become small, inquisitive and curious kids

Struggling with the mysteries of the Mobile, Computer and ATM

And always rushing to me for solving their problems

With their whatsapp or Paytm or online shopping

I feel like a wizard, flattered and on cloud nine

But careful enough not to be pompous and to humbly help them

Always remembering I am what I am because of them.

 

 

Wonderland

 

How often I was lulled to sleep in the cozy bed of my grandmother

Listening to the enchanting tales of fairies carrying a magic wand in their hands

Of grand palaces with tall trees all around, beautiful gardens of evergreen   flowers,                         

Milky-white waterfalls and lovely lakes with swans swimming in them                     

 And of princesses rescued in the end from the demons disgusting,                     

 By their charming princes, to live together happily ever after

 

How the bedtime stories fascinated me as they took me to a wonderland

How I loved the Cinderella story and the story of the delicate princess

Who would feel the pinch of the pea pod placed below a pile of twenty                       mattresses

And also of the poor princess cursed by the evil fairy to fall asleep for hundred years

How all my how, what, where, when and whys were answered often

But sometimes met with my loving grandmother’s warning to stop her story-telling if I asked too much

 

 

Bio Note: Jaishree Shanker

 

Jaishree Shanker is working as Associate Professor in the Department of English & Foreign Languages, M D University, Rohtak. Her overall teaching experience spans a long period of more than thirty-five years. She has actively associated with research through paper presentations and publications. Her poems have found place in Mosaic of Poetic Musings: Contemporary Women Poets from India, an anthology that includes poems from 138 Indian women poets writing in English and settled in India and abroad and has recently been published by Authorspress, and in the creative section of the prestigious Journal, English Scholarship beyond Borders.

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Setu, December 2022 :: Children's World 2023