Poem: Kuldhara

Apurba Bhuyan

(The sorry tale of a haunted village in Jaisalmer)

- Apurba Bhuyan

Where the villagers have gone

Centuries have passed

The deserted huts falling around

Ghastly air murmuring 

Scratching the distorted walls of stone

It was the end of thirteenth century

The migrated priests of Pali settled here

Excavated Udhansar stepwell, that was worthy

Harvested the dry fields

With the grace of rivulet Kakni

They paved a road of glory

Kuldhara priests of Pali

Worshiped Goddess for prosperity

But rains dwindled with drought 

Kakni dried-up

Villagers nearby started to flee

For six long centuries a few Kuldhari struggled

There was no rain but scorching sun, that troubled

Alarming was the atrocities of Diwan Salim all at once

As on the pretext of waiving crop-share

He forced to marry the preacher’s daughter

The Villagers did not bow

But on that dejected night, they disappeared

Where they have gone

Were they immolated themselves cursing-

“No one can live here, no one can capture the lands”

And the scary nights are haunting Kuldhara till date.

***

Bio: Apurba Bhuyan is professionally an engineer and presently serving as a senior executive in a prominent oil and gas exploration company in India. He has keen interest in literature. Building his roots as an Assamese poet and writer, he also writes in Hindi and English. His five books of poetry and two books of stories have been published so far. Few of his representative works in Hindi can be accessed in Indian online editions "Kavita kosh Hindi" and "Gadya kosh Hindi".

e-mail ID: bhuyana7@gmail.com

 

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Setu, February 2024