Neelam Saxena (Diaspora Dual Identities)

Neelam Saxena Chandra

Hot And Cold

 

In its burning pouch, summer often brings

Showers of restlessness.

My thoughts also get scorched skin.

 

No ointments can take care of the burns

Is what I have discovered,

Ever since you went away

Into a land of snow.

 

Young that you are-

The transformation from

Hot to cold might have been easy

Is what I felt, till I visited you.

 

I realised in the Garden of the Gods

That there might still be some molten lava

Flowing inside the tunnels of your heart.

 

If it protrudes out,

It may look beautiful to the onlookers-

But lava is lava, and so it shall remain.

 

Both of us shall keep burning-

I shall weep, you shall try to cover the sores,

And the distances shall ensure

That we never get to listen

To the echoes of the pain!

 

 

The Far Away Land

 

Yeah, the customs between the two lands

Wide apart physically, differing in thoughts,

Will be different for sure.

However, it doesn’t bother me.

 

What troubles me sometimes is

That we have become two stars.

 

You have your own light,

I have mine – both gleam!

However, though spread on the same sky,

We can never come together.

 

As the worlds revolve,

We may meet at some point of time momentarily,

Only to part soon.

 

Clasping your hands is what I seek-

I wonder if the other land

Would accept you as you are,

Or transform you so much

That, even to shake hands,

It would become difficult!

 

Survival theories work.

Into some other form

You shall surely metamorphose-

I bid adieu to you,

May you find your peace!

 

I?

I will remain incomplete

Despite my apparently happy shimmer!

 

Neelam Saxena Chandra is the author of 77 books and holds three records in the Limca Book of Records. She has been honored with the Sohanlal Dwivedi Puraskar for children's literature by the Maharashtra State Hindi Sahitya Akademi, the Premchand Award by the Ministry of Railways, the Rabindranath Tagore International Poetry Award, the Freedom Award by Radio City for lyrics, and the Reuel Lifetime Achievement Award, among many other accolades. In 2014, Forbes India recognized her as one of the 78 most popular authors in the country.

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Setu, April 2025