Seema Jain (Diaspora Dual Identities)

Seema Jain

Trishanku

Swinging in his rocking chair, eyes closed
He looked back and on his mind's canvas,
The glow of golden days of youth unfolded 
When dreams filled his heart and a rosy future beckoned.

As a young scientist from India, in America's land of infinite possibilities
He carved a cosy niche and the rush of adrenaline kept him on cloud nine.
Till one day, back home, his father, on the deathbed,

Departed before he could bid him the final adieu.

He writhed in pain and guilt
He felt he had failed to be a good son and missed home like hell
He yearned to go back to his roots
But does life ever offer any simple choices?

The routine of life slowly engulfed him,
Years rolled by as his son grew up,
Married an American girl and soon
It was time for his wife to bid him goodbye.

Sitting in his room, lonely and nostalgic
He yearns to return to his childhood alleys,
Those mustard fields and mango groves
The cooing koels and the cool breeze

Like a Trishanku, he stands today
Torn between the pull of his homeland, his own kith and kin
And the proximity of his son, now busy in his own life.
And life's Nemesis seems to catch up with him.

 

 

Navigating Culture

Into the multi-ethnic environs off the native shores
Her four-year-old daughter felt dazed and puzzled
In a glitzy metropolitan city, with umpteen languages,
Struggled to adapt to varied skin colours, accents, dishes and attire.

Each day, each moment she, as a mother, had to grapple
With her endless queries about her playmates,
Her schoolmates, teachers and what not!
It was quite an ordeal to attune her to the cultural melting pot.

Today, after a decade, the small child is in her teens
Dates boys of her age, intends to move out to her own apartment soon.
Her turn now to be immersed into yet another cultural shock
To navigate her notions of parenthood through an alien territory
To re-adapt her indigenous notions
To the norms of her chosen land.

The thoughts of her own childhood flood the mind
Her parents, protectively guiding her through her adolescent years,
As their cultural norms regulated their parenting style.
And she braces herself for this leap into new norms of parenthood.
This time, she is the one bouncing up and down
In the troubled waters of cultural upheaval.

 

Seema Jain is a bilingual poet, short story writer, translator, editor, critic and reviewer. Ex-Vice Principal & Head, PG Dept of English KMV Jalandhar, she has fourteen published books: five collections of English and Hindi poems, two edited books, three books of translated poems, two translated novels and two edited poetry anthologies on 21st Century Indian Women Poets (one for Sahitya Akademi titled Vibrant Voices). With her poems globally published in about 150 anthologies, Seema is a recipient of many prestigious awards. She has been a poet/speaker for Sahitya Akademi, the Jaipur Literature Festival, SAARC Countries' FOSWAL literature Festival and the Washington DC South Asian Literature Festival.

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Setu, April 2025