Poetry: Chandra Mohan Bhandari

Dr Chandra Mohan Bhandari

Stark Reality

Never mind

Your great qualities, 

Enormous achievements

And a unique place among animals; 

The man known as Darwin

One of your kind, yet different

Has undone much of your self-image

Punctured your inflated ego

Without mincing words, he said

“Still bears in his bodily frame

Indelible marks of his lowly origin.’

You still have reason to be happy

And feel proud

Despite not too pleasing beginnings

You achieved so much

On so many counts.

That is fine, no doubt

Yet do not forget

The instrument of your success, 

Your cranial cavity

Was certainly not your achievement

You got it by chance.

Man - You are lucky

That nature gifted you the instrument

And what you did?

Almost destroyed your life-giver

And will continue to do so – forever

If things last that long.

  

Man, you are doubly lucky

For the gift

Albeit by chance

Had it gone to any other species

Say, horse!

He would be in you place

And you would be in a zoo

Trying to entertain the crowd.

With your funny dance.

***

Return of the Nomad

Thinking of the bygone era

A wanderer by default 

A hard struggle to survive 

Survival of the fittest

Who would have imagined

Modern settled way of life 

Yet it came in due course

Unfolding patterns, then not in sight

Wandering nomadic groups

A norm for a million years

Memory must have entrenched

In deep recesses of mind. 

Life takes a full circle

A new version of the old

The world in a state of flux

With moves frank and bold

Easy to plan being away from home

Keeping oneself in comfort zone

Most humans, if they afford, 

Are comfortable moving around

Travelling and changing places

Nomadic edition of a new kind.

Travel of any kind

Whether in space or time

Is a compulsion for accommodating

Ever-itinerant nomadic restless mind.

***

Weather Forecast 

Weather - likely to remain dry

Although a possibility 

Sky being cloudy

Could not be ruled out

Light drizzle and moderate shower 

At times a bit windy too

Wind patterns 

Thousand meters above

Determine the scenario on ground

Somewhat predictable, yet not

With any certainty

That is how things usually work out

An encircling wind pattern

Thousand miles away 

Develops into a cyclone

Creates havoc at Andhra coast

That is the modus operandi

Unpredictable weather’s royal dance

Within me too

A weather as unpredictable

Follows somewhat similar lines

A distant minor event in space-time 

Causes depression, 

All quiet and peaceful one moment 

Followed by Raging storm 

Leaving behind a trail of 

Turbulent memory lines.

Our psychic states

It seems

Have been designed and modelled  

Somewhat on meteorological lines.

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Setu, December 2025