DEBASISH PARASHAR - POEMS

Debasish Parashar is a public policy, governance and art & culture enthusiast, singer, lyricist, poet (to some extent)and social journalist based in New Delhi, India. He is a postgraduate in English literature from University of Delhi. He has sung for 'In Search of God' and 'Raag'.His write-up on Majuli has been listed amongst top 100 online #worldheritagesites stories globally in May 2016 by Agilience Authority Index. His literary works have been featured in prestigious Indian and international initiatives like Visual Verse, Entropy, Tuck Magazine(accepted and to be published),Indiana Voice Journal(upcoming October,2016 issue), Muse India, Indian Periodical, The Poet Community, Swarajya, Youthkiawaaz, Duane's PoeTree, Thumb Print Magazine(Accepted),Bordoisila, Spillwords, Scriggler, Sadda haq, Assam Tribune and many more. His works are included in two upcoming international anthologies namely 'Apple Fruits of an Old Oak'(to be published under Kew Gardens Press, New York) and 'Dandelion in a Vase of Roses' (To be published in U.S.A).Follow MrDevParashar@twitter.
 

---

                            Of Promises,Markets and Memories
​
1.
Better not try
To impress
With your sorrows
Life has few hollows
To be empty
 
2.
Your promises are leaves
In a forest deciduous
Fertile in fall
Otherwise green
 
3.
If memories were governed
By demand and supply
Market forces I mean
All geniuses could be ordinary
All histories linear
since they are not
Meanings can be metaphors.
 

                                                 Liberal?


She is
A vegetarian
Wears heavy make-up
A believer
Religious
Speaks rarely in public
Does not find all government schemes faulty
(May be a nationalist !)
Looks cheerful
Wears sarees
And shiny shawls of her choice
Sings Carnatic classical
A mother of three by chance
She is still liberal.
 
 
                                       Manikarnika Ghat


Along floating ghats
And a burning river
The morning naked and spread-eagled
Like twilight
With temples grey like ashes
Half-burnt Goldflakes
The Ganges and drops of 'Old Monk'
Balance teardrops
Absorb the world
Exhale the same
A hydrostatic paradox...
The Ganges
Mirrors and my reflection
Amidst a Chinese package of sunshine
Zombie strippers from Somalia
And frozen memories
I see myself
 
My soul split like Kashmir
Craves for the forgotten
Then
With a silent spasm
"Eureka,eureka"
The ghat of Manikarnika.
 
Here I come from Palmyra
From BTAD
From Telangana
Here I come from everywhere
Everywhere
Searching for the lost remains of Gauri
To pacify Shiva's rage
Here I come to unburden my soul
My small boat is not enough
To carry the weight of a civilization
I want to come again...
 
Here I see old men sitting in inertia
Aghoris and necrophilia
White clothes and smell of incense burning
Just to mock the city of Benaras
There I hear
Bells toll from a temple far away
Oars on water
And a tune resonates
From the flute of a blind beggar
Sitting by a burning pyre
"O Majhi re..."
 
(Manikarnika Ghat: one of the many ghats(river bank) in Banaras, associated with Lord Shiva's curse that the place where his dead wife goddess Gauri's earrings fall (Mani-gems,Karnika-ears) will face the burden of funeral pyres burning at every moment of time.
BTAD: Bodoland Territorial Area District
Aghoris: Mystic saints of a particular sect associated with supra-human powers
"O Majhi re...": a popular tune dedicated to boatmen (majhi))