SCARLET LEAF REVIEW
  • HOME
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • ABOUT
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • PARTNERS
    • CONTACT
  • 2022
    • ANNIVERSARY
    • JANUARY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
  • 2021
    • ANNIVERSARY
    • JANUARY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • FEBRUARY & MARCH >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • APR-MAY-JUN-JUL >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
      • ART
    • AUG-SEP >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • OCTOBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • NOV & DEC >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
  • 2020
    • DECEMBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • AUG-SEP-OCT-NOV >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • JULY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • JUNE >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • MAY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • APRIL >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • MARCH >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • FEBRUARY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • JANUARY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • ANNIVERSARY
  • 2019
    • DECEMBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • NOVEMBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • OCTOBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • SEPTEMBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • AUGUST >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NONFICTION
      • ART
    • JULY 2019 >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • JUNE 2019 >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • ANNIVERSARY ISSUE >
      • SPECIAL DECEMBER >
        • ENGLISH
        • ROMANIAN
  • ARCHIVES
    • SHOWCASE
    • 2016 >
      • JAN&FEB 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Prose >
          • Essays
          • Short-Stories & Series
          • Non-Fiction
      • MARCH 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Short-Stories & Series
        • Essays & Interviews
        • Non-fiction
        • Art
      • APRIL 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Prose
      • MAY 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Short-Stories
        • Essays & Reviews
      • JUNE 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Short-Stories
        • Reviews & Essays & Non-Fiction
      • JULY 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Short-Stories
        • Non-Fiction
      • AUGUST 2016 >
        • Poems Aug 2016
        • Short-Stories Aug 2016
        • Non-fiction Aug 2016
      • SEPT 2016 >
        • Poems Sep 2016
        • Short-Stories Sep 2016
        • Non-fiction Sep 2016
      • OCT 2016 >
        • Poems Oct 2016
        • Short-Stories Oct 2016
        • Non-Fiction Oct 2016
      • NOV 2016 >
        • POEMS NOV 2016
        • SHORT-STORIES NOV 2016
        • NONFICTION NOV 2016
      • DEC 2016 >
        • POEMS DEC 2016
        • SHORT-STORIES DEC 2016
        • NONFICTION DEC 2016
    • 2017 >
      • ANNIVERSARY EDITION 2017
      • JAN 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • FEB 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MARCH 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • APRIL 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MAY 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • JUNE 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • JULY 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • AUG 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
        • PLAY
      • SEPT 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • OCT 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • NOV 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • DEC 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
    • 2018 >
      • JAN 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • FEB-MAR-APR 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MAY 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • JUNE 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • JULY 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • AUG 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • SEP 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • OCT 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • NOV-DEC 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • ANNIVERSARY 2018
    • 2019 >
      • JAN 2019 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • FEB 2019 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MARCH-APR 2019 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MAY 2019 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
  • BOOKSHOP
  • RELEASES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • REVIEWS

PRANAB GHOSH - PROSE POEMS

5/15/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Pranab Ghosh is a journalist, blogger and poet. His poems have been published in Tuck Magazine, Dissident Voice, Leaves of Ink, Hans India, Literature Studio Review and Scarlet Leaf Review, among others. He also writes short stories. He has co-authored a book of poems, Air & Age. He has also translated a book of Bengali short stories into English. The name of the book is Bougainvillea And Other Stories. He, at present, lives in Kolkata, India.


                                Worldly Man turns Yogi



In front of a burning pyre sits a man, his torso bare, a white cloth worn like a lungi at the bottom. He sits erect in front of the pyre, the flame from which is now dying out. He is looking straight at the top of the flame, from where the smoke rises. He is trying to chart the flight path. The path of the spirit of his beloved, who has now turned into ashes.
The coy look, the black
eyelids casting a mystery
around the downcast
face. The red bindi,
the golden sari with blue
anchal. Etched in memory is
the first look of his beloved
and then wife for twenty years.
All have gone up in flames.
 
The first evening out.
The bhelpuri, the
phuckas, the mela,
the ride in the toy
train, the boat ride
in the ‘death cave’.
The end of courtship
after marriage.
 
The first child born.
A baby girl. A bundle
of emotions. An ocean of
expenses. Love wins.
Expenses are managed
and forgotten. The
joy lives on.
Today after 20 years of ‘sansar’ – the baby girl in her late teens – the bride departs. The man is still looking at the flame. His friends have left. His relations too. His soul companion, his daughter, is still waiting for him, all alone, outside the ‘samshan ghat’. The man sits erect, watching the dying flame rise, dance, flicker and then finally die. Everything has come to an end:
The fight. The tears.
The joy. The laughter.  
Everything. Everything
       Everything.
 
Alone the man looks at the ashes. There is a touch on his shoulder. He looks back. “Simanti!” He was about to exclaim. No it’s not his wife, but the representative she left behind. “Maya, looks exactly like her,” he thinks. “Dad, it’s better we leave,” Maya implores.
The man rises. His
desire, his laughter,
his agony, his pain,
all ashes now, are
left behind.
 
The yogi is born!
 
                                    Becoming a Yogi!


The body is the source
of all pain. It causes
sufferings. It brings tears.
It enjoys. It devours. It
glorifies you and finally
it gives up. Your mind gives
up all worldly pleasures and
all the zeal to seek those.
It recoils within and looks
for inner peace and inner joy.
It forgets to seek happiness
outside and finds it within.
It has by then renounced.
But true renunciation comes only
after you have experienced
the worldly pleasures and the
accompanying pangs.
And once you renunciate
You become a YOGI!
The death of Simanti triggered in the man the process of giving up all worldly pleasures and made him look within for eternal happiness. He stayed a man of the world. Yet be became a yogi, who did his ‘karma’. His daughter successfully completed education and then he got her married and helped her settle down in life. These were all his duties and he performed it dutifully. He was at peace with himself. He was ready to leave this worldly habitat of his and finally reunite with his Simanti.
Not all yogis are born thus. But most of the worldly men, who mentally metamorphose into yogis – if you look beneath their veneer you will see that they lose or give up something very dear to them in life and then become renunciates. They stay duty-bound; engulfed in their ‘karma’. But they stay yogis at heart. Far away from the worldly pleasures and pain they build a castle of peace and happiness within them and happily live there.
LIVING LIKE A YOGI!
 
0 Comments

    Categories

    All
    Anoucheka Gangabissoon
    Arushi Singh
    Charles Hayes
    Donal Mahoney
    F.E.Walls
    Haley Wooning
    James Nichols
    Ken Allan Dronsfield
    Megan Denese Mealor
    Pranab Ghosh
    Renee B. Drummond
    Robert Ronnow

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • HOME
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • ABOUT
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • PARTNERS
    • CONTACT
  • 2022
    • ANNIVERSARY
    • JANUARY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
  • 2021
    • ANNIVERSARY
    • JANUARY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • FEBRUARY & MARCH >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • APR-MAY-JUN-JUL >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
      • ART
    • AUG-SEP >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • OCTOBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • NOV & DEC >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
  • 2020
    • DECEMBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • AUG-SEP-OCT-NOV >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • JULY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • JUNE >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • MAY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • APRIL >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • MARCH >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • FEBRUARY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • JANUARY >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • ANNIVERSARY
  • 2019
    • DECEMBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • NOVEMBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • OCTOBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • SEPTEMBER >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • AUGUST >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NONFICTION
      • ART
    • JULY 2019 >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • JUNE 2019 >
      • POEMS
      • SHORT-STORIES
      • NON-FICTION
    • ANNIVERSARY ISSUE >
      • SPECIAL DECEMBER >
        • ENGLISH
        • ROMANIAN
  • ARCHIVES
    • SHOWCASE
    • 2016 >
      • JAN&FEB 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Prose >
          • Essays
          • Short-Stories & Series
          • Non-Fiction
      • MARCH 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Short-Stories & Series
        • Essays & Interviews
        • Non-fiction
        • Art
      • APRIL 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Prose
      • MAY 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Short-Stories
        • Essays & Reviews
      • JUNE 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Short-Stories
        • Reviews & Essays & Non-Fiction
      • JULY 2016 >
        • Poems
        • Short-Stories
        • Non-Fiction
      • AUGUST 2016 >
        • Poems Aug 2016
        • Short-Stories Aug 2016
        • Non-fiction Aug 2016
      • SEPT 2016 >
        • Poems Sep 2016
        • Short-Stories Sep 2016
        • Non-fiction Sep 2016
      • OCT 2016 >
        • Poems Oct 2016
        • Short-Stories Oct 2016
        • Non-Fiction Oct 2016
      • NOV 2016 >
        • POEMS NOV 2016
        • SHORT-STORIES NOV 2016
        • NONFICTION NOV 2016
      • DEC 2016 >
        • POEMS DEC 2016
        • SHORT-STORIES DEC 2016
        • NONFICTION DEC 2016
    • 2017 >
      • ANNIVERSARY EDITION 2017
      • JAN 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • FEB 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MARCH 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • APRIL 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MAY 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • JUNE 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • JULY 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • AUG 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
        • PLAY
      • SEPT 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • OCT 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • NOV 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • DEC 2017 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
    • 2018 >
      • JAN 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • FEB-MAR-APR 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MAY 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • JUNE 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • JULY 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • AUG 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • SEP 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • OCT 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • NOV-DEC 2018 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • ANNIVERSARY 2018
    • 2019 >
      • JAN 2019 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NONFICTION
      • FEB 2019 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MARCH-APR 2019 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
      • MAY 2019 >
        • POEMS
        • SHORT-STORIES
        • NON-FICTION
  • BOOKSHOP
  • RELEASES
  • INTERVIEWS
  • REVIEWS