In
Assamese (poems & essays) by this Author:
Some
other poem(s) (from Kalang
etc.)
Translations
of some of the following poems
Corruption:
Definition, Psychology, Remedy etc.
(from Notun Padaatik)
Philosophy
of Modern Scientific Theories - Their (Ir-)Relevance in Social Change
(from Notun Padaatik)
Students
& Politics - A Contemporary Discussion
(from Cottonian)
Untold Story of
Joint Admission Test 2003 (from
Aamaar Asam & Pratidin)
Talking
about the Gouripur and Dhemaji Blasts (written in
2004)
Issue
of Student Suicide and Deaths in 2004-05 Assam
(from Dainik Batori)
Land-Use
and Associated Environmental Issues (from
Notun Padatik)
Extortionism:
A Socio-Economic Characteristic of
Contemporary Assam (from
Notun Padatik)
Assam's
Higher Education in Science and Contradictions in Our Hostel-System
[To
access all my essays (articles)/ poems from my Google Drive, may click here or here.]
Translation
works (to English) translated
by this
author:
Short Story
The Address by noted Assamese Litterateur Nirupama
Borgohain
SOME POEMS
Eviction in Guwahati
Let the wide streets of Panbazar
look like a graveyard
Let the bustling open space by the Church Field Park look like a
desert
Let an eerie silence prevail on the wide track by the Judge's
Field
And on every other open free space in Guwahati
You see, our city has to be kept clean
Clean of any signs of surrounding poverty and hunger
Bereft of all the signs of rural stagnation
And of terrible urban unemployment.
You see, all our elites in Dispur, in the municipality,
And in the police
Live just like their counterparts in London or Brussels
On incomes that are strictly legal, unlike the
Illegal incomes of betel-nut vendors or road-side cobblers
So they'd like to feel like being in London or Brussels
Even if that means starvation for thousands of people
Already displaced by the stagnating rural and urban economy
Possibly rendered homeless by meaningless annual floods
Or uprooted from their homes by senseless ethnic cleansing
They found refuse in this bustling city; but even then
Its door has been slammed on them.
Even though that means throttling a major part of our economy
Even though that means that one has to walk two hundred meters
For a betel-nut, half a kilometer to get a legal coconut
Or search the entire city to get a pair of shoes
Legally repaired at a legal cobbler's.
Even though that means that our dangerous footpaths
Are now fully free for the unaware adventures of pedestrians
For dangerous water-sports beneath the open manholes
You see: for our corrupt elite
The pedestrians are too many in number.
You see: for the legal wine-shops and the legal bars that are
mushrooming
There'll be required a large number of waiters
For all our legal dacoits thereby turning into legal alcoholic
dacoits
There'll be required a large number of bar-maids
Let those uprooted people
Be forced to become exactly that.
Rituraj
Kalita (1998)
To Them Who
Support the Gujarat Pogrom
I see that you've befriended people since infanthood
Shared others' joys and woe, hopes and despair
What does all that mean
If you support the Gujarat Pogrom?
I see that you're concerned about your fiancee or spouse
And caring to your children
What do all these mean
If you support raping other's fiancee
Tearing the abdomen of someone else's spouse
And burning to ashes others' living children?
I know you've been imbued with the world's sublime thoughts
Immersed in Dickens' noble outrage and Premchand's empathy
What does all that signify
If you condone slaughtering people on the basis of religion?
I see that you've mastered the scientific point of view
Can analyze the physical and biological world in exact details
To your pupils in India's colleges and universities
How do all these help
If you subscribe to mass murder of people like you?
I see that you're perturbed with inefficiency in offices
Hurt that old employees' retirement benefits get so delayed
Shocked that there's so much crime against women around
Why are all these things important
If the right to life is not important?
How do you dare chant our Vedas and Upanishads
Which exhort that there be no malice and only peace
How dare you pronounce the sacred hymns of our culture?
Don't babble about the mass murderers at the
New York twin towers
Don't chatter about the suicide bombers murdering
Unsuspecting Israeli children
You're as much a disgrace to the human civilization
As they are.
For the offence of supporting the Gujarat Pogrom
For the offence of participating in the gravest of
Mass thoughtcrime in Indian history
I want you to be tried
As war criminals.
Rituraj Kalita (2002)
Goodbye!
(As uttered by many of the Assamese people escorting their Hindi-speaking friends and acquaintances to the train stations in Assam during November 2003)
As we don't have the power to say
anything else
As saying anything else will mean uttering nonsensical sounds
So let us say goodbye!
Let us bid the final farewell to them
Whom our demons have sent away from this world
Long before their time would have otherwise come!
And goodbye to you, leaving your
familiar rail-station forever!
May you shine in some better place in this world,
Earn your livelihood nicely; love your family and friends better
We're sorry, our brethren, we're unable to protect even ourselves
We couldn't make out why we have to bid
goodbye to you
May be that it'll help Assam look somewhat more non-Indian
May be that they're hoping for a lot of state
repression
Enough to make us indigenous people rise against the Indian state
May be that it'll let new Bangladeshi settlers take your places
There are too many of theories abound - detestable theories
None enough for your and our aggrieved hearts
We don't even know where you belong at
present
As now you're more Assamese than Bihari or North-Indian
We also know clearly that our life will be in total shambles
Without you and your constant toiling for us
We know our life will lack barbers, cobblers, cart-pullers .....
But, anyway, we must bid you goodbye!
As even the Indian government seems
totally helpless
And as the least matters is what we, the inconsequential horde
Called the common people of Assam, want
So we must bid you goodbye!
As you settle in some better places, far
away from our demons
Do pray for us
For we'll be remaining here to offer them shelter by force
To share their game of gunfire with the Indian military might
Our shopkeepers and school-teachers will keep getting killed
For failing to part with the arbitrarily fixed so-called taxes!
Don't forget us fellow human beings in
this god-forsaken land
Don't forget our sweet lingua franca you've been so expert in
Do practice our songs that emphasize empathy and harmony –
Amongst all the people by the banks of mighty Brahmaputra
For, if some day all these nonsensical
gunfire stops
If some day all our demons get finally vanquished by us
And we set our foot firmly back on our long longed for path
Of socio-economic development and prosperity
We'll call you back to your rightful place in this state
That you had so earnestly made your home
Till then, goodbye!
Rituraj Kalita (2003)
Birth of My Child
It's said that birth of one's children
Makes one less of a rebel
Why, it's doing just the opposite to me!
Whenever I remember my child
I also remember the children around the
world
Devoid of a proper childhood, injured in
futile wars and clashes
Lacking the minimum nutrition of
cereals, legumes and vegetables
(It's so cheap to provide enough food
and drinking water to them)
Whenever I visit the doctor with my
child
I again realize how necessary is basic
healthcare
For every child and for every human
being of this world
Whenever my child comes across my mind
I also realize how valuable every
innocent human life is
How barbaric is to kill or maim even one
single bystander
By any terrorist or by any war-mongering
statesman
In Iraq or in Assam or anywhere else
Whenever my child comes to my mind
I seethe with rage over all the
terrorists
Over all the statesmen who order bombing
of cities and villages
Over all the leaders who plan riots in
mohallas and neighbourhoods
Over all the corrupt politicians and
officials who steal
Relief and development money from the
poor people
Over all the planners who advise
depriving the poor
Of basic healthcare, primary education
and affordable food
Whenever I remember my child
I get ready for an extensive and
prolonged fight!
Rituraj Kalita (2004)
Spectator
One day, many years back
I went to a movie hall
To see a series of informative movies
On Cambodian holocaust, Iraqi misery due to embargo etc.
Whatever outrage I might have felt
I could have at most torn away
The celluloid screen. Could have never
Made undone what already happened
To those people living far away
Nowadays, many a times
I feel like being one of the spectators
Months after months, years after years
Of an informative long movie
About the continuing horrors of life just around us
With our limbs practically tied
To the viewers' seats
Will that always remain so?
Rituraj Kalita (2005)
Choice
If I tell what I have to tell
I may get killed
If I don't tell what I have to tell
About what are going in the names of
Liberation-struggle, contributions, religion, development,
Law and order, course of law, freedom of press etc. etc.
I may get mad
If you get killed you can no more
Sense this invaluable gift called human life
Enjoy happiness reflected in the faces of people
Feel a beggar's life-struggle or the agony of an unemployed
Appreciate the urban landscape over the Ganeshguri flyover
Or the sunset over the river Brahmaputra
If you get mad then also you can no more
Experience any of these
As the whole human civilization within my heart and brain
Urges me to speak out
So, weighing the options,
I feel it is better to get killed
Than to get mad.
Rituraj Kalita (2005)