Mother’s lap was warm
When as a baby I saw my world expanding,
But all was secure.
And then the faltering legs reached the door-
O god! World is so great and not just my home,
Where trees tall grew and colourful birds flew,
Where clouds thundered and water fell anew,
Where I saw the vigour of nature, the shining sun and the glistening moon
As the sapling at my garden grew.
I knew that after the sun sets the moon does rise,
Unknown to me darkness ruled the night,
Unknown to me the thief prised the door,
Unknown to me felons roamed the moor.
I knew not how money people amassed,
I knew not the blots that came before my sight,
I came to know though, as the night passed.
And there was the salty sweat upon the wrinkled brow,
The stoop of a woman encumbered with pain,
I saw as the listless farmer soaking in the sun lay,
The mighty and the ruthless snatching his breath away,
I saw men kill men for a handful of grain,
Treating upon the entrails, vultures and crows

The baby wailed, though not in its mother’s lap-
Working at the grindstone she was
And from sunken eyes and withered breasts oozed her sap.
I wish I were a baby again
With mother near as I now cry.
-27\11\98,Calcutta-63

Compare: A brush with life