BASAB CHAUDHURI

This morning
words whispered in my ear—
give us a little space to thrive,
so we may become a poem.
...

Will you come to see me when I die?
I know I will die some day,
but the day is not known,
so I cannot invite you in advance.
...

At this moment
bombs are exploding,
smoke billows outward,
people hide indoors,
...

So many roads in front of me,
For someone might make a difference.
I am now lost at the crossing—
Could you tell me the shortest route?
...

Something works between us two
that neither of us knows for sure.
The road turns at the same time,
a flower starts to speak in rhyme.
...

If you belong to everyone,
You belong to no one.
That's the design.
That's how it's built.
...

Often I leave my house and go elsewhere,
for work or for some job poorly defined.
I go -
there is no one to accomany me except the sky,
...

Get me a pen -
I will write with it
a love letter
to all of them.
...

A lovely fruit—
the pomegranate holds
punicalagins,
antioxidants,
...

Newspapers have pretty much lost their importance now,
instant news are made available, every bit digital.
Continuous crunching of digits make sensation
with continuous munching of an appropriate material.
...

I do not know what looking at means,
perhaps it is not the right expression,
but you know, my early education was in a Bengali - medium school,
I do not expect from myself flowery language, that too in English.
...

You taught me basics of probability,
games, winner, loser, possibilities -
they were all calculations,
some I understood, most I didn't,
...

This is my conversation with myself,
ego and alter ego face to face,
what I am and what I become,
the real and something that's not so real - a mask.
...

This doesn't happen everyday -
only on certain days that are so uncertain to come by
I get this serenity of mind free from any ripples,
any distraction,
...

Whenever I feel bored, I open this page and start writing,
not because this will ever be a masterpiece, but because -
if something worthwhile comes out of my mind!
You know, I am an engineer, a scientist, an administrator -
...

It was evening -
I was sitting quietly,
perhaps the red lights prevented traffic to make noise,
suddenly I felt silence everywhere -
...

War.
Precise. To the point. Targeted.
Intelligence having claws, nails, teeth.
Nothing uncertain about death to the hour, minute, second, millisecond.
...

Just now I got a smell of smoke
resembling that of burnt straw,
instantly I travelled back in time
more than fifty years ago -
...

You may call it apotheosis -
the bird's ascent to the zenith.
I was observing its flutter,
and how it danced down
...

How do I come to a decision?
I sit quietly in a room - alone -
think deeply about the pros and cons,
and arrive at some point, some direction.
...