Annapurna Devi Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Annapurna Devi



Break the silence and tell the world that you were not that less than,
That your sitar has not fallen silent,
Talent s not in awards and felicitations,
As lies it hidden elsewhere,
Gems into the crags, aquatic treasures and beneath the earth
It is also there in the avoidance of the media-limelight.

One from erstwhile of the then-time Shibpur, Brahmanbaria, now under Bangladesh,
The daughter of Alauddin Khan, you used to learn from your father
Indian classical instrumental music,
That is the bass sitar
And your father teacher, guru used to teach you,
Train in
As the musician of the Maihar gharana of Madhya Pradesh.

And he too, Ravishankar too used to be his disciple
And the disciple of your father
Asked for the hands of yours,
Married you,
Married and forgot you,
As one does it often
On being famous, after getting fame
And basking in that glory even cornered, sidelined his own son
As for glory sake, name sake,
The passing of the son did not matter to him

He used the sitar as a performing artiste, the sitarist,
But you left it as a sacrifice,
Practised it at home,
But never for media glare and reportings
And with it the world should not take it that
You an ordinary artiste,
But greater, greater than that of Ravi Shankar
Who went changing places and positions.

In your neglect and humiliation, see I Shakuntala,
Auden’s The Unknown Citizen
And comparing your son’s life
Tell I about Rustum taking on Sohrab in Arnold’s Sohrab and Rustum,
Indira suspectful of Sanjay, the tussle of power and the lust for chair
Can change every equations,
But as a mute spectator, a witness to silence,
You as a tragic protagonist or persona
Suffered, struggled and sacrificed no doubt.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success