Moon Landing Poem by Dr. Bishnupada Sethi

I would be seated by the side
While my mother lit up the hearth
Just outside our cottage
In the village, many years ago.
Logs of wood,
Residues from the agri-crops
Provided heat and fire.

In the absence of electric power
Under the bright moonlight
While she remained busy cooking
Several of her stories
Kept me amused.

She would narrate
Hair raising incidents of miseries
Powerful elements inflicted on us.
The escape seemed impossible
Beyond the village boundaries.

Several nights passed.
With attention I would listen to her
Many tales from the scriptures
Concluding with the victories of truth,
While I kept gazing
The waxing and waning of moon
Up in the distant clear sky.

Like everyone in the village
I was forbidden
To look at the moon
On the Ganesh puja day
And when the moon was eclipsed.

Interesting were the tales about moon,
It's cosmic power,
It's relationship with life and death,
The reasons of waxing and waning,
It's assuring presence,
Sun and other celestial gods.
I was rapt on high.

What was unreachable and too distant
What was then forbidden-
The same don't hold true today.
The mind has expanded with time.
The darkness from the village has disappeared.
I have crossed my village boundary.
The civilization has moved on-
We have landed on moon today.


******************************