O, Go You Not Outside! They’ll Catch You & Take To Kamrupa-Kamakhya Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

When I had been a child,
My aunt used to say so,
Cautioning against going outside
Into the hills and forests,
Lonely and secluded
And the fears lurking within
Her consciousness
As per poverty, illiteracy, backwardness,
Superstition and ignorance
And India too vast and exotic.

“O, go you not outside at this noontime,
Solitary and manless,
They’ll catch you
And take to Kamrupa amnd Kamakhya
Turning you into a lamb
Or anything else, ”
She used to say and frighten us,
The widowed and childless aunt of mine,
To caution against the ill omen,
Secluded landscape and manlessness,
Thin population and aboriginal hamlets
And the falling heat of the blazing sun
O the burning earth.

And the spooky and wierd tales used to add to and twist it
When the people used to talk of
The making of the river bridge
And the unsuccessful attempts
And the workers
Arranging for a human sacrifice
To make it successful.

Something had been wrong
And something right,
What she could have assessed,
An illiterate lady,
But something of that definitely hinted about
The weird and exotic domain
Where mutual understanding could not be possible
As for ethnicity and racial gaps,
Impregnable forest and mountainous ranges.