BASAB CHAUDHURI Poems

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

Today -
I became eighteen years again,
I held your hand.
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This window -
so dear to me since childhood.
Here I learnt to watch the sunrise.
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When a man dies,
people start singing his praise
as if he were picture - perfect.
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Here, in this country,
democracy thrives.
Need thrives too.
Greed thrives more quietly.
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That was long ago -
one quiet afternoon.
He looked at me with suspicion,
as if I had intruded on his privacy.
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Every morning
I play with words.
They are my clay;
I build my idol with them.
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I called you.
I called you many times.
You were snoring —
you were asleep.
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Light all around - delightful.
Birds are busy, men too,
running here and there;
bees about flowers,
...

Tired of this camouflage,
sheep before authority,
lion in absence.
...