Common Sandpiper are one of the earliest migrants from Himalayas into the plains, they start migrating by August and also among the last one to leave. I found this one at the pond on the lawns of Victoria hall in Kolkata at about six in the morning (the lady out on morning exercise asked whether i was photographing the pond!!. I had to point out the Sandpiper; somehow i don’t really have much liking for exercise freaks. I rarely walk for exercise, I walk to walk!!. Though i love going for long walks when i am in agreeable places. I was in Shillong sometime back and boy i must have walked few hundred Kms!!). Common Sandpiper is mostly a solitary bird that despite being a good swimmer prefers feeding along the edge of water and therefore can be seen along riverbanks, creeks or tanks, with a nervous bob as it moves about. Bills are long, straight and slender. Satchidananda Raut-Roy
The taste of life’s bliss
is in his blood
He is neither Hindu nor Muslim
living together is his religion
or to fight for love, for food
or for everything else except
this imagined religion.
In the open manifesto of life
is signature
affirms life.
These lines are from the English translation of Oriya poem The Moon of Matiaburuz by Jnanapeedom winner and doyen of Odiya literary scene for four decades Satchidananda Raut-Roy (1916-2004), popularly known as Sachi Raut-Roy. These lines from poem Raja Jema
I am Sachi Raut-Roy
(not Tagore or Shelley)
I am poet of earth and sky
I am not a professional singer
It is not my business
to paint pictures on paper.
When you open a book of mine
you’ll feel the heart of a new man;
All men make up the tale of humanity,
man’s love and tears, grief and joys,
are portrayed in my verse.
Sachi Raut-
Roy wrote not only poems but also fiction, his short stories in particular are quite popular. I was in Bhubaneswar–the capital of Odisha-and so bought a collection of short stories by him from the Odisha Sahitya Academy titled The Cemetery Flower, must say the title story is not for faint hearted, it’s too raw and brutal. The other stories give insight into common people’s life in pre-independent India.Some more lines from the poem The Moon of Matiaburuz
This very old story
was heard again in our firms
the clash of two selfish interests
under the umbrella of two religions
the entire country burns in its stormy wind.
The bright charter of men of this country
was lost,
as a boy’s weightless kite in the south wind.
Tell me, is it morning yet?
Or is it still night,
The deep black python night of the past
I know,
may be this is the sign of awakening
as the night is the sign of the morning
the clouds, the invocation of rains.
Influenced by Gandhi he was active in freedom struggle, his writings became political and relevant to prevailing social circumstances. The lyrical quality in his poems made it immensely popular among common people. These lines from poem written on killing of teenage boy Baji Rout during freedom struggle...
Life couldn’t hold him prisoner
Nor could river’s song and colour
or dusk’s silence and morning’s wonder.
For all those were but too small to one
whose heart’s expanse was one revolution,
redder and more glorious than sunset
hotter than the flames of two crores of pyres.
Writes Jayanta Mahapatra “Sachi Raut-Roy demonstrated that poetry was undoubtedly a part of larger cultural and political forces and changes taking place within Orissan society. It was a poetry that was not separate from the life he led; in other words his poems were not independent of the poet in him. Here was a poet who was not afraid to speak out his true and innermost feelings; both his spontaneity and sincerity were obvious. Would it be wrong of me if i suggested that Sachi Raut-Roy brought in a kind of democratisation of poetry? Not only did he do this by speaking of the oppressive rule by feudal landlords and rulers of princely states, he narrated the emptiness and isolation of the world around him, and his own self... ”
A scribble...
At Howrah Launch
(a man attempts to explain an American at Howrah Boat jetty-launch)
People so poor here, says the American
In here rich are big richs
poor are big poors, explains the man
O yeah
yes yes
Rich people change fast and get richer
poor people are trapped, they are always trapped
O yeah. How strange
yes yes very strange
