My beloved Moni mama, Anupam Bhattacharya. Many moons back, a tall, lanky guy, in Digha, 1976
Time had sung its inevitable song, a body
That had once planted a tree of love,
Had burnt to its last finishing embers.
The face, hung in silence, floating around
Unspoken words, etched in the timeless annals of memory.
The face of life, a sudden, elemental burst
A gleam of hope along the rusty corridors of nothingness,
Hungered for the pitter patter raindrops of a moment in time,
In the plastic quiet of the hospital room, death waited,
A silent companion at the next station, while life
Chewed on his final wishes of a succulent meal.
The finishing touches of words, beneath the breathing tube,
The pinching ache of the intravenous, the seeking out
Of lovingly knit faces, the hands gripping unfulfilled promises
A flash of seconds, then hanging loose.
Life had been beckoned in an unknown itinerary.
Twenty-one years since the sun had last gone down,
Memories unfailingly water, nourish the roots, the leaves,
The fruits the tree had borne, while the face
Hangs in the wall, a dusty portrait, in a home full of the living.
Copyright: Lopa Banerjee. January 11, 2014
Footnotes: An elegy dedicated to the loving memory of my maternal uncle, Moni Mama (Anupam Bhattacharya) who left us on this fateful day twenty-one years back, only in his early forties, succumbing to cancer. A youthful and intelligent person full of life and a quirky sense of humor, his memories are invoked till today and he will always be the face of life for me, yearning for love and the closeness of family even in the excruciating pain of his last surviving days. This is for my cousin brother, Arijit Bhattacharya who never had the chance of knowing his father. Bhai, this is for reminding you of the treasured gift of love that your father had for all of us during his short life span. Hope you remember and cherish him, always!
Reflections, Ruminations, Illuminations 