My home shrank a lot
When it was redrawn
In August 1947
My mom couldn’t allocate
A separate room for me.
Nari Lachhwani, an eminent poet and singer from Bairagarh, Bhopal, India, shares his poem
Nari Lachhwani, born in a refugee camp and based in Bairagarg (Hirdaram Nagar), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh state of in India, is a seasoned poet, singer and actor. His parents had to migrate to India leaving ancestral abode in Sindh due to partition of subcontinent in 1947. He served at All India Radio as announcer and is a well-known figure in literary and performing art circles of India. He has performed in dozens of stage plays and some movies, and also released some music albums. Mr. Nari Lachhwani continues his literary, social and cultural activities even today.
My Mom, My Home, and Me
My mom seems deaf and dumb
Can’t feel even my agonies
Nor can she hear my cries
How can I perceive!
My home shrank a lot
When it was redrawn
In August 1947.
My mom couldn’t allocate
A separate room for me
As my siblings
Hurriedly occupied the rooms
And put their nameplates on the doors.
Apparently there is no restriction on my roaming around
In any room or courtyard of the home
But whenever
I look at the rooms of brothers
And the nameplates hanging thereon
I feel depressed, harassed
Lose my spirit of belonging.
Whenever I tried to renovate
Any corner of the redesigned home
The kinsmen frown at me with disapproval
I feel their unwelcoming stares.
Sometimes I’m dubbed as refugee,
Thief, dishonest, profiteer, Cheat
And such other ‘Titles’.
This is what happening in my own home!
I, even heard them as saying
My mother didn’t give birth to me.
I was adopted, and brought to this home
From somewhere else!
Alas!
I can’t see any expression on mom’s face
To ascertain the truth.
Why she keeps mum?
Does it mean my brothers’ contention is true?
Perhaps yes, as my name too looks different from them
It’s diverse,
Of those, inhabitants of some other land!
Is it true that my mom isn’t my biological mother?
With such a mind-boggling question
How long I will keep
Staring with sense of deprivation
At the nameplates
Hanging on the rooms of my home!!
[Translated from Sindhi language into English by Nasir Aijaz]
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Great