I was not alone in the hospital
My motherland was with me
In the form of memories
Yet I felt I was lonely
Jernail S. Anand, an eminent poet from India, shares his poem
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, based in Chandigarh, is an Indian poet and scholar credited with 170 plus books of English literature, philosophy and spirituality. He won great Serbian Award Charter of Morava and his name adorns the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. He was honored with Seneca Award LAUDIS CHARTA by Academy of Arts & Philosophical Sciences, Bari, Italy 2024. He is Founder President of the International Academy of Ethics and conferred Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) by University of Engineering & Management, (UEM) Jaipur. Email anandjs55@yahoo.com
The poem is dedicated to human love cutting across nations and to the Pakistani Nurse who sings a song to provide the dying NRI a feel of his motherland Punjab.
SADKE SADKE JANDIYE MUTIARE NI
(O Dame, Walking Along the Road)
I was not alone in the hospital
My motherland was with me
In the form of memories
Yet I felt I was lonely
Among aliens
Who were
Bearing hard on me
A foreign culture
Foreign language
Foreign constructs
Everything was foreign
And good too,
Which gave me clout
There was a lurking wish.
If I could come back
And see my place
Meet my relations
And some friends
I wished to celebrate Diwali
Lohri, and fly kites
I wished I could go to the park
Where I went morning and evening
The fruit seller and the grocery shop.
But only if I recovered
And was able to go back
Who can go back
When limbs mortgaged
In hospital were breaking by inches.
Son was in France
And daughter in Canada
I was in US
Now in a hospital
On a long ailment,
Sinking day by day
I could sink anytime
And had given the order
Not to revive me
If I sank into oblivion.
Phone calls were allowed
Which gave me the feeling
Of highly attended and cared for
Punjab was a dream
My soul wanted a visit back
The same soil, the same potholed roads
Which looked so human
Punjab. Amritsar. Lahore.
Ludhiana. PAU. Chandigarh.
My village Alamgir Longowal
Bathinda Dabwali.
My consciousness
Was running around
Perhaps the time was coming
To sink into oblivion
That is why I was day dreaming
Fast and quick
At last a nurse came
And asked me for my last wish
If they could fulfil it
If I wanted to eat or drink something
I looked at the nurse
And asked: is there any Punjabi?
Any Indian?
Any Pakistani?
She said there was a nurse from Pakistan
Ask her I want to see her
She came. Shima knew I was sinking.
What can I do for you! She asked
Please sing a song.
She looked at me asking which one. .
Saadke sadke jandiye mutiare ni
And as she sang, I found myself
In the lap of my mother land,
And collapsed at the door of the next world.
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