Flash Back - English - Father

 Father

Since I gained consciousness

I saw Father

Entangled in books and papers

Sitting for hours, writing continuously, 

I found out that

Father was a poet

A poet friend of Bal Swaroop Rahi

In one of his old diaries

I read some of his songs

One refrain of his song

I still remember

"I sing the songs of love,

Therefore, my youth is mine

I smile even in sorrow,

Therefore, my flow is mine."

Indeed

Reading his songs

Inspired me to write

Poems too,

But later he stopped

Writing poems

Due to the responsibility of building a house

And filling

Family expenses

Earning a few pennies

Doing various kinds of writing

And kept puffing cigarette after cigarette

Betel leaf with tobacco and cigarettes,

Father struggled

All his life

Won every battle against life

But couldn't bear the strike of Corona

And lost to life,

Fell into a deep sleep

I was sitting thousands of miles away

Regretfully

Couldn't join his final journey,

Due to Corona

Not just me, no one

Could join his final journey

Just like he fought

The battles of life alone

He fought

Death alone too,

Only my younger brother

Performed his last rites

With the help of a funeral agency.