RANJANA SHARAN SINHA

RANJANA SHARAN SINHA

Colourful Crayons

Like a tuft of grass

that punches through

asphalt cracks

and remains green-

the twelve year old boy

endures and survives life

with a faint smile!

The son of a street tea- seller

works with his father

in a small roadside tea shop

ladling tea and serving people

lined up in the morning

I see him everyday

during my morning walk:

He waves at me and wants to talk

as I maintain my brisk pace

amid a barrage of feelings!

Behind the facade

I discover a pair of jaded eyes

furled in blue silence.

At daybreak – the tea time

his dreams are broken

by the knock of the sun-

The unrealised dreams-

School bags, books, pencils, and

COLOURFUL CRAYONS!

Oh, the child survives

with shattered dreams!

The Sun

And The Chimney Sweepers

The view from my balcony:

A Sun splashed morning-

The incandescent ball

splits up into a

pair of golden wings:

Time trembles like a butterfly

in a state of delicious languor-

I feel the flutter in the

cradle of imagination!

No view under the

city flyovers-Home of the homeless-

The migrant construction workers!

The golden gleams can’t turn

the drudgery into happiness:

the day break becomes

a maddening tedium-

An endless treadmill of

running, panting and

counting down seconds!

Uprooted from their native place,

vulnerable to discrimination,

under constant hazards of

falls, machine injuries,

and amputations, they remain!

The sun can’t better and brighten

their monolithic nothingness:

Surviving in grim poverty

which quite often gives birth

to many chimney sweepers

deprived of sunshine and light

dreaming of black coffins!

Mynas Outside T1 Terminal

1

There they were-

Seven common Myna birds

outside the T1 Terminal

hanging around the food outlets,

living, Loving, surviving-

Well- adapted to urban environments.

I watched them walking

on the ground with

a pair of yellow feet

busy searching food stuff !

2

Aha, yellow-beaked Mynas:

Brown plumage with

a black head and the

bare yellow patch around the eyes-

My infantile joy and surprise!

That day I was happy to see you,

and marvelled at your

Survival Instinct-

Thank god you’re not endangered !

3

Amid a midday glow

patterns swirling on the floor;

the rustle  and bustle of the airport:

Passengers to their destinations,

the signs of emotions in faces-

some with ‘leaden-eyed’ despair

travel in solitude:

Dreary, weak and weary!

Some move free spirited

full of hope to the greeted

with warm hugs and smiles!

4

Descending flight,

from my airplane window-

The small hut-like houses,

shimmering lines of rivers

pulsing through the city!

In a quiet dream-like region

I hardly thought

I’d see you alive and surviving!

My long forgotten little Mynas!

5

Long preserved in my memory

you’re captured in my poem today!

I break the confines and

find overlapping symbols-

the thrush of Wordsworth,

the skylark of Shelley,

the Nightingale of Keats,

the worm-eating bird of E. Dickinson,

Mynas outside the Terminal!

6

Amid the whirlpool of images

flows the rhyme

full of innocent belief

harboured since my school days-

One for sorrow, two for joy

three for girl, four for a boy,

five for silver, six for gold,

seven for a secret,

never to be told . . .

in Mynas I find-

Secrts of Survival!

RANJANA SHARAN SINHA

Dr. RANJANA SHARAN SINHA: A professor by profession and a poet by passion, Dr. Ranjana Sharan Sinha is a well-known voice in Indian Poetry in English – striking and authentic. She received commendation from the former President of India, A.P.J Abdul Kalam for the poem ‘Mother Nature’ contained in her collection “Spring Zone”. Her poems are included in the university syllabus prescribed for 4 semester M.A (English). She is an author and critic too. She has authored and published 07 books in different genres 1. Spring Zone (Collection of Poems and Haiku), 2. Midnight Sun (Collection of Short Stories), 3. Nature in the Poetry of William Wordsworth and Sumitra Nandan Pant (Criticism), 4. Feminism: Times and Tides (A Historiographical and theoretical commentary on Feminism), 5. Different Dimensions (Compilation of Research papers), 6. Scents and Shadows (Collection of Poems), 7. Rhymes for Children. Poems, short stories, articles widely published at national and international levels in highly acclaimed dailies, magazines, e-zines, archives and journals. Poems published in more than 15 anthologies of global repute and also in Indian Literature Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. She has the honour of receiving many awards for her contribution to literature from renowned institutions, publishing houses and journals – Best Poet Award, Poets International, Bangalore, Rashtriya Pratibha Samman Muradabad, Best Citizens of India, International Publishing House, New Delhi, to name a few.  Received Best Teacher Award 2013-14 (S. B. City College, Nagpur) by Nagpur Shikshan Mandal. Completed and published UGC sponsored MRP on comparative literature, Research Supervisor, RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur. Member of many literacy associations and poetry groups. A life-long learner.