NANDITA DE NEE CHATTERJEE

NANDITA DE NEE CHATTERJEE

BPL 2020

It was getting on in the day.

Playtime over, hunger pangs had started.

Scouring his little bamboo hut,

looking through broken pans,

he found only emptiness all around.

Scrubby and desolate, he perched near the roughshod gate,

waiting anxiously for mother to return.

The puffed rice she'd left with him

was long finished.

Being too little, he'd been left at home.

But she would be home soon.

Today was rations day, even he knew.

And the Below Poverty Line people would get their rations.

Today they would not go hungry.

When she returned.

Love In Times Of Pandemic

By Nandita De nee Chatterjee

Men in flying overalls.

Doctors in their distinctive white coats.

Nurses, ward boys. A flurry of activity.

Hundreds of disparate people waited in painful anguish.

A pandemic had been declared by WHO.

It was a season of isolation.

People were confining themselves in their homes.

Globally economy in shatters.

A lurking fear prevailing in every heart.

A deadly virus attacking all - soldiers, civilians, young, old.

Nationality, gender, religion - irrespective.

Only Doctors up in arms.

Medical staff rushing to save all with open arms.

Officers of Indian Air Force at hand.

Rescue missions for Indians, Pakistanis, neighbouring nations.

Operation Vande Mataram.

Operation Samudra Setu.

Masked police braving public wrath.

Unsung heroes, sanitation workers

staking their lives in double shifts

for a society for which

they did not exist.

Airlifting patients and people, unsparing efforts.

Naval ships evacuating thousands.  Human lives the only consideration.

Medicines for the world at large.

Love, humanity, selfless service -

a phenomenal exercise unfolding before our eyes.

Empty Plates

A clay oven

hot coals

glowing red under a dark sky.

Warm flavours emanating into the balmy night.

In utmost ease,

a gentle pace,

it fluffs up into a ball.

Tossed onto a waiting plate

it sits tantalisingly.

A hot roti.

Wrinkled face

creases up.

Tired eyes

worn out limbs.

A warm plate of food.

Rudimentary?

Not when you've been hungry.

March 2020.

An unprecedented crisis.

A planet scrambling for food.

New medicine?

Yes. Perhaps.

An eventuality that

may have been coming.

Hunger!

Stark.

Across the world.

Wageless workers

walking miles.

Surviving on doles.

Hunger staring in the face.

Hunger when one awakes.

Hunger for weeks ahead.

Food on a plate.

A vision to satiate

not just the

damned and penniless.

Supplies running thin.

Well-to-do waiting for deliveries.

Worries never imagined thence.

The aged, the alone,

the infirm, the fatigued,

the confined…

Food in the days ahead.

A question looming large on the horizon.

Across the ranks

a shared concern.

Suddenly.

Hunger.

Sparing none.

Madly scurrying for stocks,

anticipating days of distress,

a billion people.

Strange empathy

never before seen.

The apathy suddenly staring back at one.

Stretching out a hand

looking into the vacant eyes

monks and soldiers of society

pressing a precious packet

into reluctant hands.

Dignity dissolved

in the face of dire distress.

Able hands holding onto handouts.

A calamity unforeseen.

History writing its saddest tales.

Mankind disabled from work.

Grounded as never before.

Await.

Arise.

Sow anew.

To harvest fresh crop.

Reap gains afresh.

Erase hunger from humankind.

Fill plates again.

Puris or puddings.

Kheer or creme brulee.

No matter what.

But food for all.

A lesson never to be forgotten.

Days and nights

when hunger

plagued the world.

NANDITA DE NEE CHATTERJEE

NANDITA DE NEE CHATTERJEE: Writer freelance journalist, housewife. Formerly with Economic Times. Cover stories and Feature Writer with Statesman, Illustrated Weekly of India, Economic Times, Telegraph, Times of India, Femina, Filmfare, Germany Today, Voix Meets Mode, UK, FrontierWeekly.com. Namaste Ink March 2020. Was Part Time Lecturer at Calcutta University Journalism department, PG for 7 months. Was Consulting Editor, Environ. Launched Economic Times Marketplace for ET. Editing experience. Co Author, Big Bang of Non-Fiction, Life in Reverse; 30 Best Poets; Sea; Coffee and Echos; Wrapped Up Feelings; Poetry Planet's Christmas in my Heart in 2019, Moonlight; Asian Literary Society anthologies A Kaleidoscope of Asia and A Bilingual Anthology of Poems and Poetry Planet's Writers' Haven in Feb-Mar 2020. Have a digital magazine and group, Studio Quaintrelle. Participate in major digital literary forums Poetry Planet, Our Poetry Archive, Bebee.com, AllPoetry.com, Asian Literary Society, Literature Lovers Association, Realistic Poetry International, Let's Make Stories, Plethora Blogazine, Wonder Women World Writers, English Literature, Story Mirror, Significant League, Gully Writers, Beyond the Box, Women's Web etc.