পালিক ৭

Diasporic Voices: Amit Shankar Saha

Remember, we went to a place
Where there was nowhere left to go.
No, we did not go to the wars –
No, we were not exiled at home –
Neither were we social outcasts,
Nor we became anonymous.
We traveled with Janus-like gaze
From continent to continent.
We maintained multiple time-zones.
Often the phone’s knell woke us up
From slumber at the break of dawn
To announce the passing away
Of a generation at dusk,
Back home. We journey back and forth:
For, at the final continent,
We have no further left to go.

The Migrant
What did I see when the sun rose?
I found myself alone on some
Unknown coast, where I heard the sound
Of the panting sea’s pulsing waves
Mixed with the chanting sky’s sweet hymns
To the dawning sunlight.
Does this very light awake you
My friend, who is now out of sight?
For I have crossed the mazy seas
To this land, breathing alien air –
My journey’s ravages I mend.
How do you do, back there?

Born in Kolkata, Amit Shankar Saha is a PhD researcher in English at

Calcutta University, working on the topic of 'Displacement and Self-
Fashioning in the Fiction of Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, Sunetra
Gupta, and Jhumpa Lahiri.'. He has contributed his creative output –
in form of short stories, poems and essays – online at several well-
known websites and blogs. Apart from his literature-related
interests, Amit enjoys the game of cricket.

পালিক পড়ুন o পড়ানঃ http://calcuttans.com/palki