Chittaranjan Dash, Delhi, 24 August 2025
In the framed picture-
Immortalised:
A moment in my mother’s life
Till nature eats it raw-
As it did in her final journey
Cinders, smoke and memory
Sometimes she smiles-
From a chestnut brown home:
When I am happy
Sometimes she is sad
As sad as me as I look at her-
From her pale yellow mat
She gazes at me-
As if blessing me:
For every moment of my life
Some days I offer her flowers
On others, a silent stare-
In an acknowledgement
An umbilical cord-
Still nourishes me to health:
In my poverty of emptiness
Fleeting shadows of garden-
Make her animated:
She turns to Malabar spinach
When aroma of her village-
Wafts from delicacies:
Her lips tremble in still
I almost hear her-
Calling out my name
To relish my favourite fritters
