An autobiographical poem by Biswajit Basu:
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*My Life*
1
My emergence in earth began
As in amniotic fluid curled, I lay
There in happiness nine months did pass
Till I burst forth into the world one day.
2
I lay supine in the swaddling clothes I wore,
Wondering what the world had for me in store.
But soon enough I was crawling about,
And began few intelligible words to spout,
And grand was the day when the first step I took,
And for interesting things I began to look,
Then came the day that I could run,
Now my progress surely lay in the sun.
3
Inevitably I started going to school,
Where academically I was declared a fool,
Till one day a ray of enlightenment passed through me,
It was a special gesture from Goddess Saraswati.
4
Then I entered college where ragging was rife,
And my seniors grilled me to an inch of my life,
A hundred sit ups and relaxing on an imaginary chair,
Was inevitably our daily fare.
While my parents had a serious doubt,
Sailing through, I managed to pass out.
5
Then on ship I did board
Hoping for the life of a feudal lord
Instead in the bilges long hours were spent
In smelly boiler suits wet with sweat.
And never ever finding the golden rivet.
6
But as I rise through the ranks
Life was as good as it gets,
Now I could spend more time reading books
Cruising on a placid sea and watching red sunsets.
7
Soon it was time to marry and children to raise,
As my love for ships and the sea became a craze,
And I took my bride on voyages
to America, Africa and Europe,
To London, Hamburg and the Vatican to visit the Pope.
7
Despite the persistent call of the sea,
Furtherance of my career beckoned to me,
And I entered dredging, a career in mud and soil
It was very hard work in sweat and toil.
But soon came the time I had to say,
Goodbye to the sea and a fresh career path to lay.
8
I entered the field of dredger building without a clue,
But I rapidly learnt and there was not much to rue,
But to explore the world became a new passion,
So trips to corners of the Earth, I began to fashion.
A new love rose of mountain ranges,
The Rockies, the Alps, the Andes
the Himalayas from whence burst forth the Ganges.
In South America, Patagonia, Atacama, Orinoco and the Amazon,
Sometimes I wonder where we have not gone.
9
But all these travels must cease and you cannot stop time and tide,
My only solace is that I've travelled far and wide,
And the many places to where I've been
Helps me appreciate God's hand in what I've seen
But I still miss the rhythmic thump of my ships diesel engines
That comforting sound that seems to wash away my sins.
10
So now I am reduced to wallowing in my old cobwebbed memories,
To see the red sun sink again into the horizon as my
hair ruffles in the sea breeze.
*Biswajit Basu*
