Mandal Bijoy Beg

HE Count Amb. Dr. D. Mandal Bijoy Beg (formerly Pankaj Mandal) is an Indo-anglian poet, writer, critic, author of 3 books (That Man; Evergreen Mirthfest & Sweetness and Light), editor of various literary journals, books and anthologies of world repute, a literary journalist, publisher and a patron of literature and human endeavour in life. He is the founder of The Home of Letters (India) - 1997 - to publish books etc and to award writers, scholars and  the intellectuals of the world for high level achievement in life.

UNITED GHOSTS' ASSOCIATION

You people have inhumanly tortured,

brutally butchered

and savagely destroyed

millions of dumb innocent unborn babes,

very consciously and intentionally -

for your selfish interests.

We are their unsatiated souls,

we are their cursed, hopeless, impure,

unquiet and suffering ghosts,

millions in number,

unaccomodated in the cycle of evolution, restlessly roaming hither and thither, being unhappily united with trillions of demons and evil spirits.

Those tiny blameless creatures,

with their sacral attribute,

were our physical vehicles

in our spiritual marathon

toward the union with the supreme Soul,

devilishly destroying which

you created an obstacle

in the creative work of God,

you curtailed their innate right to progress into the earthly domain of light where they could win a good 'karma' for us - and we are now doomed for ever!

Neither you people did care to believe,

those frail fragments of flesh

were precious and pure

before bestowing on them diabolic death, nor did you all care to supplicate to God for our deliverance or redemption.

You violent brutes of the barbarous race, you abhored, dishonoured, unprotected us; you wrecked our sheathes and now you face the wrath of our blades!

To show His supreme suzerainty

when God wrathfully inflicts

the autonomously wanton earth

with merciless horrendous plagues -

the natural rocking deadliest disasters

and catastrophic calamities

caused by cyclones, floods, summer-dust-storms, hailshowers, avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, thunder-storms, droughts or the like, we, all unitedly amused, clap and dance, hurrah and laugh hilariously and uproariously!

During every fresh catastrophe

we, the forlorn infuriated friends,

gloomily united for a common cause,

spring hand-in-hand

into the elements of Nature

to therein contribute our monstrous might to compose on your foreheads the myths of devastating annihilation!

And when people feebly beat their breasts and tear their hair in heart-rending hopelessness seeing God's repudiation of humanism, we shout 'Amen! Amen!'

You can not imagine

how wildly happy we become

seeing the dogs and scavengers feast and fight for people's filthy putrefying flesh!

You do not know how Nature works!

MOUSY MARCH

Come on, mice!

The house is dark

Creep out of holes

No mew no bark!

The inmates retire

The house's calm

The watchman puffs

No fear of harm!

Straight to kitchen

Follow me quick

A cat may come

Do not squeak!

Reached here safe

God is kind

Now as ye wish

Eat what'ver ye find!

Enjoy! Enjoy!

Just lick and gobble

No cause of fear

Be robust double!

Pulses and papaya

Joys of taste

Utensils in basin

No leisure to rest!

Play horrible havoc

Rule this night

Make all bald

Sssh! There's light!

OVERHEARING

Dear Comrades, first look all around to see If there is any man nearby who might overhear what I say.

Okay, listen, this very two legged wingless creature Is the only foe to our animal kingdom.

We live with man who treats us like his slaves Our lives are short, we're not free We till his soil with our toil We are underfed but overworked; We are the unhappy souls, sans leisure And we live in miserable plight.

Man himself does not give any milk

He is unable to pull a plough

He can not bear a yoke

He can not draw a cart.

He extracts buckets and buckets of frothy milk From our udders year after year Depriving our calves of 'eir innate right To suck from our weeping nipples For their corporal growth and delight.

He sells our milk to make money

With our milk he makes countless foodstuffs And devours them all ravenously.

He even uses our dung

To increase the fertility of his land

And to dispel darkness at night.

Man is a worthless parasite on earth

That knows only to swallow sans yielding.

Man is selfish, faithless, dishonest and idle, A real sinner and is unkind to us.

He does not clean our sheds everyday

And we're kept in most unhygienic condition, Where the malicious mosquitoes sing sordid songs And our tails're tired in keeping the flies off.

We are compelled to work and work

And maltreated with his damned arms -

Thrashing of his cudgel and lashing of his whip.

Why should we not grumble!

Why should we not raise our voice!

Why should we obey him as our master!

Who is he to levy load on our backs!

Man is unmindful of our basic needs,

Botherless of our appetite

And heedless to the aches of our sinews or sores.

Comrades, I foretell, morrow or the day after When the might of our muscles melts And we are feeble with age to yield To fill the fathomless drum of his desire, We all will be sold to the butchers Who'll chop down our neck with heavy blows - Remember, we just can not escape that moment.

Hence, let's conspire to get rid of man for ever To taste the joys of freedom, Let's urge all of our race To tear their strings around their necks To graze on the meadows and vales carefree, Let's motivate all to break The muddy walls of 'eir shelter 'th their horns To rest beneath the shades of green with coos, Let's endure no longer, Let's revolt with valour Let's take vengeance on man for all his tyranny on us To get more for us to eat, Let's erase the slightest trace of man from earth To get more leisure to enjoy.

THE MOTION DRAMA: A DIVINE DESIGN!

Come, let's contemplate on a unique Design!

In our Solar System, the gravitational attraction Between the Sun and all the celestial bodies or objects - The planets and their natural satellites or the moons, The comets, asteroids and the meteors, Keeps them revolving around it!

The moons revolve around the planets

While rotating on their respective axes

And the planets revolve around the Sun

In their definite orbital paths

While rotating, like tops,

On their respective axes,

But none come into collision or conflict With others in the process!

Just imagine this simultaneity -

What a wonderful Design

Of ever-incessant and never-ending Motion!

When the other six planets rotate and orbit the Sun In anti-clockwise motion, from west to east, Venus and Uranus rotate and revolve From east to west, in clockwise motion!

The bright-headed long-tailed Comets

Also travel round the Sun;

And the more they come closer to the Sun-star The more their tails grow in length; And in its orbital speed When the Earth crosses one such tail, Clusters of Meteors begin to shower!

The rotating Earth, along with the rotating and rounding Moon, Orbit the Sun - The cause of many a miraculous Drama:

The sunlight falls on the Moon

And gets reflected towards us to be visible!

On its own axis our Moon completes one rotation As it completes one circle round the Earth From west to east, For which its only one side is seen!

The daily motion of the Earth on an inclined axis Causes Day and Night, Tides, Deflection of Winds and Ocean Currents!

The annual motion of the Earth in a fixed path Along with its moving on an inclined axis Causes Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter!

When the Moon comes in between the Sun and our Earth, We can not see the Sun, What we call the Solar Eclipse; And when the Earth lies Betwixt the Sun and our natural satellite, Its shadow falls on the Moon, That we call the Lunar Eclipse!

When there is the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon At right angles, There occur the Lowest High Tide And the Highest Low Tide; And in case of the same pull, in a straight line, With the Earth in the middle, There occur the Highest High Tide And the Lowest Low Tide!

Let's imagine all these natural phenomena In our Solar System - Are not all these strange occurances parts of a unique Design, So dexterous, harmonious, meaningful and benevolent, Behind which there's SOMEONE - whom We the doubtful reluctant mundane idiots call God!

Mum-swear! It ought to be what it is!

BORN OF REJECTION

About two decades ago I sprouted

Into a new shoot from a seed

Here at this very spot

You see me stand today.

After enjoying the juicy part of the fruit I was abominably discarded By someone here by this way.

I grew up very slow

As none cared to water the soil

That cradled the seed I was in.

The day the heavenly drops're showered

On my frail shoots and leaves

All my hopelessness evaporated and I

Whispered to myself in solitude:

'I'll survive, I must not die!'

I'm now huge and strong.

Every spring

The cuckoos come and coo

Being sitted on my blessed boughs,

Enchanted by the countless blooms I bear With the fragrance that spreads everywhere

And every summer

The passers-by stop and rest

Beneath the shade of my green,

Attracted by the richness of yellow ripeness Metamorphosed from that floral hue, And cravingly stare up to be gifted With the mellow windfalls by chance - First to fondly accept The juicy parts and then reject The seeds and throw them away

Into the realm of oblivion once 'gain ...

RED OLEANDER

I have also fallen in love with you:

You are a firefly

Which whirls and whirls

In stupid darkness

And thus scatters

The value, meaning and message of Light!

You are like a mighty current

Of fresh air

Which makes one stretch oneself

And take deep breaths!

You are like a ray of light

That penetrates the breast

Of the unhostly darkness

And anagnorises the scales

From the mortal eyes!

You are like a monstrous cyclone

Which uproots

All the poison-trees!

You are like a snake-charmer's music

That makes

Snakes dance and sway!

You are the beacon,

You are the floral drops of Heaven

On this land of desert barrenness,

You are the blackest BLACKNESS!

O Red Oleander,

My sweet Red Oleander,

I have also fallen in love with you!

THE 21ST CENTURY MAN

Often I feel like crying,

I can not adjust I feel,

I often drink, I smoke,

I smoke and drink myself to appease.

Sometimes I tear my hair,

I've lost interest in my wife,

I strike my fist 'gainst the wall.

The battery of my life is weak.

Every night I see a laughing-clapping skeleton Sitting on a black whinning horse in dream And I suddenly rise in perspiration And I can sleep no more.

Once I extinguished a cigar

Pressing against my palm.

I'm like a rat suspicious of others,

O, I am a victim of nervou...

Here I am terribly afraid

As I've lost the breastplate of conviction.

I often bite my nails,

Each moment Either-Or whips my psyche

And I often feel myself being cooked

Inside a pressure-cooker and there's none To lift up the vent weight.

I gaze at the lizards,

Spiders, ants or the world map

And they say I smile or frown

Or talk to myself.

I am a great lover of Death.

I throw words at others like stones,

I utter RUBBISH at a wrong.

I feel I'm in dark, I feel aloof.

I'm a denizen of the domain of sighs,

I am the 21st century man,

Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!

TEN MINUTES TALE

Two pre-teen kids, Leepi and Pintu by name, Went near a river to play, They wanted to make dolls And for which they were in need of fine clay.

Suddenly Leepi saw a baby squirrel trapped On a rock in the rushing river Which was about to be swept Away into obscurity by the wanton water.

Feeling sorry for the poor little creature Pintu jumped into soon To save its soul And bring it back to the bank as a boon.

His sinews swam and sank, sank and swam

'Gainst the rapid flow

And he reached the rock

Where the tiny one's breathing silent and slow.

He grabbed the squirrel that squeaked in panic, With care he cradled the creature In his firm fist and attempted To swim the fast-flowing river that grew quicker.

Pintu tried hard to keep his left fist raised That the squirrel could breathe well, He strived hard one-handed To reach the ground where Leepi looked pale!

"I say come on, Pintu! Come fast, my dear!"

Leepi gave a call,

For she could well feel

Pintu's pain and she was fearful of his fall.

Suddenly the boy uttered aloud: "Leepi! Catch!"

He flung the tiny life

And the untameable undertow

And the rush pulled him below ending all strife!

The people from nearby village rushed to the spot, Searched, from the river-bed The boy's body was rescued And the girl was asked why her friend's dead.

Leepi the little girl wiped her tears and took The squirrel out of a jar, Showed it to all and cried:

"My friend gave his life for this creature!"

THE NEW DIVINE COMEDY

We are the defiled and discarded souls

Here in the second half of this Rejected Realm, The land of Lord's acrid abhorance, The Purgatorio, a domain To make ourselves clean of our impurities  Physically and spiritually.

We were not of God, but of the world:

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes And the pride of life; and we Did not do the will of God.

Our hearts harboured a multitude of evils:

Adulteries, blasphemy, covetousness, deceit, Fornications, lasciviousness, murders, thefts; We looked at the world with evil eyes - Foolishness and wickedness were the contents of our within.

We were arrogant, boastful, conceited and haughty, We were proud and we sang Of delusions of grandeur and vainglorism; We were selfish, we were violent; We were contentious with our perverse mouths.

God placed us in a heavenly state here on this earth But we did neither seek after Him, nor Did we surrender to Him of our own free will.

Too much of all our evils brought us down low And our disastrous pride made Us the frustrated denizens of Inferno, The first half of this detestable and distressed Realm.

And now we are here, tearing our hair

And beating our breasts, in the middle

Of our arduous journey towards the Paradiso.

Here in this Purgatorio

We are to empty the vessels of our breasts Filled with the spirit of vileness And replenish them with the milk of rightiousness; We are to evict the bad tenants of our hearts And get the vacuum filled by the better ones; We are to clean the weeds from the soil of our souls That the seeds of good be grown.

We are here to change our lives

By putting off the old man of sin

And putting on the new man of rightiousness; We are here to pay the penalty of our sin And to make amends for our mistakes.

We are to shed the scales of our wickedness, Impurity and unrightiousness.

We are here to suffer and endure,

We are here to dream to enter the purest Paradiso.

We have to earnestly embrace

Those pious and glad tidings preached

And become humble, meek and lowly -

To be blessed in profuse abundance by the King of kings With His divine regenerating and inspiring influence; We must rid ourselves of peevish pride To be lifted up to the Paradiso By the mighty hand of the mightiest Monarch.

GINKGO BILOBA

I am Ginkgo Biloba the Great

Standing here for over two thousand years Enduring the lash of seasons!

I am the Maidenhair Tree

With this broad angular crown,

Long but somewhat erratic boughs

And these unique fan-shaped leaves.

I am deep-rooted and firm

Capable of sprouting from the embedded buds Near the base of my trunk In response to the disturbances Like soil erosion or the damage in my crown; And these aerial roots mate with the soil To help me live, multistemmed, For s-o v-e-r-y long!

When I was young I was

Slender and tall, ever abhoring

The shades of others on me, but

Adoring the rays of the Sun

To grow into a gigantic tree

To but give all my soothing shade!

I prefer to grow in disturbed milieu

Resisting the malicious might of the wicked wind And the disease and damage from the ignoble insects.

Today I'm here - a silent witness

To many an occurance, good and bad,

For hundreds and hundreds of years -

I am the Dinosaur Tree!

Remember what that explosion caused

In Hiroshima that most fated day?

Though I was charred, I survived

And was soon healthy again

And now, I am here today

Smiling with all my tenacity!