MEMOIRS: THE SOULFUL RECOLLECTION
Friendship and Life
By Payal Roy
Copyright 2012 Payal Roy
Smashwords Edition
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“The power of imagination makes us infinite” ~ John Muir
This work of poetry is dedicated to my dear readers.
As I grew up, over the years, poetry became one of the major guiding lights in my life. I discovered that I could write poems when I was in the seventh grade. During the class of 1993 at junior school, we had a new lesson in the English Literature section, where one of the literary activities was to create a poem on your own.
I went home and sat down to write… and I could feel my thoughts and ideas pouring out in a torrent of words that my pen wrote down on a little sheet of paper. When I looked at the first poem that I created, I was elated.
As I faced the numerous challenges of life, poetry helped me to channel my emotions and feelings into doing constructive activities. They played a major role to keep me motivated and encouraged to take risks, pursue new challenges, explore new places, meet new people and achieve various goals. These emotions, which arose from joy and sorrow, success and failure, anger and peace, enthusiasm and motivation, love and happiness, laughter and tears, and above all, the numerous friendships with their simple and intricate moments in life, let me create a diverse collection of poems.
This work of poetry that I present to you today is a selected collection of forty-one such poems and one article, written amongst many, over a period of nearly eighteen years. You will find that some topics in the poems have been repeated with a different perspective each time. This is because, I wrote such topics at different stages of my life—when I was in junior school, in college, and finally when I entered the professional field. Every time, such topics posed to me new questions about life and friendship and how wonderful, yet mysterious our life is.
The photos presented in this collection have been photographed and contributed by my spouse Dr Nabarun Roy from our travels to a variety of beautiful locations across India and Europe. They helped me to relate and come up with new ideas about the topics for my poems and the article.
The poems, and the article along with the photographs in this collection, attempt to explore and question life’s myriad crossroads, directions, memories of people and chains of events which affect our lives as we do theirs, and most of all, friendship and its bonds created with people who turn from strangers to true friends as life goes on.
I hope you have an enjoyable read as you go through the poems and the article. I wish you all a wonderful, happy and a prosperous life.
My family, my spouse, my school-teachers and my friends, who have adorned my life, have inspired this work of poetry.
I thank my parents and my younger brother Twisham Mukherjee, who encouraged me to write poems since childhood. No matter how much I used to pester them by reading out the poems I created, they had all the time in the world to listen to me and continue to encourage me.
My spouse Nabarun Roy has been my pillar of support as well through both the good and bad times I have been through, which is reflected in my poems. I couldn’t complete this collection without him. Nabarun contributed the wonderful photographs to give meaning and augment the essence of this work of poetry. His photographs also played a significant role as illustrations for this book's cover.
I specially thank my school-teachers Mrs Sandhya Sanyal and Ms Aparna Banerjee, who taught us English in the school— Sri Aurobindo Institue of Education, Salt Lake, Kolkata, India. I discovered my poetic past through their motivation and encouragement during my school years.
My words of gratitude also go to my friends from school and college— Devapriya Banerjee, Aparna Kishore, Namrata Gupta, and Urvita Bavishi who inspired me to create numerous poems during my high school to the college years of graduation and post graduation.
I especially thank Urvita who let me use her name for one of the fictitious characters in a fictional poetic saga. I would like to mention here that some of the works of poetry in this collection are fictitious and any resemblance to actual establishments, locations or persons, living or dead is purely coincidental and unintended.
Pic 1-On the sandy beaches: Folkestone, Kent, England
Pic 2- A Traveller’s Paradise : Tulip Gardens, Keukenhof, Lisse, Netherlands
Lived a beautiful maiden….
In a small, enchanting cottage—
With fruits, ferns and
Flowers ’twas laden;
In dense forests of Tolken,
Beautiful flowers bloom
With a never-ending fragrance…
Throughout spring and summer,
Throughout autumn and winter…
Wildflowers blossom,
They whisper…
In dense forests of Tolken,
By banks of the
Golden falls… lived
The beautiful maiden…
So pure were its waters,
True face of anyone
Was revealed… when he stared—
Into such flowing waters of life…
They brought love—only
In hearts of those who
Had the treasure trove….
Of truth, of purity,
Of honesty, of humility…
This true face—of a mortal
Or a fairy…only she
Could see…’coz she was
“The nature fairy”—blessed
By “powers-that-be”;
The flowers and herbs,
The animals and birds,
She was worshipped by them
In dense forests of Tolken.
They brought her fruits,
The manna of flowers,
Sweet juices of roots…
From the golden falls
She drank—“the mirror”
’Twas named.
Her gown…’twas so beautiful!
Made of silver threads, with
Golden leaves from enchanted trees;
Her gown…’twas so graceful!
Glittering, so sparkling ’twas!
Made by her friends—
The magical fairies, and
Mischievous elves.
She belonged to
The tribe of “Urvinthians”—
“Urvi” was her name, yet
“Nature fairy”—was she
Called—Across
Dense forests of Tolken.
Her hair—shining black it was,
Her eyes—black, so beautiful,
Such depth they had…
Mischievous and joyous,
Caring and alluring,
She was the darling of
One and All,
Across those enchanted
Lands of “Perian”;
Ordained with flowers and leaves,
Which were golden and silvery;
She was the daughter of “ Manavian”,
Her father—mighty
King of the Urvinthians.
She was adorned with
“The Simmareen”—an
Enchanting crown... made
Of herbs, golden brown.
Healing powers of nature
They had, lives of all creatures
Were saved, whether
Good or bad;
’Twas the day of autumn,
The breeze was cool,
The autumn sky so blue….
Wildflowers—so sudden, they
Whispered to Urvi,
The fairy maiden….
“Hide! O beautiful Urvi!
Do hide away!”
“ Hide away in
Your vanishing veil!
For, a mortal is
Coming your way!”
“ Follow the rules of
Our fairy king,
Stay away from mortals,
For, only misery
Do they bring”.
Thus, hid Urvi behind
The golden rocks of
The golden falls….
Her heart beating fast,
Her eyes so curious!
’Twas the first time
In her life,
A mortal stood
Before her eyes…
A lad with a golden crown
On his head….
A gallant sword—’twas
Tied to his waist;
On the banks of “the Mirror”,
Flew down he,
On his “Unicorn”,
For, he was thirsty…and
In search of Urvi—
“The nature fairy”—her
He could not see …
From waters of the Mirror,
Drank he…his touch—
Ripples they created
In those clear waters…
Beside him Urvi stood,
Invisible…at him stared
She in a curious mood…
Into waters of the Mirror
Glanced she…her heart—
It skipped a beat, when
His true face
Was gradually revealed…
The face of a mortal,
So innocent, so engrossing,
His heart—so pure,
So true, so caring…
His eyes—so loving , so
Gentle looked they,
She lost herself…
In their endless depths….
With elegance walked he,
Beside the invisible Urvi;
An exuberance of sophistication,
Of joy and passion…
He loved nature, he
Loved the wildflowers…
In search of true love,
To enchanted forests of Tolken
Was he brought—facing
Many an adversity,
Many a thundershower…
Urvi—forgot she, all
Warnings of the orchids,
And of powers-that-be,
In the vanishing veil
No longer she hid;
As into his eyes—
She glanced…
Yes! She did! And …
Urvi—she fell in love,
For this mortal
Had the treasure trove;
Awestruck—was he,
’Coz he saw
The nature fairy—
Not a myth was she!
Within him burnt the fires
Of passion, of desire,
As he held her close,
Showering his love’s fire;
Were they transcended….
Without their knowledge,
In their hearts—
Love had descended….
The sweet fragrance of
Each, the other could feel,
’Coz both of them were
Bathed by love’s sweet heat…
The sweet breath of trust,
The sweet breath of belief.
The breath of passion and desire,
Of surprise and bliss,
The breath of excitement,
The breath of ecstasy…
In silence flowed their emotions,
With a promise—to
Be together for eternity…
To a standstill came all time,
As they kissed by
Banks of the golden falls;
A “Royal Kiss”— ’twas…
Witnessed by the One and All.
She closed her eyes,
As a cool breeze blew by,
Showered on them were
Petals and leaves,
The “Royal Kiss” of “Prithvi”
On her lips….
Prithvi—the heir to the throne,
The throne of “Ceddran”,
In those enchanting and
Magical lands of Perian….
The rule of the fairy king—
Their wedding—it
Could not prevent;
’Coz their love was true,
’Coz their hearts were pure,
As was revealed to
The One and All,
By those pure waters of
The mirror—the golden falls;
They bade her goodbye, with
Tears in their eyes…which
Fell on soft underbrush,
At her feet—close by,
Like diamonds glittered they,
In those dense forests of Tolken
Where Urvi used to stay…
Her heart—it cried too,
Yet, a feeling so strong
Within her did it come...
To such enchanted forests of Tolken
Would she have to return,
’Coz that’s what her eyes…
All of a sudden had foreseen!
A son she had—
“Vayu”—was he named,
Like wind could he run,
Across the lands of Perian—
Ceddran , Tolken…
She loved her daughter too—
“Udita” was her name,
In faces deprived of hope,
Smile and cheer—her
Presence brought them….
Then, it happened one day,
The kingdom of Ceddran,
’Twas passing through a dark phase…
’Coz in cruel hands
Of “Rahan”—Ceddran’s
Wicked magician,
Lay the fate of natives,
Whom only
Prithvi could save.
Prithvi—the king,
Prithvi—the lion heart,
Prithvi—the valiant
Who had a pure heart…
A fierce battle fought he,
With Rahan across
Green rolling hills;
He was swift,
He was gallant, with
His “sword of justice”,
Vowed he to vanquish Rahan—
So close together,
So in love—
Urvi and Prithvi
Were bonded forever,
Though they were
A thousand miles apart;
Every little pain,
Every little injury,
Inflicted on Prithvi—
Was felt by Urvi.
No more could she endure,