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With a kind heart, with a sweet hand You brought a jar full of laddus and love Once, you had fondly asked me to sing At the local Krishna festival I sang using a heavy muffled mike with sweat on my hands For that amateur nervous audition You gave me a pavala – spent carefreely on a fruit snack. Then, your hand still in mine You just left without a word I lost you, lost forever Lost everything in life that is sweet I cried the whole lonely night With the moon as my only soul mate Paler and paler the moon went by every hour I searched for you everywhere Looked in the garden, looked in front of the sacred basil Looked in the prayer room Looked in the face of lotuses Wandered aimlessly from Godavari to Ganges I never saw you again But once when I went in to the abandoned garden I looked at the double rose-colored hibiscus shrub Tenderly planted and nurtured by you That was a few days after you had gone The whole tree was full of rosy blooms There, I saw you as adorned with your brocaded Banarasi silk saree Saw you as though smiling and showering affection Affection on a lad, hardly prepared to face the world In the tumultuous arid life I was lost rudderless for many days, many years I had thought I lost the gifts you gave me… Yet When I see myself in mirror When I hold the soft delicate hibiscus flower And when I sing a Telugu song With correct tune, voice, and precise shade of emotion With all my heart I always feel – you’re with me In deed, you never left me Only I forgot you for a while Lost in the crowded life, in its ‘tapa-traya’. A mother’s debt is never repaid If I ever meet you again In some gardens of Heaven Of departed souls and angels What I would I say unto thee? Will only seek your blessing, your benediction For all the children, orphaned. ( A belated eulogy for a kindred spirit) |