Tika Bhai
(Translated from Nepali by Shivam Sharma Kharel)
How quickly the children seem to learn
Mothers they become, fathers they become too
Wrapping tightly in clothes, the make babies out of stones
Holding the babies tight, the mother cooks food
Ratan who has been a father goes to work
Returns back home being drunk
Provokes for fight, at home
The neighbors come and pretend to reconcile
Again on the excuse of not liking the food, Ratan hurls the plate
In the game or toys, the children
In a single day, play half the truth of life
How quickly the children seem to learn!
Bimala by becoming Kusum Miss
Walks with a stick in hand
The rest become students.
“You hopeless! Where is your homework?”
Screaming in this way, she raises the stick
Uttering the elite abuses in English she tries to cow down each of the students
How quickly the children seem to learn.
Ravi always prefers to become a police officer
Sturdy Amar becomes the thief
On being arrested Amar pretends to pay some fictitious paper notes to the police
On receiving the money, Ravi by elegantly rocking his legs
In a filmy style reprimands
‘Amarey! Today though I have spared you but let me not see you in Thana again!’
How quickly the children seem to learn!
Bands after bands, by separating form parties
Carry flags
Raise slogans
Pretend to ambuscade each other
Again pretend to scuffle among each other
The children play
But in the course of playing how close to life do they reach
How quickly the children seem to learn.
The children these days are walking with guns
The children are walking with knives
Making grenades out of the lump of mud
They are playing the game of war.
Echoing all the slogans of ethnic liberation
They are playing the game of oratory
Wearing a wooden Khukuri in the waist, they are taking the training of war
How and where do they see, nobody knows
But how quickly the children seem to learn.
***
[Tika ‘Bhai’ is a poet of eminence from Kalimpong awarded with Yuva Sahitya Akademi Award for his anthology of poems ‘Paitala talatira’. Besides, he’s also a progressive cultural activist.]
[Translator Shivam Sharma Kharel is a post-graduate in Political Science. He has translated a few poems and research articles, published in platforms like Rupantaran a magazine by Nepal Pragya Pratisthan, Publiknama, a web-magazine, The Gorkha Times, The Oxygen Times, Hamro Chahari Magazine etc. ]