Creation and Criticism

Dr OP Arora, a well-known poet, novelist and short story writer, has published five volumes of his poems, The Creeping Shadows, Embers in the Ashes, The Edge of the Cliff, Pebbles on the Shore and Whispers in the Wilderness and three novels, A Bite of Paradise, The Silken Traps and Beyond the Mists. He has to his credit two books in Hindi too—one, a novel, and the other, a collection of short stories. He has an excellent academic record and holds a Doctorate in English Literature from Panjab University, Chandigarh. He has taught in Delhi University for nearly four decades. He resides at A-2/B, 183A, Ekta Apartments, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi- 110063; and can also be contacted through email: arora.omp@gmail.com.

1. A Big Question

You took a fancy to her

your life whirred around her

your imagination painted a picture

with all the rainbow colours

your coloured eyes saw the colours

you had always fancied in your girl.

She became your girl—

the best in the world

beautiful, graceful, soulful

loving, caring, sharing

a golden heart

a brilliant mind

a pious, pure soul…

You wove all your dreams around her.

She became your world

your love

your soul-mate.

Sandy castles!

Your world collapsed.

Here you naturally blamed.

Who is to blame?

The ordinary girl

Your heightened imagination?

Your foolish fanciful notion?

The idea of love

borrowed from the best-sellers

or romances traded lavishly by Hindi films?

2. No Way

Heat of passion, one blunder

youthful effusion, you go under

you soon realize the folly, no use

you can pay any price, for the abuse.

Wisdom, stupid talk, only for advice

everybody turns wise after throwing the dice

Whoever has acted wise in his youth

If he acted wise he was never a youth.

When passion grows, it turns you a tool

quest for love, makes you a maniac, a fool

What you see in her, you don’t know

fanciful notion, you caw caw like a crow.

Love, a sweet abstraction, for sexual infatuation

you weave dreams of spiritual incarnation

beauty, grandeur, a make-believe concoction

once the door is opened, flies away the stimulation.

Your urge to switch off the simmering kettle

your heart and mind wage a terrible battle

your conscience and soul, strange calls

commitment, values, as if heavens would fall.

You waste your entire life, no way

Imagination fakes your options to live your way

A victim of your sensitivity, you bear the burden

Only callous and insensitive people have their sway.

3. No Wonder

No wonder

life

sobs in a dark corner

stares at the ceiling

scrawls some questions there

satisfied with her marvellous fare.

Gazes at the ceiling

a long while, musing

her face twitches and twists

slithering, crawling, those questions

prick and pierce like fangs

venom slowly creeps to her soul.

Horrified

she wipes them out.

4. Satan

If God created the universe

who created Satan?

Adam is Satan

I am Satan

Temptation is Satan.

5. Social Matrix

This toddler

innocent suckler

rolling on the sandstone

playing with the pebbles of crushed stone

ignorant of the social matrix

smiling, laughing, crying indulgently.

School and sensibility

tomorrow is like infinity.

He too, like his parents

would build buildings and Malls

so would do his offsprings

without ever having a roof over their heads.

Marvel of social engineering!

They would never fail

hammering in him the guilt of his past karmas

manipulating his soul, inbuilt stigma of a sinner.

He too pays the price

of his faith and ignorance

remorse and hope, he enslaves himself

to their demonic dominance.