Amarendra Kumar
Amarendra Kumar (b. 1937), a poet and short story writer, was born in a north Bihar village. He did his M.A. in 1959 from Patna University. He was professor of English at R.N. College, Hajipur in the Bihar Univeristy Serivce from 1985 to 1997, and at Dhamar University in the Republic of Yemen from 1997 to 2002. In addition to publication in a number of journals and anthologies, he has four-published books of poems, The Real Episode (1981), Sound and Shell (1986), Stage Dilemma (1988) and Song/Anti-Song (1996) and a collection of short stories Passionate Pilgrim (2006) in addtion to his col- lection of short stories in Hindi KachchaBela (1993).
THE MARTYRS' MEMORIAL
The legendary martyrs of Patna
who sought to break through
the Empire's armoured, bayonet-pronged barricade
for flag-hoisting at the Secretariat
on the historic day of August Eleven
Nineteen Fortytwo Felt the tower top grow moist By the mind's eye...
Receptive clay's yearning
to bear the native flagplant,
to exorcise the choking pernicious
alien spell.
The blazing victory-marchers
of the trampled land
heard only their blood-thunderous charge, intrepid unswerving flagmen's
marching music.
The wide open agitated scene witnessed and fed the tidal swell of the iron will
and the fiery slogans...
Down! Down! Down!
On to the top!
Our own... Own!
Each breaker of the bond of slavery renounced earthly care,
the warm tender ties of household love, the tangled knotty mesh
of trivial concerns...
Each in his paradise
of the taste of freedom
by the taste of his own blood,
seething to flow...
In fury, fear and bafflement
the crown helmet roars:
"Fire!"
A stuttering volley of fire
on the astral set of
the young seven sages
who had marched to fall
to fly
calm and resolute in love's rage.
Riddled flesh
in a stream of blood,
true son's purple element,
golden blood-flag unfurled...
Immortal classic
of the martyrs' art of flag-hoisting..
Erect, bent or fallen
in their act of self-immolation,
the rocky metallic sculptured martyrs
live a a story of love,
true, deep, boundless..
Let's Think and Do
1. Why do we remember the martyrs of August 11, 1942?
2. What was the importance of hoisting the Indian flag?
3. Recreate the scene of the agitating procession in front of the secretariat in a dramatic form.
4. How many people were killed in the police firing?
5. Prepare a report on the freedom fighters of your locality with their photographs.
Posts
