She waited patiently at the end of the long queue in front of the tea garden dispensary. Draped in a faded saree that hung just below her knees, a white bandana covering her oily hair, she carried her child in a sling wrapped around her shoulder. It was the usual hot and stuffy mid-June afternoon in Jabra Tea Estate, a picturesque garden in the foothills of the Himalayas. Jabra in Mirik Block was a hotspot of malaria then and hundreds of tea workers and their families were affected. She looked worried and distracted. The infant had been having high fever for the last three days and was doubtless suffering from malaria. The nurse at the dispensary had asked her to take good care of the baby and feed him some nutritious food instead of the standard tea flowers and rice that they had daily. Taking care of a sick child at home was a luxury for a single mother like her, particularly when she was struggling to attain permanent status as a tea-garden labourer. She was forced to ca...
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...for time and tide waits for no man.....
ReplyDeleteLovely prose befitting a wonderful capture.....
Lovely
ReplyDeleteRunning short of compliments
ReplyDeleteThis is so poignant!
ReplyDeletePoignant poetry set in a beautiful frame...Saumabha
ReplyDeleteSundor lekha, sundor chobi!
ReplyDeleteOh that last stanza ... And the photo ...
ReplyDeleteEconomical on words, touching, Suman
ReplyDeleteSrobona-just lovely the prose and the photograph-too good 👌👌
ReplyDeleteBeautiful..
ReplyDeleteSuperbly well written..
ReplyDeleteLekha r chobi dutoi asadharon ,mon chuye gelo
ReplyDeleteEvery photograph can be interpreted in multiple ways...and i love the way you interpreted this one. Too good
ReplyDeleteDRD . Khub sundor. Simple picture and short poem , yet with a very powerful theme and message. Bhalo laaglo.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely pic 👌👌
ReplyDelete"আমাদের গেছে যে দিন, কিছুই কি নেই বাকি?"
ReplyDeleteহারিয়ে যাওয়া ক্ষণ-মন-ধন খুঁজতে বাঁচতে থাকি!
That's life... searching forever...and then...till oblivion..
ReplyDeleteSharmistha
Chhobi aar kobita dutoi bhishon shundor. Aamader shobar moner kathata khub alpo shobde Andy tule dhoreche. Sayam.
ReplyDelete