The Encyclopedia

I read the “The Bangle Sellers”.
Then in the encyclopedia
I read about Sarojini Naidu,
and then I read about her brother
who was part of the Berlin Committee
and who was executed on Stalin’s orders.

And then I read about
Hindu German Conspiracy,
Ghadar Party,
Christmas Day Plot.

And then I read about
Rashbehari Bose and Bagha Jatin -
men who battled in ways known only to men.

Those delicate, bright,
rainbow-tinted circles of light are all shattered
and strewn in the vacant grounds of temple fairs.

What anomaly it is to begin with a poem
and end up poring over revolutions and assassinations
and trials and executions and at last forgetting !