The Poet's Corner - Gitanjali, A Dream Blossomed like a Rainbow Under Heaven's Skies

The Poet’s Corner – Gitanjali, A Dream Blossomed like a Rainbow Under  Heaven’s Skies -

In the 1970’s one of Gitanjali’s works was found by a pedestrian at the Bus Stop  outside Mumbai metropolis’  Churchgate Railway Station -  a crumbled paper of poetry written by Gitanjali and  he got it published in a popular magazine and this also attracted newspaper headlines at that time.

In this afternoon , when dark clouds are sighted as a prelude to the onset of  Monsoon, my thoughts developed wings to dive into a flashback of 1970’s wherein a young dying poetess scribbled the sanctity-of-life doctrine.

“In everyone of us there is a little bit of a dreamer, the poet. We are a composition of all these things and when the feelings lie low and we are caught in sad, heart-breaking situations then somehow, somewhere suddenly a song is born. Just like a rainbow appears after rain. “  –  Gitanjali  Ghei.


Gitanjali Ghei: The girl who conquered death

Gitanjali Ghei was born in Meerut, near Delhi, on June 12, 1961 and spent most of her life in Mumbai, where she received education at the Fort Convent. She was a vivacious girl, with immense sympathy and deep feelings for others. She was also known for her mature thoughts, which earned her the nickname of Chintu Grandma (Little grandma). At the age of 14, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, a fact that everybody tried to conceal from her and her mother. Gitanjali fought with cancer for about two years, an extremely painful battle that devastated her body, and succumbed on August 11, 1977. After her death, several poems and notes written by her were discovered hidden in all kinds of improbable places.  

In the late 1970’s after her death, one of Gitanjali’s works was found by a pedestrian at the Bus Stop outside Chruchgate Railway Station, Mumbai -- a crumbled paper of poetry written by Gitanjali and  he got it published in a popular magazine and this also attracted newspaper headlines at that time. There is no another poet who has written poems between 13  years and 15 years of age.  By seeing death approaching in her painful last two years, she has written her most heart-rending poems.  The touching, gripping and sorrowful poems she wrote sighting death in front of her eyes.  She had expressed her innermost thoughts in these poems, but had concealed them, in order to spare her loved ones of further sorrow and grief.

I AM NAMED

GITANJALI

After the famous book of Tagore

I wish and pray

Oh! Help me God

I so live that...

I live up to the name.

I TRUST YOU STILL DEAR DEAR GOD

I trust you

Still

Oh my dear dear God

Though the sorrows

Keep falling

Like the rain drops.

I trust Thee

Yet

Though You have

Betrayed my trust

And refused me

All that I yearn for.

The Xmas is here

There is music

In the air

I have but

Sweet old memories

Tapered with love and care

Which I now unfold

With great pain and

Much sorrow.

Cry I will never

Weep I will not

I left these stupid

Emotions behind me

For a long time now.

This mighty

Unknown

Sea of Death

Does pass a shudder

Through me I confess

I sway at the thought of it

But dear God

Your nearness holds me

In a grip.

Isn’t it amazing

For I trust you

Still.

AUTUMN                                         

Autumn has arrived…
I can see flame of the forest trees from window of my bedroom.    
Avenue along Navy Nagar is in full-bloom…
gulmohar trees look awesome, road is
scattered with windblown flowers, in various
hues of yellow, orange and the flaming red.
I spot a lone bird perched upon a bough,
twittering…
I wonder if he’s singing a song or grieving
his woes.
- Gitanjali Ghei

Gitanjali lived with her mother who was separated from her father  and always expected that her father will visit her in her dying moments without success.

The yearning of  poetess Gitanjali for her Dad and her death wish  is written large in the below given poetry by her.

The love and cravings for her Dad was so overwhelming she has written many good things about him.

Thus spake Gitanjali  -

In the prime of my youth I had to accept the aloneness as my "birthright", I felt alone despite the fact that I never was left alone. The windows of my eyes and the doors of my soul were always left open. Then came a time, a stage when my inside loneliness ate up the fear of aloneness. I managed to get on top of my hurt. And finally grew up.

 The renaissance mallu poet Vayalar Rama Varma wrote in his poetry  - 

                         “ I will not love the philosophy

                           that does not love the hurt soul”.

(Snehikkayilla jnan novumatmavine snehichidaththoru tathvasastratheyum).

 

 

Farewell My Friends

From - POEMS OF GITANJALI by Gitanjali Ghei

It was beautiful as long as it lasted, the journey of my life, I have no regrets whatsoever, save the pain I'll leave behind.Those dear hearts who love and care, and the heavy with sleep ever moist eyes, the smile in spite of a lump in the throat and the strings pulling at the heart and soul,
The strong arms that held me up when my own strength let me down, each morsel that I was fed with was full of love.
At every turning of my life I came across good friends, friends who stood by me, even when the time raced me by.
Farewell farewell my friends, I smile and bid you goodbye.
No, shed no tears, for I need them not, all I need is your smile, If you feel sad, do think of me, for that's what I'll like, when you live in the hearts of those you love, remember then...... you never die.

This reminds me a song written by Christina Rossetti -

When I am dead, my dearest,
  Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
  Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
  With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
  And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
  I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
  Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
  That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
  And haply may forget.

Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, Anand , India published Gitanjali’s collection of poetry and personal notes   in 1992 with the title  -

The Gitanjali Album, A Teenager's Testament

Ghei, Gitanjali

Gitanjali Ghei’s poems  revealed  her wisdom, strength and grace.

A tribute to Gitanjali -

The light and the flame of the lamp got doused at a tender age, Gitanjali bid farewell to all  of  us.  She will  be remembered with fond memories and remain in our hearts.  She had shown the courage to fight the pain and death. Gone is the skylark singing a song, it flew away into the sky and disappeared behind the rainbow. Gitanjali expects us not to shed tears for her.   Whenever you sight a rainbow, think of Gitanjali the immortal teenage poetess.

I would like to end this blog post with a happy note like a bollywood movie climax.

 

 

A quality of beauty and intensity of emotion regarded as characteristic of poems.

A Winter Rose - A Sonnet

 I walk through the glistening virgin snow

That covers the sorrow of autumn’s death 

Where I find on a bush a frozen rose  

Its beauty held ageless in winter’s breath 

How I long to touch those petals again 

Those moist velvet lips that promise such bliss 

Opened in passion whispering my name 

As I drift in dreams of a breathless kiss 

Oh! To pluck this rose from the winter snow 

And hold it closely to my aching heart

And free it from that ice so bitter cold 

That now my love keeps you and me apart

But if I were to pluck this winter rose 

Would all its petals fall upon the snow?

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold
by William Wordsworth

                                                                                                                      

My heart leaps up when I behold                                                                
   A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
   Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

“I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests”  -    Pablo Neruda

I would like to insert here a Collective Soul lyrics from LYRICSFREAK  -

"Under Heaven's Skies"

Whenever I taste,
Honey from your lips
It's a moment of purpose
Only you can give.

Whatever I hear
Whatever I may see
Whatever my cause dear
I know you'll believe

Cause you're beautiful my love
When I close my eyes
Yeah you're beautiful my love
Under heaven's skies

If ever you think
Is the night
I'll comfort you with silence
Till' the morning light

Wherever you turn
Wherever you may roam
Whatever you conquer
I'll always be your whole

Cause you're beautiful my love
When I close my eyes
Yeah you're beautiful my love
Under heaven's skies

Yeah you guide (drive?) me
Through your skies of harmony
And you let me down
With words of honesty

Yeah you're beautiful
You're beautiful here with me.

Yeah you're beautiful my love
When I close my eyes
Yeah you're beautiful my love
Under heaven's skies

And you're beautiful my love
And you're beautiful my love

“I did not come to solve anything. I came here to sing and for you to sing with me” – The Nobel Prize for Literature  1971 winner  Chilean poet Pablo Neruda

 The life is beautiful and our wishes and dreams will become true, if you have faith in yourself.  The bleak side is only a passing phase and the direction of the wind will change like seasons and you will enjoy life’s beautiful cycle. 

Sweet Dreams and Best Wishes... you’re beautiful my love !