5 verses · ~2 min
तुम कहते हो - मुझको इसका रोना नहीं सुहाता है | मैं कहती हूँ - इस रोने से अनुपम सुख छा जाता है || सच कहती हूँ, इस रोने की छवि को जरा निहारोगे | बड़ी-बड़ी आँसू की बूँदों पर मुक्तावली वारोगे || 1 ||
ये नन्हे से होंठ और यह लम्बी-सी सिसकी देखो | यह छोटा सा गला और यह गहरी-सी हिचकी देखो || कैसी करुणा-जनक दृष्टि है, हृदय उमड़ कर आया है | छिपे हुए आत्मीय भाव को यह उभार कर लाया है || 2 ||
हँसी बाहरी, चहल-पहल को ही बहुधा दरसाती है | पर रोने में अंतर तम तक की हलचल मच जाती है || जिससे सोई हुई आत्मा जागती है, अकुलाती है | छुटे हुए किसी साथी को अपने पास बुलाती है || 3 ||
मैं सुनती हूँ कोई मेरा मुझको अहा! बुलाता है | जिसकी करुणापूर्ण चीख से मेरा केवल नाता है || मेरे ऊपर वह निर्भर है खाने, पीने, सोने में | जीवन की प्रत्येक क्रिया में, हँसने में ज्यों रोने में || 4 ||
मैं हूँ उसकी प्रकृति संगिनी उसकी जन्म-प्रदाता हूँ | वह मेरी प्यारी बिटिया है मैं ही उसकी प्यारी माता हूँ || तुमको सुन कर चिढ़ आती है मुझ को होता है अभिमान | जैसे भक्तों की पुकार सुन गर्वित होते हैं भगवान || 5 ||
इति
The Poet
सुभद्राकुमारी चौहान
Subhadra Kumari Chauhan
1904 · 1948
There is a moment in every liberation movement when the struggle finds the poem that becomes its most essential utterance, not because the poem is merely rhetorical, but because it crystallizes an emotion so precisely that an entire people recognize themselves inside it. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan provided such a moment with Jhansi Ki Rani, her electric account of the warrior queen of Jhansi. This poem was so concentrated in its energy and so clear in its moral architecture that generations of Indian schoolchildren have carried it inside them as something closer to memory than memorization. But to reduce Chauhan to a single poem would be a severe literary injustice. She was an active participant in the independence movement who walked the path of satyagraha herself, becoming one of the first women to be imprisoned for civil disobedience. She was a poet of domestic tenderness, exploring childhood and the complex inner life of Indian women that formal literature had largely chosen to ignore. Born in 1904, she died in a road accident in 1948 too soon and too abruptly. Her voice remained fully alive and deeply necessary. She gave the warrior women of Indian mythology a voice, and in doing so, she became one herself.
Paired Painting
Madonna and Child
In this transcendent work, Jamini Roy bridges the spiritual divide between East and West by reimagining the Christian motif of the Madonna and Child through the rhythmic, folk aesthetics of Bengal. Influenced by the Kalighat painting tradition, Roy moved away from the academic training of his youth to embrace the bold, sweeping lines and flat, earthen colors of village artisans. He transforms the holy figures into archetypal images of maternal devotion, capturing a universal love that feels both ancient and deeply intimate. The sacred intimacy between mother and child is expressed through stylized features, almond shaped eyes, and a profound stillness that invites the viewer to reflect upon the sanctity of human connection.
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