10 verses · ~2 min
अभी अभी थी धूप, बरसने लगा कहाँ से यह पानी किसने फोड़ घड़े बादल के की है इतनी शैतानी।
सूरज ने क्यों बंद कर लिया अपने घर का दरवाजा़ उसकी माँ ने भी क्या उसको बुला लिया कहकर आजा।
ज़ोर-ज़ोर से गरज रहे हैं बादल हैं किसके काका किसको डाँट रहे हैं, किसने कहना नहीं सुना माँ का।
बिजली के आँगन में अम्माँ चलती है कितनी तलवार कैसी चमक रही है फिर भी क्यों खाली जाते हैं वार।
क्या अब तक तलवार चलाना माँ वे सीख नहीं पाए इसीलिए क्या आज सीखने आसमान पर हैं आए।
एक बार भी माँ यदि मुझको बिजली के घर जाने दो उसके बच्चों को तलवार चलाना सिखला आने दो।
खुश होकर तब बिजली देगी मुझे चमकती सी तलवार तब माँ कर न कोई सकेगा अपने ऊपर अत्याचार।
पुलिसमैन अपने काका को फिर न पकड़ने आएँगे देखेंगे तलवार दूर से ही वे सब डर जाएँगे।
अगर चाहती हो माँ काका जाएँ अब न जेलखाना तो फिर बिजली के घर मुझको तुम जल्दी से पहुँचाना।
काका जेल न जाएँगे अब तूझे मँगा दूँगी तलवार पर बिजली के घर जाने का अब मत करना कभी विचार।
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
Janmastami celebrating the birth of Krishna
This profound work captures one of the most sacred moments in Hindu mythology, the clandestine crossing of Vasudeva carrying the newborn divine infant Krishna across the swollen Yamuna River. Amidst a turbulent storm lit by jagged streaks of lightning, Vasudeva shelters the luminous child under a protective crimson mantle, safeguarding the future savior of the cosmos from the tyrannical wrath of Kansa. The jackal at the riverbank adds a traditional motif of an auspicious omen guiding the way, while divine light breaks through the heavy rain clouds to illuminate the holy infant. Created by the pioneering Calcutta Art Studio, this lithograph reflects the democratization of Indian sacred imagery, allowing households to welcome the divine narrative directly into their domestic shrines with immense reverence and emotional devotion.
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