Sahitya Akademi

Lesson of LoveAuthor(s): Akhilesh MishraSource: Indian Literature, Vol. 48, No. 2 (220) (March-April 2004), pp. 28-29Published by: Sahitya AkademiStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23341228 .

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Beware!

You cannot hide behind the curtain of ignorance, nor behind the veil of innocence, and escape the fiend of terror.

Remember!

His freedom: quench wanton thirst of innocent blood, of dissent.

Our freedom: the freedom to debate and disagree.

Unless we wake together and take his freedom to kill, one by one, he will get us, one by one!

Lesson of Love

Remember, in an outburst of cloudy passion how earnestly we vowed to share everything

our arms, our hearts, our lips, our thighs our most precious body treasures

effacing for ever the line between yours and mine

our hidden secrets, our breaths, our perspirations, our aspirations, our dreams our nightmares

tearing apart the flimsy gown of time and space cocooning our beings to subsume into the other, into eternal one-ness,

What happened, my love, when we closed our eyes and minds—

inebriated by the passion of love

Semi-torn shirts and gowns, soiled bras and panties scattered here and there—in ubiquitous display of our irreverent love

Our common tooth-brushes, combs and razors

have all ganged up against you and me and

arisen like mountains between you and me.

How terrible! How awesome!

You and I standing before a mountain of soiled moments, an

impermeable wall

now we can't see each other without both shouting and screaming,

deafeningly, maddeningly How can we meet except through wireless, internet

or in dreams, marred by acrimonious nightmares.

My love, what happened to our solemn pledge of eternal, immutable

love,

our passionate whispers into our most intimate ears—

28 / Indian Literature : 220

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A million times, to every hair, every pore of our two bodies-made one.

Why did we shut our eyes, our minds, our senses

And casually forget the lesson of love—

carrying love—like the balancing of a precious crystal doll on your palm

demands eternal vigilance.

Price of love, like price of freedom, is eternal vigilance.

□

Akhilesh Mishra / 29

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