Leaflets From My Life - when Books Floated Away In Mumbai Floods - 4 Poem by Geeta Radhakrishna Menon
Leaflets From My Life - when Books Floated Away In Mumbai Floods - 4
If we counted the things
That we lost in the floods,
There would be no end to it.
It did not matter about machines,
Furniture, fridge, furnishings,
Clothes, crockery or computer;
What mattered most were the "Books"
The photos, slides and the videos!
We had a huge collection of books!
All our walls, cupboards were filled with books.
A whole set of German Encyclopedias and novels,
My husband reads, speaks German language fluently;
A large collection of English Literature hard bound books,
Shakespeare's comedies, tragedies and sonnets,
Jane Austin's ‘Pride & Prejudice', ‘Sense & Sensibility',
Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Bronte Sisters' and other classics.
My daughter's favourite books of her childhood,
Johanna Spyri's ‘Heidi', Grimm's Fairy tales,
Lucy Maud Montgomery's ‘Anne of Green Gables'
And Louis M Alcott's ‘Little Woman" and many more!
My bed side table had a collection of five romantic poets --
Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning, Shelley and Keats,
Besides my science and law books, of my college years,
And a stock of books penned by me on dance and music!
Every morning we opened our eyes to these books,
They breathed into us their magical messages,
Alas! The time had come for them to say goodbye!
The books were soaked, soiled, suspended in muddy water,
They just floated, sailed and drifted away in the flowing stream!
As our eyes filled with tears to see the huge collection in shreds,
Our students and friends came rushing in a big group,
To rescue and take us away from this disturbing, shattering sight!
An Autobiographical Poem
This very sad sequel gets 5 Stars full on Top, dear Dr. Geeta, horrible experience this Mumbai Floods anno 2005. Thank you so very much for sharing this very very sad Autobiographical Poem.
Loss of books is more tormenting than anything else. Floods bring with it devastation in its wake. Thanks for this remarkable piece of poetry.
Alas! The time had come for them to say goodbye! The books were soaked, soiled, suspended in muddy water, They just floated, sailed and drifted away in the flowing stream! ----Being a book l; over myself I know how painful it is to see one's treasured collection of books destroyed in flood! !
Felt very tragic reading this poem.Whatever material things lost, books are irreplaceable.Devaststing floods destroyed the priceless collection of books.I can understand your situation as we went through the same situation in 2018 kerala floods.
Ruthless and merciless flood knows nothing about the books and its importance. I feel for you but this loss is repairable with even more electronic books on ipad, kindle etc. Great series from real life story.
Ma'am i can feel it. The pain of loss. My father had been an ardent reader and he had good collections. But then situation was like i cannot carry them anymore and i have to end our journey there. I never wished to be seperated from them but i had no more choice.
A very vivid depiction of the agony you have felt in this tragedy. A wonderful poem so beautifully expressed
How deeply poignant and touching! I could cry a river if this had happened to me. Books shape us. They accompany us most of our time. Always there when we need them. And they have taken away in just a wink of an eye. A nightmare indeed specially if these books are special collections.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/27/2024 4:01:08 PM # 1.0.0.1119
I have become very very sad having read this sequel of the Mumbai Floods from last 26 July 2005. So very imaginable about the books we all love so much, it be the Classic or the Romantic Periods, these books I also treasured, I know that you are a book lover, I am alike