Mulk Raj Anand Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Have I read you, you and your mind, the novels you have,
A few of them
And can feel about your horizon and dimension,
Inner spectrum at work,
Western reasoning that you got abroad,
Socialism that you got schooled in

But say you to me,
Who had it been your first love,
Whom did you choose and marry,
Who, who was that European girl, the English girl
And what the bone of contention?

You met the actress Kathleen van Gelder
In England and married too in 1938
And had a daughter
Whom you left out too finally
After opting for Shireen Vajibdar
Who lived unto the last.

Your Marxism mixed with not, but your personal life
Interests me,
Your untold love story and the causes of difference
Which but sidelined you
And I do not know it
If you were yourself trouble-bringing
In your Hamletian domestic life or is it something different.

Anand, your write-ups pointing to the bad condition
Of the have-nots, underdogs,
The downtrodden and proletarian masses
And you a novelist of those
Want I not to hear now
Rather than looking into your personal life and relationships.

You say about them, say something about Kathleen van Gelder
And your Shireen Vajibdar,
Your children
And your relationships with them
And these I want to hear from you.