THE FOLLOWING POEM BY ILINA SINHA FROM ASSAM WON THE FIRST PRIZE IN WINGWORD POETRY PRIZE 2024- SUMMER CYCLE.
Dear Baba,
I remember learning colours.
Drew crayons on the spotless wall-
a curly-haired little brother, a six-year-old me,
Ima and you - my father.
‘Oh no!’
You put your hands on your waist.
Then smiled at my curious eyes and said
‘Come, Picaso, lets draw a tree ?’
Baba, I think of the ocean
when I think of you -
vast, limitless and unfathomable love.
It was summer and a two-storeyed-suburb apartment.
An empty roof, a starry sky.
Constellations perched on a vast nothingness.
Here, you and Ima planted this little family tree
on a foreign land -
one life meeting another forming a
beautiful constellation.
One night, you shined a torch-beam at Orion,
saying: ‘Bana, the greatest distance
can only be fathomed with light’.
Often, people in family portraits disappear
like baby teeth seeking stable grounds.
But, to live, one needs to belong.
I am 25 now.
Shy dreams tip toe around.
It’s a blue office cubicle.
A mundane Monday morning
amidst keyboards clicking,
eyelashes constantly blinking at the brightest screen.
Miles apart , you, my father, my universe,
now shrinking into wrinkles
and loosened trousers.
I think of the ocean when I think of you.
Sometimes, you sound like footsteps leaving.
Some nights, I curl on my bed in a question mark –
Why this helpless vacuum?
Like foggy memories of Alzheimer-
the two storey-ed apartment,
crayons on the wall
the stern look in your gaze,
the soft smile in your eyes
There are certain distances
one cannot travel back to
on feet, by flight or by words.
It’s a quiet tonight, I wish you were here.
It’s a flicker, this togetherness.
Let it be.
ABOUT THE POET:
Ilina Sinha is the first prize winner of the 2024 Wingword Poetry Prize (summer cycle) for her poem ‘Dear Baba’, receiving a cash prize of INR 50,000 and a book publication deal. She writes in English and Bishnupriya Manipuri (a language recognised by UNESCO as endangered). Most recently, she delivered a talk on endangered languages at TED IITG and represented the language on World Mother Tongue Day 2022 courtesy an invitation from Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.
At present, she is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Guwahati. Prior to this, she worked as an Assistant Professor at Girijananda Chowdhury University, Assam and in the industry as an Artificial Intelligence Engineer at IQVIA, India.
A PhD student by the day and a poet in the stillness of midnight, she identifies herself as a perpetual student in the class of poetry and a devoted admirer of all forms of arts and creativity.