The Chatterjee boy wedded the Mukherjee girl
How proud they were!
He was a government officer
She was a successful doctor
His parents were landlords
Her family was an awed name in business
They had right reasons to be proud
She said, I’m proud to have you as my husband
He said I am proud to have you as my wife!
They lived in a palace like mansion
With many rooms and every comfort
It attracted the eyes of all passers-by
It awoke envy in the heart of lookers-on
It was a monumental edifice
The Chatterjees were proud to own.
In due time, a son was born to them
In due time a daughter
How proud they were to be the parents
Of such cute children, fair and fairy faced
They gave them fancy names
And called them with doting
petnames
They loved them, hovered over them
Like flies over Bengal sweets
Gave them everything they needed
And what they didn’t need
They pampered and smothered them
With every toy and teddy sold in
the world’s market
and sent them to the best schools
and colleges when the time came
They were proud of their progress
How time flies, they say
The son became a software engineer
And the daughter married a business supername
Soon after her college degree
(She didn’t need to work)
The engineer boy was soon offered
A lucrative opportunity in the US
They had good reasons to be proud
The engineer son sent dollars home
More than their safes could contain
The banks were loaded with the money they owned.
The Chatterjees were proud to be the parents
Of such a successful son.
One fine day, the junior Chatterjee
Came home with a white skinned girl
And declared, “She’s my wife.”
The seniors fell silent but they could do nothing
But accept the day and the damsel fate had brought them
The junior returned to the States
He visited the seniors once again after two years
But since that
precious day
He hasn’t stepped in his mother country
Last Christmas, I visited the senior Chatterjees
I rang the doorbell
A housemaid opened the door and inquired
Rudely, “What do you want?”
I sat with the old couple for an hour
Their eyes were empty of dreams and pride
The father said, “We don’t want the dollars,
We want our son to be with us
We know, our eyes won’t see him again
Without children the house appears a monster
Opening its wide jaws to bite us.
Can you come to meet us often?
And come with your children!”
My children, they are sixty of them!
“Yes, bring them all!” they said.
With smiles wide on their wrinkled face.
Xavier Bage
Sat, 9th January 2016.
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