{"id":1219,"date":"2016-12-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/when-i-carried-her-across-the-river\/"},"modified":"2016-12-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-30T00:00:00","slug":"when-i-carried-her-across-the-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/when-i-carried-her-across-the-river\/","title":{"rendered":"When I Carried Her Across the River"},"content":{"rendered":"

She was waiting for me at Safakadal ghat,<\/em><\/p>\n

Bundled like a large jute bag,<\/p>\n

Sitting at stone-steps –<\/p>\n

Sullen and sad.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was wrought-up \u2013<\/p>\n

Guilty over my lateness,<\/p>\n

Apprehensive of the society –<\/p>\n

Unprepared for the mission.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our eyes met in fearful frenzy,<\/p>\n

Hands stretched but recoiled back –<\/p>\n

As touch was taboo,<\/p>\n

She got up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I accepted the first shikara<\/em>,<\/p>\n

Slowly guiding her to seat,<\/p>\n

After feigned disinterest<\/p>\n

I sat with her.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The boat undocked itself<\/p>\n

And half-circled to move away.<\/p>\n

Our destination was Habbakadal –<\/p>\n

Her in-laws.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When I found ourselves<\/p>\n

Distant from the surroundings,<\/p>\n

I looked at her face –<\/p>\n

She was wet and sobbing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to console her<\/p>\n

Was the challenge –<\/p>\n

But I had to try –<\/p>\n

I spun into thoughts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Finally I asked her<\/p>\n

If she could tell me her anguish,<\/p>\n

She stared hard<\/p>\n

And the sobbing increased.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I recoiled to my struggle,<\/p>\n

Going over the bits I knew –<\/p>\n

She had suffered for her principles,<\/p>\n

But was defiant.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How do you empathize<\/p>\n

When there is no resonance,<\/p>\n

How do you heal<\/p>\n

When the wound is self-inflicted?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The boat kept on moving,<\/p>\n

The scenery kept on changing,<\/p>\n

Jehlum was smooth,<\/p>\n

The sunshine was upbeat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The tears on her face<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t stop,<\/p>\n

Her sorrow remained unraveled,<\/p>\n

Our journey was coming to an end.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Boat docked,<\/p>\n

And I defying custom,<\/p>\n

Lifted her by hand –<\/p>\n

Brought her to ghat.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I escorted her to in-laws,<\/p>\n

She entered the gate abruptly,<\/p>\n

Without a goodbye –<\/p>\n

I froze to the ground.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was able to take the same boat back,<\/p>\n

The river was mourning,<\/p>\n

Dark clouds were gathering in the sky,<\/p>\n

Splashing waters echoed a doleful tune.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Suffern, New York, December 30, 2016<\/p>\n

www.kaulscorner.com<\/a><\/p>\n

maharaj.kaul@yahoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Safakadal, Habbakadal: Bridges and their surrounding localities in Srinagar, Kashmir, India.<\/li>\n
  2. Ghat: <\/em>Waterfront<\/li>\n
  3. Shikara: Small, hand-propelled boat.<\/li>\n
  4. Jehlum: The main river running through Srinagar.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    She was waiting for me at Safakadal ghat, Bundled like a large jute bag, Sitting at stone-steps – Sullen and sad.   I was wrought-up \u2013 Guilty over my lateness,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-poems"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stagingserver3.com\/Maharaj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}