Montage

As The Wind Blows

As The Wind Blows

by Baisali Chatterjee Dutt

You cannot stop the wind.

The wind will find a way to blow.
Over and around mountains.
Across deserts and oceans.
Through the eye of a needle,
along the eye of a storm.
You cannot stop her.

The wind is clever.
She will find that tiny sliver between your windows
and make her way in;
freezing your nose
and curling your toes,
laughing at your ‘cosy inside’.

She is indiscriminate,
playing with your hair
and leaves, alike.
She has no favourites.
She will cool sweaty brows
and fan forest fires
with equal measure.

So what are borders
and check posts to her?
She crosses them with nonchalance,
carrying pollen,
dust
and the ashes of the fallen.

How will you breathe now,
knowing as you do,
that you just might be inhaling,
the charred, invisible remains
of your neighbour,
your once-upon-a-time cousin,
your enemy-most-reviled?
Will you breathe out your hatred
and inhale grace?
Or will you stubbornly hold your breath,
cursing a wind
that knows no boundaries?

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Baisali Chatterjee Dutt

Baisali Chatterjee Dutt is a former columnist and agony aunt for Mother & Baby magazine and contributor to Parent & Baby magazine. She has compiled and edited two volumes for the Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul series, and contributed to ten of their other titles. Her book, “Sharbari Datta: The Design Diva”, is a biography on one of Kolkata’s leading luminaries in the fashion world. Her poetry has been published in various anthologies and magazines, print as well as online.

 

Her other great passion is theatre. She has performed with some of the country’s top English theatre groups such as ART and Theatre Club in Banglaore, Raell Padamsee’s ‘ACE’ productions in Bombay, and of course Kolkata’s ‘The Red Curtain’, ‘Theatrician’ and ‘Spandan’. Currently she is drama teacher at Sri Sri Academy and Course Consultant at The Creative Arts Studio. She has adapted popular literature as well as written original scripts for performance purposes, donning the hat of director for many of these plays as well.

 

For the past two years, she has been co-curating two important events in the city, the Women Writer’s Fest on behalf of Shethepeople.tv and Dramebaazi, a performing arts festival by The Creative Arts studio.

 

Born in New York, schooled in Bangalore, with college in Delhi, Baisali Chatterjee Dutt now lives in Kolkata with her family. She has an MA in French from Jawaharlal Nehru University and when not writing or acting, she’s either busy resisting the siren call of all things chocolate or refereeing the never ending sparring matches between her teen and tween boys.

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