Keteki’s Song

Amidst chaos and affliction

Disorder and disharmony

Connection and disconnection

Of people and internet wires

Spring offers Keteki*’s song.

Lost synchronisation

Of drums, flute, pepa** and gogona***

Mischievous smiles of Bihu dancers

Take refuge to virtual webs

Reality becomes a myth 

For an unpredictable metamorphosis.

Keteki too feels

Something is not right

She begins to sing

To the tune that every listener

Would plead for more.

None could fathom

Her symphony

Yet her voice heralds 

Hope of survival

In the plagued world

A Re-awakening with a new beginning

Her listeners wonder

Perhaps she sings her best of woes

Un-reminiscing her past songs of mirth

As if she drives humanity

 To the path that leads inwards.

*Keteki is the Assamese name of the common hawk cuckoo.

** pepa is a hornpipe musical instrument.

***gogona is a kind of jaw harp used as a vibrating reed instrument in Assamese Bihu music.