Once when we were taking a stroll,
I asked you all on a sudden,
“How long do you wish to live”?
You didn’t respond,
I felt very uncomfortable.
You could say something like
“I want to live long
or a long life is meaningless.”
But you didn’t respond.
A few days later in the early morning
you leapt up into wakefulness
and said you had a bad dream.
But you didn’t say anything about this
and you seemed too tensed.
Then you went to a distant country
and made two or three calls to me.
Every time your voice was feeble-
anxiety gripped on my heart.
One day when the night was dead,
there was a sharp ringing tone;
I grabbed the receiver with all anxiety,
but it was not your voice.
It was different and cold
The message I received was --
You have been to a more distant land.
There is a wild forest,
where wonderful flowers are in bloom,
where the deer frolic around.
The sea and the bluish mountains are there,
countless colourful birds wing around.
Everything you love is there in abundance.
When you’ll come back is uncertain.
Since then I have been waiting,
and trying to read the chapter,
that is like a checkered shade.
You are by nature reticent,
but not this much.
This distance is far too great;
there is no arrangement for
making long distance calls.
Ahaduzzaman Mohammad Ali is a former Professor of Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka.
