For Nilikesh da, Shot Dead
(He enriched me for life in the two days I met him)

I.
A man lived and a man died
And I can still hear his song:
Melākpānite dubiba sapnāte dikhiba…¹
His voice must be floating now
On the Melakpani river
Stopping at every bend
To tell a tall tale.

II.
The man’s voice on the telephone:
Uddipana, toi kelei uddipanā?²
Yet, he inspired zeal like none else.
To him and those around, all else was
Because he deemed just so.

III.
Sahariā suāli, toi ki bujibi?³
True, big politics lives in small border towns
Where administrative expediency sunders lives
Barters souls vends death
Transplants land to paper from earth while
City dwellers complain of value erosion.

IV.
Nilikesh da⁴,
Self-crowned swargadeo⁵ of an independent dreamland
Foul-mouthed rum-drinking stealer of hearts
Doer of deeds weaver of tales leader of men
Killed because he happened to be.

***

[Nilikesh Gogoi was shot dead by Indian Central Industrial Security Force personnel on 23 January 2007 in Geleky, a town on the Assam-Nagaland border. In a highly militarized and insurgency prone frontier zone like the northeast of India – of which Assam and Nagaland are a part – such incidents keep recurring to remind one how cheaply are the lives of precious people like Nilikesh da dispensed of.]

¹ “I’ll drown in Melakpani, you’ll see me in your dreams”. Folk song in Nagamese, a creolized version of Assamese, used as link language between the Assam valley and the Naga hills of Nagaland. Both Assam and Nagaland are states in India’s northeast frontier.

²“Uddipana, why are you uddipana?” Uddipana means inspiration/enthusiasm.

³“City girl, what will you understand?”

⁴A term for addressing elders in Assamese.

⁵King of the Ahom dynasty which ruled over Assam for nearly six centuries.