Please Don't Tell My Grandmother

Please Don't Tell My Grandmother

A Poem by Malay Roychoudhury
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A Poem about Sunil Gangopadhyay's refusal to publish my poems. However, after his death his wife invited me to contribute in the same magazine. Her name is Neera.

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Please Don’t Tell My Grandmother
Malay Roychoudhury | Translation: Uttaran Das Gupta


He asked you not to like me,
So why did you, Neera?
Even now, I perform breaststrokes in caterpillar-stuffed north eastern clouds
He didn’t ask me for any poems for 50 years,
So why are you asking now, Neera?
Even now, standing in 10-foot-deep water, I wield icy rods
He wrote an editorial on my sub-judice case,
Turning an editor, why are you asking for my writing, Neera?
Even now, I love flatbreads stuffed with smoked penguin fat
He did not confess to being my anthology’s publisher
Why did you confess, Neera?
Even now, I have family-pack yawns in the face of families,
He didn’t like pronouncing my name
So why are you telling it to youths, Neera?
Even now, in bloody waters, I join the Bollywood chorus of tiger sharks
He had said I have nothing of a true writer
So why do you think I do, Neera?
At Imlitala, I knew rat roasts don’t taste too good without charcoal smoke
He said I have nothing creative in me
So why do you think I do, Neera?
Having burnt bank notes worth Rs 5,000 crore, I smelt death
He said I’ll never write poetry
So why do you think I have, Neera?
On the banks of Amsterdam’s canals I have heard doddering old men sing limericks
He transcended from sorrow to anger and anger to hate
Why are you so generous Neera?
Please don’t tell my grandmother.















© 2020 Malay Roychoudhury


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Added on May 20, 2020
Last Updated on May 20, 2020
Tags: Sunil Gabgopadhyay, Neera, Krittibas, Hungryalist poems, Hungry Generation