Two Poems by Dr Shalini Yadav from India

 

i.Reminiscences

I frequently recollect reminiscences

And I recall most things

To each smallest detail

I repeatedly relive those years

Somewhere deep inside my heart

And retrieve them back to my life

Those are easily apprehensible

Which I often pass through

Realization of that phase

Make me feel a bit strange

Mishmash; distress and delight

Initially I feel overjoyed by memories

Soon after I am driven with pain

In the moments of sadness

I wish I could roll back the time

And could take all my sorrows away

But I am familiar with the fact

That both are related with each other

If I take all those sufferings away

My happiness would also be gone

So I usually strive

To accept all memories

Just as they come to me

No matter what they fetch to me

I acknowledge irrefutably

With their perceived omnipresence.

ii.Self

Folks say

‘Self’ is vital for me

And I have become self-centred

Is it so?

Don’t I pay attention?

Am I not dutiful?

Shall I merge myself fully

To cater to sexual aspirations

Or shall I be a machine

To produce kids

If it is so

Yes, I want to retain ‘Self’

At priority

As I am told

I am losing my femininity

Is this the way

To refrain it

Either by producing offspring

Or fulfilling sexual needs

Firstly I am supposed

To be enlightened

However I tried my best

Somehow became emancipated

But again I am kept

In the shackles of patriarchy

To make me submissive

All eyes are on me now

And a hitch in my giddy up

I collect my strength

Not to abide by a decision

With which I might disagree

This makes me more assertive

And I resolve to sustain my ‘Self’

Bionote

Dr Shalini Yadav holds a PhD in Post-colonial Literature and M. Phil in English Language Teaching (ELT) from University of Rajasthan, India. Additionally she has done a course in Advanced Creative Writing from University of Oxford, UK. She has progressive teaching experience of 16 years at University level in India, Libya and Saudi Arabia. She has participated and presented papers in many conferencesand seminars, chaired sessions and delivered lecturesacross the tenure. She has edited and authored various books including Reconnoitring Postcolonial Literature (2022), Emerging Psyche of Women: A Feminist Perspective (2022), On the Wings of Life: Women Writing Womanhood (2021),Postcolonial Transition and Cultural Dialectics (2012),Communication Techniques (2010) and A Text Book of English for Engineers (2008). Besides, she is a freelance writer whose creative writing publications include three poetry books in English Floating Haiku (2015), Kinship With You: A Collection of Poems (2014), Till the End of Her Subsistence: An Anthology of Poems (2013), and one in Hindi language entitledKshitizKe Us Paar(2016).Many of her short stories and poems are published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and anthologies;besides, she is member of various virtual poetry and literary societies. She keeps reading her poems and short stories at various national and international poetry carnivals. She has meticulously written and also reviewed a big number of scholarly research articles for various National and International refereed journals and edited volumes. She is also an efficacious member of the editorial boards of various qualitative journalsincluding World Journal of English Language, Canada, The IAFOR Journal of Literature and Librarianship,International Journal of Languages and Culture, South Africa,International Journal of English Language Education, USA, English Language and Literature Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, Canada, International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, Australian International Academic Centre, Australia, andFrontiers of Education Technology, USA.