Paper boats are a symbol of the journey through time, for Dr. Sunil, who connects with Tagore. A tribute to the Bard, a special feature, exclusively for Different Truths.

In big black letters, I write my name on them and the name of
the village where I live.
    I hope that someone in some strange land will find them and
know who I am.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

You once floated these boats, Gurudev, and the

 the world found you and the boats – and a whole universe contained therein; they
 loved the inherent melody native to these songs, revitalising like the first showers

 of the rains. The kinetic verbal imagery revives

 the dulled minds and fills them up with divine music. This humid Mumbai

 morning, sitting solitary, in partial lockdown, I hear

 your gentle voice rises up from a distant region

 and swirling mists over the full streams,

 a tone that soothes the fraught nerves – and
 takes me back

 to my far-off village, deserted home, under
 your kind watch, riding

 these paper boats in 2021, pure delight; a transcendental journey that

 connects me again with the native aesthetic spaces

 of my country and the original roots that nourish the body-soul.

Visuals by Different Truths

Dr. Sunil Sharma

A humble word-worshipper: catcher of elusive sounds, meanings and images. Published 27 creative and critical books— joint and solo. A winner of, among others, the Panorama Golden Globe Award-2023, and, Nissim Award for Excellence-2022 for the novel Minotaur. His poems were included in the prestigious UN project: Happiness: The
Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, 2015.
Editor of the monthly Setu journal (English):