The Story of My Birth
[ As told by my mother ]
-
Manprasad
Subba
I’d already
overstayed, ensconced
In my
young mother’s womb
Utterly
refusing to come out
For
some reasons unknown.
It was
the time when brooks and creeks
With
excessive pride had swollen
While
my poor mother’s abdomen
Had then
so enormously grown.
Paddy-fields
along the riversides
Were
all hopelessly washed away.
And
all the green hills and valleys
Were
bruised brown and grey.
But I
continued to stay in the womb
Defying
the mighty god of time.
May
be the subconscious deep in me
Foresaw
my life to be coated with grime.
When
in this remote corner of earth
The
autumnal breath was first felt,
My
embryo was in its eleventh month
But
still unwilling to leave that state.
One
day I chose a dreamy moment
To go
out on journey of life on earth.
The
poor young couple, my parents,
Tossed
with anxiety awaiting my birth.
As
August gave way to September
My
mother in pangs lay on the floor
To
bring a new life out of her own!
A divine
task she knew not before.
For
three long days and fretful nights
She
had the bouts of gripping pain.
An
old midwife came to see her,
A shaman performed the sapok chomen1
And
as my sudden cry filled the hut
In
chorus with the cock’s first crow,
With
smiles on lips all eyes lit up,
A
drop of sweat fell from her brow
________________________
1. Sapok chomen -- A kind of ritual practiced in the Limbu ethnic group and performed by a shaman-priest for the well being of an expectant woman and the baby in the womb.
