Triveni Journal
1927 | 11,233,916 words
Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....
Cool is the shade beneath the mango branches
That the weary and hungry traveller seeks
As he crosses the pitiless plains of the summer,
Dazed by the sunlight, pursued by the heat.
Jatinder Nath Das, faint and delirious,
Dreamed of the fruit and dreamed of the tree,
And asked as he fasted in Lahore’s fortress prison,
A mango, a mango, a mango for me.
Dark with grief was the grove of mangoes,
And pierced with the shrieks of the parakeets,
When Jatinder Nath Das, weakened from fasting,
Died as he lived to serve his ideals.
His brother has never since tasted a mango,
For Kiron still hears that fevered appeal
Of the martyr who fought for the Hindustan Army,
No mango, no mango, no mango for me.
Gold is the flesh, and gold are the juices
That seep from the mangoes, ripened and sweet,
Piled high in flat baskets throughout the long harvest,
Gold pyramids set on rings of green leaves.
Accepting and eating can have the same meaning
For us as rejecting the fruit of the tree
If we act in the name of Jatinder Nath Das
A mango, a mango, a mango for thee.
In the spring the tender young leaves of the mango
Were yellow and pale with a soft rosy sheen.
Now under the glossy stiff leaves of September
The village elders assemble to meet.
Jatinder Nath Das and his comrades are present.
Inseparably one with the people they freed.
We honour all heroes each time we remember,
A mango, a mango, a mango for thee.
*
Jatinder Nath Das, a great patriot and member of the Hindustan Socialist Army and a comrade of a galaxy of martyrs including Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev died in jail in 1929, in Lahore after a hunger strike. Mango was his favourite fruit. In delirium he talked of the mango. His brother out of grief stopped eating mangoes!