A tribute on Teacher’s Day to Shehnaz Hashmi, my teacher, my mentor, my friend… She was also a family friend I had known since childhood.
Kind, Gentle, Angelic Divine…
From the day I woke up to this world,There walked a soul on this Earth,
Kind, gentle, angelic divine…
As an infant I felt her arms
gentle around my cherubic form-
She told me later, she loved my podgy arms.
As a little girl, I saw her smile,
Filtering through her soul in her eyes…
And as a young girl I admired her form
Slim, soulful, floating around…
She taught us English literature in college
Keats, Byron, Shelley, and Coleridge…
And when I was selected to study abroad,
She was the proudest of them all.
When I came back ten years hence,
She had been through life’s turbulence,
But, the smile was still about
Kind, gentle, tinged with pathos.
She had taken to improving the lot
of poor down trodden helpless lot.
I dropped in on her during my morning walks,
About the world with me she talked,
Soon we became real good friends-
One older and wiser of the two
The other, younger and full of sprite.
And when I became a poet of sorts,
She truly encouraged me a lot-
She loved to listen to my sing song
Recite my poems and sing along…
And sometimes, she was moved to tears
When a couplet touched a chord somewhere…
She always had a kind word to say-
Admiring encouraging all the way.
She greeted you always with a smile
I never saw a frown on her face-
(So much so that I thought she was fake!);
It was not that she did not have her travails
But, she always wore a smiling face…
When you took ill, she was the first to come,
With flowers, fruits and a lot of concern,
She cried for you, when you were in pain,
And laughed with you when you were hearty and hale…
She truly felt for those in trouble,
And often for oppressed she took up cudgels.
A true angelic soul was she
Who walked the Earth in this world of greed.
And the day I heard of her sad demise,
Tears of anguish filled up my eyes-
I imagined the pillow on her face,
Her legs writhing struggling to erase
The efforts of those demons crazed…
But she was frail, she had to go-
Cursed be those who crushed this soul!
An angel gone back in Heaven’s fold!
Kind and gentle, angelic, divine-
She was not of this world- so fine!
May her soul rest in peace!
She is now among her kind:
Kind, angelic, soulful divine…
Author: Zoya Zaidi
Aligarh (UP), India
Copyright ©: Zoya Zaidi
Note: Brutally murdered for a hand full of money, by robbers who broke into her house; this poem was written on her first death anniversary for a special commemorative issue, brought out on her by friends and colleagues last year.
Photo: 'Sun peeping through the clouds' by and ©: Zoya Zaidi
Poetry by Zoya Zaidi
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Written on 2007-09-05 at 21:13
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