MRINALINI MITRA ‘20

Special to The Denisonian

The truth is riddled within us.

The glittering bodies of the black cascade that covers us in the absence of the day shows us a glimpse of the truth.

We look into the night sky acknowledging our insignificance and thinking that the stars are a reminder of the divinity above us. But they are our siblings; they are a reminder of the divinity within us.

I look for the glimpse of truth amidst the stars tonight and smile. I look ahead, a deserted road awaits me.

In less than seven days I will be like my radiating siblings of the sky. For when I dance, the universe is my stage, and my art is to help my audience share it with me. I am the star.

In my universe my movements are controlled. Yet I find my body running ahead of my consciousness. In my universe when I jump away from gravity I don’t fall; I fly back to the ground.

When I left home, the sun had not come out. When I return home today, a new day would have begun.

I left home saying, “Ma don’t wait for me to come home.” But I know my mother will be waiting for me.

She will not let me share with her the details of my day, but instead she will force me to find sleep.

I hope she likes the flowers I have bought for her.

Tonight more than ever I feel grateful and indebted to her. Anyone could have brought me into the world, but my mother taught me how to live.

My father turned away from me when I gave up his inheritance to devote myself to the truth of my passions and dance. My mother supported me not out of the fear of losing me, but out of her love and devotion to my happiness.

How do you ever repay such a debt?

All the joy that I have been blessed with, I am blessed with because she loves me.

I know tears of joy will blind her when she sees her son dance to “Lento e Largo,” her favourite sound.

I look for the glimpse of truth….

A hundred lights. A frightening hit.

No… No… No… Not now.

Not today.

I try to hold on.

I try to steer away.

But it’s done.

All I can see is the darkness of the night.

All I can feel is half my body buried under unbearable weight.

Ma don’t wait for me to come home.

Mrinalini Mitra ‘20 is a politics, philosophy,  and economics (PPE) major from Lucknow, India.