Here is a settlement.
Houses with red-tiled roofs,
planned roads,
gardens and lawns.
It is a laboratory to mold people…
Minds are being forged
in what sort of furnace?
Smiles on faces and poison in hearts,
no harmony between thought and action.
The same old customary drill is on.
Those calculating faces,
somewhat sophisticated,
are going to change their masks and come out
singing the arati of my welcome.
I am satisfied that
I have sown the seeds
But here they have already started the preparations
for the resistance…
I am doubtful:
Will at least one seed sprout?
Bodhi tree…………..
Mina Gajbhiye's Marathi poem 'pimpalvrksa' translated by Shubhangi Apte and Slyvie Martinez with some changes by Eleanor Zelliot.
About this poem, Eleanor Zelliot writes "seems to indicate the touching faith that the seed of Buddhism might possibly overcome the traditionalism and hypocrisy of Hinduism."
Source: Images of women in Maharastrian Literature and Religion. Edited by Anne Feldhaus.