Agnes

4000 miles. Skopje to Kolkata.
10 hours of flying time.
Crossing seas, oceans, fears

To reach Moti Jheel, a pearl lake.
The girls listen, of common ilk.
You teach them – prayer and geography

How distance is measured
In maps, but the longest route is the one
From mind to heart.

You tell them about history
While war rages on outside, altering those maps.
And starving hands turn up everyday

For a bowl of rice, leftovers, anything.
They would call this the Bengal Famine
Years later, when history books get written

When they explore what went wrong –
Many things, wrong policies, colonial might,
But also, a failing of the heart.

On that train to Darjeeling, your uncertain wisdom
Heard the call to step out,
Into the heart of suffering, for another long journey.

Black robes gave way – a blue lined white cotton sari,
Ocean and sea, simple as Gandhi.
This would be your uniform.

Those early days were flash and lightning.
Much to be done.
So many to care for.

Nothing seemed enough – the leprous, scabbed, the hungry
Sick suffering dying
Those lost and never found, outside hospital walls

But there was will, and there was the voice
To will it, make things happen.
You were just a messenger.

Do more. Pick up the sick and the weary
Clothe them, bring them home,
A bed to rest, food to dream one more day.

And it went on, as night turned to day
In weary silence – those who knew,
The voice slowly grew silent.

All dark, the light that shone
in those early days, grew faint.
This was the hardest part.

You moved calmly among shadows,
Listening to the darkness inside,
That earnest tongue now gone.

But the little shuffling steps continued,
Travelling miles of geography,
That once came to our school.

1988 in Guwahati. Outside, kids in line, watching
A frail old woman, softly breathing.
As others arched their toes for a view.

You remained quiet till the end.
After you left, they asked no more.
Those who remember you, feel their shoulders lightened

Knowing someone strode these paths.
Before there were planes, internet, whatsapp texts.
The longest journey is still the one to the human heart.