That Single Arm:Traymbak Sapkale

Traymbak Sapkale

That Single Arm

I was looking through a book of pictures

My small son Raja came, looked through them too.

In one picture a rich man

was beating a poor one.

Raja asked, ‘why is that man beating the other?’

Because he is rich.

As I turned the page…

There again was the rich man,

Weapon in his right hand,

About to kill the poor man.

My son looked at this.

He said, ‘father wait a moment.’

He hurried to the table and took out

A razor blade from a drawer.

Once back, he sliced off

The attacker’s arm from the shoulder.

Then looked at me triumphantly.

I said, there are people to help him.

No, they cannot attack him,

For the vision of that single arm

Will remain before them.

Translated by Priya Adarkar