Description
All of a sudden
I felt drawn towards the light.
I flew towards that light.
I felt light like a pollen grain.
I felt light like a pollen grain.
And I flew towards that light.
Moramee Das’s Pollen Grain reminds us that we are travellers in a world that holds the sparkling moon and the blinding eclipse in the same sky. The poems in this collection are, ‘touching moments, sweet nothings, cool midnights, lonely wishes, timeless conversations, unplanned journeys and a dreamy future’. The earthly images in the poems teach us to listen but not seek answers.
— Madhu Raghavendra
The poetry of Moramee Das is not lyrical poetry in the traditional sense. In addition to displaying her own feelings and points of view, her vision is far from self-centered. She sees the world as part of the ultimate wholeness. We are Stardust. ‘For you are dust, and to dust you shall return,’ says the Book of Genesis, but this transformation is only metamorphosis of the body. The poet, in the title poem, resembles herself to a pollen grain, who, since found the light, has been flying towards that light. She is permeated by the love and warmth of a higher power, which is most sensitively manifested in the beauty of nature. So she feels whole, merged with nature. Its warmth envelops, embraces her, fills her with radiance, stillness and calmness; not scorching her like passion that gives her momentary pleasures lashed up by other people would, its ignition and extinction are similar to a candle flame. We are passengers, she emphasises. Our goal is not to fulfill our worldly existence, but the route taken is substantial. Death is just a gate to another world, through which we continue our peregrination. And when we get tired, the incomprehensible characteristics of divine manifestation, the transcendence of mysterious power, the experience of holiness shall help us further.
— Boglarka Debreceni
Moramee Das is from Assam and a double master’s degree-holder in English Literature and History from Guahati University. She also has a diploma in creative writing in English. She is a free verse writer and her poems have been published in national and international magazines. A few of her poems have been translated into Spanish, Hungarian and Azerbaijani languages. Apart from that, she is a Bharatnatyam dancer, a state-level photographer, a taekwondo black belt 2nd Dan holder, a national-level taekwondo, swimming, aquathlon and triathlon player. She made her state proud when she won a bronze medal in the 33rd National Games, Guwahati (2007) in Triathlon. She also participated in the 35th National Games, Kerala in 2015. She was awarded ‘Best Athlete of the Year’ for the year 2008-09 and 2009-10 at the University level, and won the ‘Best Sportswoman of the Year,’ 2016 from North-Eastern Police Academy. She is a certified Basic (2012) and Advanced Adventure Scuba Diver (2014). She did her stint in mountaineering by completing her Basic Mountaineering Course from HMI, Darjeeling in 2014, Advanced Mountaineering Course from JIM, J&K in 2019, and survived the Nepal Earthquake en route to Mt Everest base camp in 2015. In 2017, she represented India in Baku Forum of Young Poetesses in Azerbaijan and was also featured in ICICI Bank in #Fundyourownworth: an initiative to recognise inspirational women. Apart from that she was given the title of Wonder Woman by Mercury Himalayan Explorations Adventures in 2017 and was honoured with Band Baja Samman Season 3 by RED FM 93.5 on account of International Women’s Day in 2018, as a recognition for her achievements in different field. In the year 2020 she became the holder of Guinness World Record for participating in the ‘most photos of people mountaineering uploaded to Facebook in an hour’ on 15 August. Currently, she serves the Assam Police as a Deputy Superintendent of Police, CID Org, Guwahati, Assam.