What would become of languages
Once their speakers migrate afar,
Embracing new tongues in foreign lands,
Abandoning their mother tongue
Like a sign of backwardness?

Countless living languages erased,
By recurring exoduses, lost in time.

In those forgotten languages, perchance,
Lay the most exquisite verses of poetry,
Unheard literary genres, waiting to be explored.
In those forgotten languages, perhaps,
Reside the tenderest words of marital bliss,
Whispered between lovers upon waking from siestas.

It might be possible that our writings are lacking!
Due to the disappearance of those languages,
The graph of creativity may have been truncated,
Leaving us to wander through barren plains of creativity,
Merely scaling small hills,
While the engraved marks on an inscription
Represent the neglected peak of poetry.

Perhaps one of the extinct languages
Has endured as a secret tongue,
Employed by soldiers
To transmit coded messages.

It's possible that among the extinct languages,
One has survived as a covert means of speech,
Adopted by soldiers
For conveying encoded messages.

Before departing for war,
The soldiers may sing a song in that language
To their loved ones without revealing its meaning
(Due to military secrecy),
Which their partners interpret as
Some cryptic and mysterious language
And admire it for just for its charm.

Yet like the story of Amlan flower
The melodies of the extinct language linger,
Imprinting themselves upon their lover’s soul.

Thus, an extinct language transforms into romantic riddles,
Unrestrained by the army's grasp,
Resonating like crashing waves,
Within the hearts of lovers and wives.


*Amlaan Pushpa was a picture story published in 'Rajasthan Patrika'. In this story, the young women carry a flower with themselves when her husband go out for war. Its freshness means her husband is alive and faithful to her.