{"id":207216,"date":"2022-04-25T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=207216"},"modified":"2022-03-16T10:10:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T10:10:53","slug":"nights-companion-the-charming-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/04\/nights-companion-the-charming-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Night\u2019s Companion \u2014 The Charming Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh you\u00a0charming moon –\u00a0Chandamama<\/em>
\nYou are a guide when it is night
\nCome over to this dark land
\nLead people from darkness into light<\/p>\n

When people went from one land into another
\nThey travelled\u00a0by boats or ships
\nLooked to you Moon to guide them on their journey
\nThis is how Portugal came to India early 16th century<\/p>\n

They went to several regions, hills
\nSettled down in Goa and Panaji
\nBut found a bigger catch in Brazil
\nTeaching the locals to learn Portuguese<\/p>\n

Other countries \u2014 France looked for a colony in India
\nDidn\u2019t like the place here, except in Pondicherry
\nThen went over to Vietnam and Cambodia
\nStayed there some years before being shown the Gooseberry<\/p>\n

Am I forgetting the biggest of them all \u2014 England
\nThey ruled the waves all over the global list
\nAfrica, India, Australia, New Zealand,
\nAmerica, where they ruled with an iron fist<\/p>\n

Crushing any resistance, they ruled the waves and lands
\nPeople said the sun never sets over the British empire
\nhe moon always shone beautifully in these regions
\nPiercing only as it can, the distance, cloud, square<\/p>\n

In India, the Moon inspires the lovers
\nTo love and sing\u00a0as is the fashion
\nThey break traditional boundaries
\nAnd ask the Moon to witness their passion<\/p>\n

How has the Moon \u2014 the lovely Chandamama<\/em>
\nGuided me and lead me to inspiration
\nIt has helped me to write these few words
\nWill help others look towards it with fond devotion<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Dr Ravi P Bhatia is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, an<\/em> educationist, Gandhian scholar and peace researcher. Retired professor, Delhi University. His new book, <\/em>A Garland of Ideas\u2014Gandhian, Religious, Educational, Environmental was published recently in Delhi.<\/em> ravipbhatia@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh you\u00a0charming moon –\u00a0Chandamama
\nYou are a guide when it is night
\nCome over to this dark land
\nLead people from darkness into light<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":166069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-207216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}