My Bangla

Sings out every morning

One language

Many songs

Emotions laced,

Tucked, shining

Hiding

In each letter,

In each word.

My Bangla

Was taught to me

By others.

Our Bangla.

We are vast

Our definitions–

Spacious and forgiving.

Our Bangla does not

Discriminate

And

We are almost

Proud of that.

In our Bangla

The word for

Discrimination

Is Bhedābhed

The Internet

Says:

Bhedābhed is a tradition which teaches that the individual self/truth is both different and not different from the impersonal Absolute Truth.

The separated "I"

Is different and

Yet the same

As that which

Encompasses all.

I am one,

But more

Importantly,

We are one.

Our Bangla

Did not teach us

To divide

It taught us

To multiply.

The Bangla word for

"Divide" is also the same

As telling someone

"To get lost."

The Bangla word for

"Multiplication" is the

Same as the Bangla word

For "Virtue."

Which equation

Will we choose then?

To divide

Or to multiply?

How far do we

Have to walk to

Not get lost?

And how far

To reach the virtue

Where the meaning

Of Discrimination

Translates to the

Absence of separation

Undivided,

It multiplies to

Include all?

Iffat Nawaz is a Bangladeshi-American writer based in Pondicherry, India. Her first novel, Shurjo's Clan, was published by Penguin India (Vintage) in 2022, and was shortlisted for the Best First Book Award by Tata Lit Live/Mumbai Literature Festival in 2023.