Mulk Raj Anand

Have I read you, you and your mind, the novels you have, A few of them And can feel about your horizon and dimension, Inner spectrum at work, Western reasoning that you got abroad, Socialism that you got schooled in But say you to me, Who had it been your first love, Whom did you choose and marry, Who, who was that European girl, the English girl And what the bone of contention? You met the actress Kathleen van Gelder In England and married too in 1938 And had a daughter Whom you left out too finally After opting for Shireen Vajibdar Who lived unto the last. Your Marxism mixed with not, but your personal life Interests me, Your untold love story and the causes of difference Which but sidelined you And I do not know it If you were yourself trouble-bringing In your Hamletian domestic life or is it something different. Anand, your write-ups pointing to the bad condition Of the have-nots, underdogs, The downtrodden and proletarian masses And you a novelist of those Want I not to hear now Rather than looking into your personal life and relationships. You say about them, say something about Kathleen van Gelder And your Shireen Vajibdar, Your children And your relationships with them And these I want to hear from you.