Limericks

I have been writing and creating limericks as far back as I can remember. Initially I coined them to educate and entertain my children and as they grew up, I recited my limericks to other kids. Everyone laughed at them, everyone enjoyed them and finally I started jotting them down. Over the years I lost many of them since my memory faded though few survived those I wrote down. Last year I decided to get my limericks published. The following image is of the book cover that my younger son designed and created. The title reads in phonetic Bengali ‘Hashte Hashte Goragori’ which in English means ‘Rolling in laughter’. The book consists of 52 limericks and I have many more as I continue to write. Since then the book has been received well by many of my friends and their families. I present two of the limericks from the book with images of the original Bengali script so that my Bengali readers can read them in original and an English translation (done by my son) for non Bengali readers. The way I write my limericks, it is very difficult to do literal or exact transliteration keeping the rhyme intact. More than the meaning of the words I like to play with the pronunciation, rhyming alphabets or expressions resulting in a nonsensical parody of everyday life. I hope you enjoy both – the original Bengali (if you can read) and the English translation.

Limerick 1 

 Syrup King

O rasogulla (a popular Indian sweet white in colour, dipped in syrup) let me ask you

            Who gave you this name?

How did you become so fair?

            Where do you live?

You are so soft rasogulla

            Swimming in the syrup

Seeing you our greedy mind

            Goes out of control

With big round eyes you keep staring

            Your tummy full of syrup

To appease someone angry

            I send you as gift

You may go anywhere

            Dipped in jars full of syrup

But never go, even absentminded

            In my maths paper

(In Bengali when someone gets a ‘zero’ in any subject (particularly in mathematics), we say ‘you have got a rasogulla in your paper since rasogulla is always shaped like a round sphere)

One of my friend’s granddaughter recited this poem for her school annual competition and won the first prize.

Limerick 2 

Passing Formula

Why are you crying Dashu? Listen to me

You got zero in maths? So you are gloomy!

            I know of an easy way

            Write it down now as I say

Plateful of rasogulla spread upon banana leave

Dry them up exactly at noon then pack them in sieve

            Sunburnt rasogulla, with Hilsa fish fry

            Stand on your head, legs up – eat it dry

Who can give you zero in maths now, no one will dare

Who can defy my formula; tell me the name of the mare

            Hey, why is your eyes moist again; why don’t you smile?

            You got two in history? That has been news for a while

Stop crying now; listen carefully, I will tell you what to do

Write it down in your diary; don’t reveal what I tell you

            Neem leaves and red soil, and handful of glue

            Mix them well and keep it on the roof beneath sky blue

Slice open tummy of ripe banana and fill it up with lime

Neem leaves and glue mix and a bit of salt worth dime

            Easily will you get eighty or ninety in history

            Seeing such a result we all will smile in glee