Ballad for an Echo
written by: Banasmita Das
In the hush between heartbeats,
a note trembles—half prayer, half storm.
It is you, Zubeen Da,
singing where the earth forgets its wounds,
where rivers turn their grief into refrain.
Your voice,
a monsoon spilling over sleep,
a dusk-bird calling to the unseen hills,
a firefly in the throat of darkness.
Each chord you touch becomes a wound that heals,
each pause, a hymn to the unsaid.
The abyss you walk is not of despair,
but of depth,
where meaning drowns only to be reborn in melody.
You are the traveller who sings to the void
and hears the void hum back.
Assam listens,
in tea leaves unfurling at dawn,
in the bamboo’s slow ache,
in the river’s restless hum.
They whisper your name
as though it were a lost prayer
returning home in song.
So sing, Zubeen Da, sing
until silence bows before your breath,
until every sorrow finds its tune,
and the sky itself learns
what it means to break
and still be music.
- Ballad for an Echo - November 14, 2025
- Last Autumn - November 28, 2022
