# Notebook

Foot soldier poet

A group of senior citizens who loved Subhas Mukhopadhaya’s lines shared his ideology and remembered the poet at a function in Bhowanipore.

Statesman News Service | Kolkata | July 16, 2019 2:51 pm

Years after his passing away, Subhas Mukhopadhaya is arguably one of the most widely quoted poets in this state. Widely known as “padatik kabi” (foot soldier-poet) some of his lines be it “phul phutuk na phutuk aaj basanta” ( It is spring, no matter whether the flowers have bloomed or not) or “ektu pa chaliye bhai, biplab asche” (make hurry brother, revolution is coming) and many more lines he had penned are quoted till this day even by those who do not go by his political philosophy.

Few mouth his lines follow his ideology of egalitarianism which was an article of his faith. Nor who have named roads and metro stations in his honour espouse it. Such is the irony of fate that he had been shunned by his onetime comrades, while who had nothing to do with his political thinking lionise him. A group of senior citizens who loved his lines and shared his ideology remembered the poet at a function in Bhowanipore last week.