Some mornings
I wake up to the
Tap tap tap of footsteps outside,
And the ruffle of newspapers being slid
In front of each door,
But mine.
I shiver
In the stinging awareness
Of the madness lurking around me.
Father Rapes Daughter.
Artist Exiled.
Artist Dies in Exile,
Government Promises to Bring Back Ashes.
Man Kills Wife.
I bury my face
In the arms of the man
Sleeping by my side,
His chest rising and falling-
The Rhythm, reassuring.
My stomach responds
To the appetizing aroma of
Vegetables being baked.
My ears soak in
The music of the cook’s anklets.
I marvel at the beauty
Of the tree outside my window-
Loaded green,
With leaves glowing
In the early morning sun.
Tap tap tap
I think of the people who died at
Auschwitz.
Of the people dying in
Kashmir, Syria, Afghanistan...
People killed at the WTC,
In Mumbai, Gujarat, Orissa,
Sarojini Nagar.
I shut my eyes
And try to go back to sleep,
Into a world unfamiliar with
The rot of dead human flesh,
The wails of stifled ambition,
The helpless cries of life.
I lie with my fists clenched.
I can feel the madness creeping.
Someday, it will call for me, I know.
This madness that feeds on
Human sanity and love.
When that day comes,
I will have to fight for my life.
Until then,
I want to live here, in loving arms,
Indulge in the beauty of spring
And savour the whiff of baked vegetables.
Let the goddamned madness go
Tap tap tap.
*
© Rasagya Kabra, July 14, 2011
This is just beyond words.....!!!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. Sad. And like you said..a little creepy.
ReplyDeleteWhen I wrote it last night, I was unaware of the fresh Mumbai blasts. It was only in the morning that I was told. And something flickered in my throat.
ReplyDeleteWhile our young leaders are busy currying the favor of the avowedly impoverished farmers (who form more than half of the population), the common people who work hard to earn their living and their luxuries are left to the mercy of bombers.
I can no more keep a count of the really fancy cars I see each time I go out; the number of people who fly abroad each summer; the number of women with Louis Vuitton bags at the dentist’s. But the sick thing is that everybody complains when there is talk of removing the subsidy on LPG. The people need to realize that the govt. has only a certain amount of funds to allocate to different uses, including national security.
What the government fails to realize is, that it is precisely this resilient, much bombed lot of people that works hard and pays taxes to subsidize fertilizers, fund NREGS (etc) and provides NSG security that keeps the politicians safe in their white cars, enabling them to come up with more vote bank politics. It is this much overlooked aam janta that keeps the nation going, despite the corruption, the hunger strikes, the insurgencies and the scams.
It is only a matter of time before the reservoir of resilience runs dry and a hysteresis is reached; before the people actually running this country decide to call it quits.