Am I still Alive?

Is there anyone there?
Can anyone hear me?
The flesh crawling under my skin
The ears like a dog’s
On the alert
The sense of being stalked….

Early morning coffee
Details of bursting skin
Broken limbs
Human bodies in a bloody pulp
Mothers turned to stone in disbelief
Lovers cursing the day when they fixed up that date
Son at the morgue, “Can you identify your father Mr. Patel?”
“…..yes it’s him…it’s the wedding ring on his finger….”
The gold band didn’t get charred you see….

Local calls, STD, ISD
“Don’t worry, I am still alive!”
Aaj Tak, CNN, BBC-
BREAKING NEWS-serial blasts in city
Government declares red alert.

Same stories, different places, same reasons perhaps?
Bombay, Delhi, Assam….
Or maybe august 15, 1947; December 16,1992; February 27,2002?
Or maybe rewind a bit more in past?

No one hears me when I am being hunted down
No one acts when a genocide tears us apart
A deaf country
A paralytic nation
A generation suffering from amnesia
Forgetting the past
Discarding the trauma
The newspaper crumpled in the dustbin.
Breaking news doesn’t break anyone’s heart anymore.
Living for the future
For the illusion, the mantra of “Don’t worry, everything will be ok.”

I am back on the street
On the alert
Murmuring to myself
“Thank god I am still alive.”