Saturday, November 8, 2008

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.”

6 comments:

  1. I'm glad that you are responding to political realties in this way.Encapsulates a lot that I have been thinking and worrying about. What a life we are leading!

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  2. I second that. You voice the sentiments we all feel in times like this, Shreya. And nice blog- Keep writing!

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  3. Nice one Shreya....A nice way to respond to the Darkness around us.

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  4. nice to see an update on ur blog...and am glad that u wrote abt it, it's so true that we shove such things aside, content in our little worlds of existence...

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  5. thanks lakshmi..
    sujaan....this one is before 26/11...after mumbai i am sure we can no more be content with the world around us...

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