Attention fellow humans!
We are all caught between that place
You know
The one in between being safe and sorry
The question is :-
do
we really want to be there?
Or has it been drilled in our heads through
millennias
to
just be so?
IS that safety blanket really that cozy?
That we refuse to wake up from our
catatonic states
And see what is happening around us?
Orange headed and clad leaders
Destroying democracy
And we don’t care because it doesn’t really
concern us.
My house isn’t seized
My family isn’t separated
I don’t feel the heat of this so called
fascist force
Yet.
Just keep snacking on the comfort of your
perfect life
Till it all keeps crashing down
Kashmir just got bifurcated
Against the will of its people.
For us it is just a piece of land
To jizz jingoistically about
And shout bharat mata ki jai
Would you like you state being broken
Without your elected leaders having a say?
Oh it hasn’t come down to that surely
Yet.
That seems to one helluva comforter
Where can I order the same?
Written for PU's midweek motif "safety"
You can read on the Kashmir 370 issue here among other places
Samyukta, as a student of law, what is your opinion regarding the method employed by the government implementing UT?
ReplyDeletecopy pasting my fb status
DeleteOkay I have read a bit on Art 370. I don’t believe the president can have unfettered powers to abrogate the provision. It is against the spirit of democracy. An assembly of similar sorts must be formed to make the decision especially when the word ‘necessary’ has been used.
(ii) Also by the agreement of 1975 the plebiscite seems to have been forsaken for the special status. This is clearly going to create a volatile situation.
Feel like the centre doesn’t really care about the people of Kashmir or due process and just want to fan their core base for votes.
I wrote a poem I havent posted yet this morning in much the same vein. Maybe when North America is underwater people will wake up. Too bd we cant do it in time to avert disaster. I so resonate with your poem, I feel the same way. I have always been an optimist. But I am very discouraged now. The apathy is as hard to bear as the outrage.
ReplyDeleteWe are like dodos putting our heads in sand
DeleteI am just trying to think where the spirit of democracy still exists completely. Certainly not the UK, Australia or US and there may be other western so called western democracies which fall into this category also.
ReplyDeleteCanada?
DeleteKashmir is a lesson--I hope one that doesn't get worse before it gets better. More care than don't, I think, but do not know where to stand to block the state actions. What if a miracle happened that made all of us stand up at the same time and place? Democracy requires the consent of its people, but may need a lot of dangerous unpaid protest before it works.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot who think of in terms of land and pride rather than of its people. That's the problem I think
DeleteI wound up posting a slightly less fraught poem than the first one I wrote to this prompt. Didnt want to make everyone suicidal, lol. I really admire how you wrote this poem - format, tone , content and imagery. All wonderfully done!
ReplyDeleteThank you Sherry :) Really appreciate the double comment.
DeleteWonderful truth be spoken of a harsh reality and you are right we should wake up, stand up Like your sarcastic last lines "That seems to one helluva comforter
ReplyDeleteWhere can I order the same?
Thanks :) sarcasm is my middle name :P
DeleteSadly humans love to hate someone else. We find it so difficult to accept we are all different but throw in religion, colour, race or how you eat your food and that might be a good reason for not trusting someone and not being friends. Humanity is a faulty mammal experiment and the trial may be over soon!
ReplyDeleteVery true. What is this innate need to want everyone to be the same way as us? That is so boring.
DeleteThis is heartwrenching and powerful!!
ReplyDeleteThanks sanaa!
Delete"Yet" is a chilling word taken in this context. I worry about the future of our country (the US) and can't believe what is happening. I wonder if this is how Germans felt in the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteI wonder too
Delete