shreds

a roaring sound
you can still hear
in the eerie silence even now
I am scared of a simple jolt
my dignity lost in the debris
mother, may I hide in your womb again?
(my life as simple as before I was born)
build me a new world
a bold world
where I can walk without an urgent need to escape
mother, please tell our leaders
to cut out the theatrics 
scrape the old laws
protect us from their evil designs

"but if they do that , how would their pockets get filled?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a bomb blast outside the high court in New Delhi on 7th Sep, 2011, killing 13 people, injuring more than 60. Our government is totally useless and we are left to fend for ourselves.You can deduce the apathy of the Govt from knowing that a similar blast took place on 25th May, 2011 at the same place, and political leaders saying these blast are normal!! Do the power that are care? I don't think so...

My poem pours out from there, raw, unedited.......an anguish that can't be explained.....

keep it burning, keep it alive

this time I will keep it burning within my soul
whatever is left of it,
I will not let the balance of my thoughts tilt
forgetting and moving on is not what I need, we need.
anger is being kept alive with calculated move and resolve
human spirit, what of it?
it lost its meaning giving way to numbness
I will not let you, the powers that are, to dictate me
like the way you always did, always do
calmness that you see now hides a volcano
invisible to you as yet.
when it hits you, you won't know where to run
I will not let my mind wander
I will not wash the blood
I will not brush anything aside
I will keep it right in front
to look each day to remind me, they are gone
to remember, to keep all those who lost their innocent lives
and I am alive by sheer chance or timing or place
colour of the blood, no matter from where, is always red

time that you- our esteemed, so called worthy leaders-
shed yours to save us, who make you come into power
remember, we can kick you out too, similarly

I have not been online for the past one week. Two days my server was down. Then the Mumbai attacks happened. That has deeply saddened me. It was more of a war than a terrorist attack. For three days, our lives were on hold and spent in front of the television. It hardly mattered that I live in Delhi. Around 200 lives were lost, inluding our commandos. Has it ended? No. As long India has a soft approach towards terrorists, it is not going to change. The power that are, bicker amongst themselves, putting the blame on each other. Our intelligence failed. Need I say more? My heart is kind of dead.

How do we recover from it? I have no clue....

Writing/Reading does not give me any pleasure any more...


Yes, I thank you all for your love, concern and prayers via comments, emails and smses...

Mumbai attacks

Will it ever end?

I am too distraught to write anything right now.....

undead for eternity

a whole human-being becomes a mass of flesh scattered in all directions
a family man who was laughing with his children a while back
what became of those kids, they are nowhere to be seen
dead to the world is a much mis-used phrase
faceless terrorist is the one who is undead.
no reason to kill those who have had no connection with him
is the only motivation for him
addiction of killing will one day lead him to kill his own,
those who are bound by hatred for all humanity,
seeds of which have been planted by no one knows whom.
search, seek, look out at each nook and every corner,
no one found it neither will you

redeeming the unsoul is a mighty task impossible even to contemplate
hope he stays undead for eternity with the images of the destruction
forever embedded in his mind re-playing each moment
a whole human-being becomes a mass of flesh scattered in all directions

*Update (15/09/2008): Read Annamari's post too, along with this...

I suppose you need caffeine to read through this

I am reposting this from my other blog, Reading Room after editing it a little. I thought it needs wider audience. Those of you who have read it already, please do feel free to comment again or ignore. For all others, do take a little pause and read through this. And do click through the icon to get other insights, if you so desire. Now brew a strong coffee, drink it along while you read this:



Do real-world catastrophes such as 9/11 (and the bombs in Madrid, and the ones in London, and the war in Darfur, and … really, all the human-driven, mass loss-of-life events) affect what you choose to read?

India is not new to terrorists or terrorism. We have had it in the Kashmir region for more than three decades. We have cried hoarse about it to the world at large but no one listened to us. Only after 9/11 happened, US woke up to the fact that it was very real and they were also a part of it in the larger view of things. They are not as invincible as they had presumed. I wouldn't like to dwell on the political stance about US for the middle east. That is not relevant to this topic.What is relevant here is, how can anyone kill innocent people? That is hard to understand. But then terrorists have no feelings or sentiments. For them we are faceless and nothing can come between their brain-washed beliefs. At one point or other, powerful countries (I don't think I need to name those here) have created terrorists to counteract terrorism. And it has only backfired on them. Have we really learnt any lessons from all this? The state that the world is in, apparently not.

For me terrorism is very real. It is there at every corner. Especially for those who live in Delhi, if one forgets Kashmir, which we can't. Twice I have been in the vicinity of terror attacks, only saved by God knows how. For the last thirty years or so, we have terrorists killing people in the Kashmir region. Every day. And bomb blasts elsewhere are not uncommon. Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Varanasi, Hyderabad are just a few places I mention here, which have been affected by terrorism and blasts. Recent ones took place in Ahmedabad which left 50+ dead. We cannot move anywhere without security check up. All this does take a toll.

And now taking on reading. I can read about terrorists, I can even watch movies too. (However, if something like this happens, I go off reading completely for a while. Any kind of reading). Nonetheless, I think all of us need to read about terror attacks, terrorists and terrorism. If only to understand the whys and hows of it. Trying to escape the reality of it is not going to let it go. I wish to understand how a terrorists' mind works, even though I can't do a thing about it. Because I can't get over all those people who are dead for no reason at all. Terrorists simply do not need any reason to kill. They just do it. Cliches simply do not work here. Religion, faith has no meaning when one is left dead and/or maimed, in body, mind or spirit.

And in the midst of it all, please do remember that the world is much beyond US and has faced terrorism much before 9/11.

Has you coffee gone cold? Or do you need another hot mug of it?

@Update[13 Sep, 2008--7:35 pm]: There have been five bomb blasts in Delhi today, in those places which are kind of crowded in weekends. There have been casualities but not confirmed how many..