Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Indian Bakery


By Gaurav Parab




Eleven young souls in some place better
Words flow down as eyes get wetter
Details of bombs, numbers or some other
The residue always has a clueless mother

Clueless, for it’s unfair in times of opportunity
Some gone, some left with strange immunity
Immunity to what does not affect us
Someone else’s bakery, someone else’s bus.

On the bus, we did talk about the bombs
Solar systems and political storms
The good leaders condemned the ghastly act
The sum of a mother’s tears a small fact

The police will catch the cowards one day
The courts will ask “What do you have to say”
They will rant on and on for a year or two
As networks flash stills from Pune and Kathmandu



Then one day the judge will have enough
Hang him high, the coward claims to be tough
But the application will stay somewhere in a file
A mother waits all this while.

A plane will get hijacked ten years from now
As cowards fly away, we will shout and not bow
We do not give into cowards
We just don’t give a damn, actually

God, let me turn this around a bit
Not that anyone should be hurt or hit
But what if in that bakery there had been a Minister’s Son
This country would act, things would be done

Forget the Minister, what if my child was there
Then I may know what is fair and unfair
What if the media had lost one of their own?
Images of blood and flesh would not be shown

For every viewer who is fascinated with mayhem
India TV, there is a anxious mother waiting in pain
She prays her daughter is not in that café
She prays she is busy learning ballet

An Army waits for marching orders
Some inside us, some on the borders
We have had enough, we always had enough
Let us be tough, and not act tough

Every Indian life is more than your compensation
Let us break those caves, before they break this nation
We are ready to go back in our economy along the way
The price of war is less than this price we pay

A German bakery today, a Swedish bus tomorrow
Eleven today, a hundred tomorrow
Let’s kill the immunity we all have inside
Not eleven, but that day another billion died.



On the same lines, Newspaper Statistic and Screaming Banshee



16 comments:

Himadri said...

thank you. for giving words, and saying them out loud, to the thoughts that i am still sure thousands of indians still have.my eyes are wet - it is transparent but it is blood; flooding with rage and pain.. none of which has no limit.

thanks again. Every voice matters. Those like yours more- because people like me cant express .. so well how they feel , what they really want.

though silent alright, but there is a voice, there is a force and there is a will - which will stand tall in as many ways it can against the unbearable pain and hatred inflicted , again and again - in a million ways on us.

.. there is a lot churning my head and heart..and i cant find words to do justice to them.
..till the time i, and people like me find appropriate words let our actions speak for us. Let us agree and vow to not let petty things divide us. I'll stop at that. i should.
god bless.

Jaya said...

Shedding tears is easy, putting into words the agony and the helplessness is tough. I did the easy part, u did the tough... bless u.

Aruna said...

Jaya has expressed my thoughts. You have once again brought tears to my eyes.

Vandana said...

u have captured the emotion in the truest of words..the anger and pain grows all the more with the realisation tht we r to a big extent, helpless..or is it tht we choose to be so..even wen we all condemn this dastardly act we still say a silent prayer of thanks tht those who matter to me were not involved..life goes on as usual for most of us after the initial shock and rage..we speak of being the change we want to see..easier said thn done i guess..

Gaurav Parab said...

@ Himadri.

Than you for writing in. Your words are overwhelming.

One thing I must say is that it is easy to be an armchair analyst like I am being than come up with workable and sustainable solutions. However, there are moments when common sense should prevail. There are people dying, and while the powers-to-be are busy drafting word perfect press statements, visiting the site and disturbing the police investigation, there are insane animals out there who are now killing for the sake of killing. These animals cannot be talked to or convinced. Even if their goals are met, they will find another reason or cause to be animals again. The only way is to inflict strong and unacceptable damage to affect their ability to strike us at will.

Gaurav Parab said...

@ Jaya, Aruna and Vandana.

Yes, we all feel the pain. It is only that sometimes we find it difficult to express it.

Scattered Thoughts... said...

Hmm..

Farina said...

Beautiful...........
tats all i can say.

NIsarg Shah said...

It touched my heart and soul! True to the core... am glad i read your post!

tambourine girl said...

You just might have the gift of yielding a pen mightier than the sword...you're like the RK Narayan of poetry. Really hope your works are read far and wide! Stuff like this needs to be read.

Unknown said...

Good to be in touch with you, hear from you.Struggle to express is always hard part for me, but its all inside me..
You can remember lot many event which are around you, with you, within you. You carry the burden all the way. Sometimes you express and other you don't..
ReCall 9/11, 26/11, Mumbai Riot, Babri Masjid demolition, Rasicism , Caste ism, Daily unheard explosion in Kashmir, Some earth quakes in Gujarat & Maharashtra, Tsunami in South India and East Coast..., War in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Africa

Its all there with you from the childhood, you carry ... sometimes you express..and you act

Unknown said...

Good to be in touch with you again and hear from you..

FIGHT continues to serve the community in the form of a cause...

Sometimes you express and other time you don't. Pain is what You carry with you, within you... heavy load is always there in the mind and for the heart for to carry..

Recall 9/11, 26/11, Babri Masjid Demolition, Mumbai Riots, Iraq & Iran & Afghanistan war, internal war in South Africa, Many unheard explosions of Land war in Kashmir, Tsunami in South India and whole eastern region, Earthquakes in Maharashtra and Gujrat, Naxalites Wars..

Its all their with you from the childhood and sometimes you express and sometimes you act..

Tambourine girl said...

Erm, I meant R K Laxman and his common man series. Your poetry is as poignant and hard-hitting.

Ankush said...

Hi Gaurav,

this poem came to me in an email fwd and i was touched by it. It reflected my feelings all the more as I lost a colleague and a cousin in that blast. I tried to search your name, but couldn't find your blogs. Tx to Anupama, who pointed me to your blogs. I had put this poem on my blogs with ur name and now also link to this post to share it with others. However, if u feel otherwise, plz do let me know; I'll sure respect n honor ur decision to not share.

With love,
Ankush

Gaurav Parab said...

Sorry for the delay in responding. I was not sure, how to get in touch with you. I hope this letter reaches you. I am posting this on my blog as well, hopefully you can track it back.

Ankush, this is but a poem. Your loss is beyond any words. Please use this work as you deem fit, I have no issues. That is the idea for writing it in the first place. It is for you to find whatever meaning you need in this poem, or in the words that people have to say. The situation that you and your family find yourself in cannot be reduced to words. But if there is anything I have to say, It is BE STRONG.

I could not sleep the night after the German bakery blast. With time, I had become as numb as anyone else to the mindless violence that surrounds us. But the German Bakery was different. I could not sleep that night, and tried to understand how the families who are affected would be feeling. I hope that the poem did not offend you in any way. It was just a way to vent my frustration.

Ankush, you do not need to ask my permission to use this. Take care, and be strong. Find peace in the words that your friends have to say.

Can you email me your email address?
Regards,
Gaurav

Ankush said...

Many thx Gaurav. people say, happiness doubles and sorrow gets halved by sharing. Your words did give some consolation. Let's pray for the families and hope - "we shall live in peace someday".