Rice for Mengoubi

Dear Mengoubi,

Defiance breeds death!
Sixteen years of force-feeding,
Orifice violated,
You stand proud and tall.

A woman pushed, scorned...
Hunger can be a weapon,
So you have proved...
Point well-made, Mengoubi.

Year after year we've lived
Birthdays and candles,
Happiness and tears-
All that have eluded one woman.

Today as you break the fast,
I salute the undulated spirit,
The courage and the bravery,
All that is Irom Chanu Sharmila❤️
#iromchanusharmila

Shame!

Every time it happens
We keep moving, nevertheless,
Hanging our heads in shame.

She is someone
She was someone- a daughter
A sister, a friend may be.

As she walked alone,
Sat shut down,
Her heart must have bled.

What knives didn't pierce
Was the heart that beat
Crying for help, that no one heard.

With intestines pulled out,
Thirty stabs later and an iron rod
Inside of her- she must have wept.

Weep she did, wail she did,
Not in physical agony
But for us the people, who are dead.

It's not you who is dead-
It is us the silent ones...
Shame on us- we failed again.

Grave after grave is dug,
We walk past unfazed
It's someone's daughter- not mine!

Candle marches, silent vigils
Media circus and few days ahead
India's daughter- gets a new face.

Ban the documentaries, hang the dogmas
Release the juveniles, change the laws
That doesn't change is you and me.
Shame!

#JusticeforJisha
p.s: 30 year old law student,  Jisha of Perumbavoor, Kerala was brutally murdered by un identified assailants. This poem in memory of Jisha and our overbearing silence on rapes and such brutal murders. 

I will be back!

I'm dissent, I'm woman
Brand me as you wish-
Maoist or informer
I'm there, I stand brave.

Withstanding the shocks,
Crushing the stones inside of me,
As I bleed and as I lie
Face burnt, I am still brave.

There went my man,
A lonely pyre burning
You denied me the last rites
I remain silent, yet brave.

Brand me anti national,
Judge me all you want,
Acids can never penetrate
The strength inside of me.

I'm passing news
The world forgets,
Wherever oppression rises
I will stand against.

The prisoner of conscience
The frail one with iron heart.
I will come back
For I am- Soni Sori.
Get well soon, Comrade!

Soldiers by fate

They're soldiers
Everyday they must have felt
The building above creaking.

They were clerks
Swallowing the little pride,
They must have worked.

They were laborers
Eating their own sweat and blood,
Waiting for that extra money.

They were humans
Someone's mother, someone's father,
As death came down crushing.

They were lives
Snuffed out by apathy
Bricks and mortar didn't murder.

They're killed everyday
By you and me who swallow
Pride and respect.

Their deaths hang at the doors
Of the high and mighty who sit
In half a lakh rupee executive chairs.

Their souls cry out
That never reaches those
Cloaked in authority.

To those in the High Castles-
Wait, your time will come someday
Mortar smothering your high walls
Bricks crushing your conscience.

They're soldiers unsung,
They're murdered in cold blood
As you and I sit silent, in a wilting grave.


Dedicated to the 5 people- 2 railway staff and 3 outsiders killed, as Hubli parcel office came tumbling down which was dilapidated and 'unfit' for human use.

You and me...

I want to do with you
What spring does with cherry trees.

I long to watch over
What mother cares with a newborn.

I ache waking the nights
As you count the desert stars.
The fire, the thirst rages on
Unquenched as the tempest unfurls.
We walk the world worlds apart
Dreams intertwined with sweat.
When you will look at me
Find a zillion stars flashing.
The farther we move everyday
The souls bind us in a dance.
I die with eyes open
Hoping they see you explode.
We're destined to be together
As the sea and the horizon.
Cherry blossoms hang along
Rivers of passion keep flowing...

p.s.: I am back. This time, for good!

p.p.s.: I've quit Railways. Their loss, not mine ;)

p.p.p.s.: The next post will be the Part 1 of Queen of Diamonds, the last in the Queens' Trilogy :)