The other day I found kids
playing inside my brain…
my body, my heart and
perhaps even inside my soul
They are the resident gods…!
Then other night as I was walking down
a dark ally, passage to my home,
the scent of a known flower
wafted into my senses…
I looked around and found
the ‘kadam’ tree and felt that
it too had taken shelter inside
my brain, my body…
Like the children the trees too
do not spread roots deep inside me
they too do not suck my vitality
out of me and I became friends
with children and trees…
Then I flicked open my mobile phone
to take a look at the news headlines
and saw the fighting tribes in a state
in my country had stripped three women,
paraded them naked, then devoured one…
My brain went numb, I felt like…
I do not know… claustrophobic…
Strangulated… molested… raped…
I do not know…
Only if ‘rapists’ were like children
And trees, like soothing smell
In a dark lonely ally…
Let only trees and children stay in our brains and not ghastly images…
Dead bodies, burning villages, naked
parading women… maimed mind
and mutilated soul…
…nation mutilated!…
• Author’s note: For over 75 days now Manipur, a northeastern state in India, is experiencing an unprecedented ‘war’ between two tribes, throwing life and right thinking out of gear.
