Mainstream WeeklySixty Years of Azadi, Yes.
– But forget
– You made Salt at Dandi that shook the Empire
– We are Salt-sellers
– in the bottomless pits of power-brokering
– salivating for more and more and more.
– We stop at nothing
– the rock salt buries all.
But forget
– You said to wipe every tear from every eye
– We are not geared for that:
– heard about the India-Bharat divide?
– Artificial tears are packaged for India only;
– the real ones are in Bharat.
– We are also stockpiling our cellars
– of our world class city constructs
– with stacks of blinding teargas shells
– blended with special red chillies
– from Guntur for everyday use
– against the spoilers and troublemakers
– —the jholewallas agents provocateurs
– who question everything
– growth rate and development,
– dialectics and anti-intellectualism.
Anything ‘will do’ in India.
– But in the mindscape of Bharat
– you are blind and deaf
– for you cannot see the edifices burning
– and the pygmies who usurped them
– wallowing in the muck of scams
– scurrying for life like little rats and mice
– covered in black soot with their tails afire
– for you cannot hear the cries of
– the tortured and tormented
– while the smouldering scaffolds crumble.
Tell me: What potion will wake us up from our
stupor?
– Before history repeats itself
– Like one day the Farmans from Lal Qila
– could not pass muster beyond Palam
– Do you want ‘What is to be done?’
– buried in the archival mounds of Raisina Hill?
Nandigram or Mudigonda-Khammam?
– Does it really matter?
– The brutes are everywhere.
– Bullet-ridden bodies speak only numbers
– till the voice of a vibrant and resilient activist
– like a Narmada, volatile and unbeatable,
– reverberates:
– Rape me as many times as you can
– I will not surrender
– I will not surrender.
The tears have dried the eyes
– to reveal gaping holes of fire within
– and the fury of the shrieks has
– plucked the ears in a deafening
– collapse of the charred pillars of
– lives lived in squalor and misery
– in fear and trepidation of losing
– their land, their hearth, their livelihood,
– —of losing all.
– How many more cries to be muffled?
– How many more voices to be silenced?
– How many more women to be raped by booted rogues?
– How many more farmers to commit suicide?
– How many more protesters to be killed?
– How many more bullets will it take for the raging fires to reach the Temple?
The fire is in our hearts; it won’t be long!
– The fire is in our hearts; it won’t be long!
August 7, 2007 Suhas Borker ....
(Suhas Borker is an independent documentary filmmaker and social activist based in New Delhi. He can be e-mailed at suhasborker@gmail.com)