For 28 kilometers, I was a human shield. I kneeled. Appealed.
Smashed by the power you wield.
Your INSAS rifle, Your camouflaged fatigues
Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg. No price too steep.
“Take that man, Tie him on the jeep!”
Weep India. Weep.
The peace keeping force on an alternate course.
The Pradan Sewak shows no remorse.
His 56-inch chest, swells with pride.
Justice delayed. Justice denied. Flog this hide. Outside. Inside.
When asked “Yeh fauji Kashmir mein kya kar rahen hain?
He replied “Tumhe pata hai, Siachen mein fauji mar rahen hai?
“What about the Geneva convention?
“What do you have against Major Gogoi’s invention?”
The Chief hands over a medal, to the man pushing metal to the gas pedal.
A ‘Breaking News’ charade. Played and replayed. A population swayed.
Hashtag Wars. Nationalism displayed.
But they forget.I stood there in line, under the slender shadow of the minaret.
For that indelible ink on my finger. For that little hope that had started to linger.
To erase the memories of the barbed wire,
the unscrupulous liars, that unending loop of war and ceasefires.
I needed you to hear my voice. For me to exercise my choice.
To end this auction, to stop the roll of the dice.
Going once. Going twice.
Helter-Skelter!
Helter-Skelter!
Here come the stone-pelters. The Neanderthals. The chosen ones.
“They’re no match to our pellet guns! Soon enough they’ll be on the run.”
“You are our people. There is no hate. But don’t you dare protest the state.”
But wait.
Outnumbered. The subjugated state, awakens from a slumber.
They’re here. They’re there.They’re everywhere.
Forget the conduct of this game of musical chairs.
As you sow, shall you reap. “Take that man, Tie him on the jeep!”
Collateral damage. Going cheap!
And all it took was 28 kilometers.
To be barbarized and bastardized. Dehumanized. Ostracized.
For you to legalize and justify.
For you to colonize.
Those winding roads, that bumpy ride, that raging flames in angry eyes.
That gleeful grin, over methods devised. A broken man tossed aside.