A Recollection

A Recollectiontc "A Recollection"

Partition of our country –a dreadful thing
To recollect- it wiped out clean
Many a family-blood-curdling 
Events stared at faces soppy and grim!

Folk who moved as brothers – twin,
Instigated by fanatics mad
And self-centred, without remorse
Went to slit their very throats!

What a price, we paid for Freedom won,
Placating our Muslim brethren
With a home-land sweet, their own!
Blood-bath, Rolled heads, foresaw none!

Well, It started all in ‘Pak’
Rivers therein turning red
Spread like wild fire, Stories dark,
And Retaliation feverishly burst.

In the wake of blood-shed worst
Immortal Gandhiji, deeply hurt and sore
Undertook a fast unto death
At ‘Nowkhali’ that brunt bore!

While many a family were torn to shreds
Some, in totters, could survive
And trekked out to towns distant
To start afresh a New life!

Ran across Nineteen forty Eight
One such victim at Jubulpur-
An old haggard of Tens Eight
Sporting a white Turban Pure!

Coat and Pants, loose and unpressed,
Wrinkled face, white flowing beard,
Sunken eyes and cheap glasses -
The face a sordid, grim story held!

He was a victim from Pakistan 
With a well-set and fair living there–
Left all and for very life ran
To places promising and secure!

Sunken eyes there, but see the zest
For Life and the Self-confidence they bore
Made with a stout heart, living just
Blaming none, but holding guns.

To out-wit his fate and work
To re-live in the hosting land
Straight from scratch forgetting the wreck –
Much he deserved a helping hand!

Waving a pack of letters and cards
Writing for folk illiterate
Wandered for hours in Streets and wards
Reaping a river in harvest –it’s a feast!

Such was the zest and, such hard work
And the strong will to succeed
Set them Wall to make a mark -    
Green is the old face in my mind.

Still after many a decade!
Though he rests well in his grave
Has many a lesson for us to heed –
The zest, hard work and living fair and brave!