A small prayer

The Afternoon Despatch & Courier on June 1 1991

a few days after the assassination of the India PM Rajiv Gandhi

Let there be no more communal differences. Let us treat everyone as equal.

Let the courts of justice deliver the verdicts and let us learn to abide by them.

Let the reservations go, but let there be consideration for those who are really backward, socially as well as economically.

Let the armed forces obtain the authority to crush terrorism once and for all. There is no sense in having peaceful negotiations with brutes, who have lost all sense of rationale.

Let the leaders, for once, forget their own selfish visions and work for the upliftment of the country. That would be the simplest way of gaining votes. Instead of intimidating people, capturing booths, using religion, God, dead people, widows or anything else that can be used as a political gimmick to garner votes at the last moment.

The joys of eating the fruit of honesty is heaven, compared to the hell of making a fast buck. You always pay in the end.

Let there be no further increase in unemployment and inequality.

Let us be more strict in population control. Let us be liberal towards entrepreneurs and more punishing towards black marketeers.Let there be progress but let us not go against nature in the bargain. Nature will always rule us. You'll have nothing but a holocaust, if you go against it.

Let us Align our own Movements, use the Commonwealth of unity to Stop Armed Assasins from Ruling the Country.

Let the world talk about our achievements rather than our assassinations.Grant us sense to rise above these trivial differences which other nations have forgotton hundreds of years ago.Let the future generations feel proud of us.

Let them wonder with awe and reverence as to what kept us going in spite of our varied religions and cultures.

O Lord! Help us in undoing this process of self-destruction that we have indulged in.

Because we do not know what we have been doing.

The Aftermath

In memory of the Mumbai deluge on 26th July, 2005. 

I remember the time when I slept with the doors open.

Now, I have a mortgage to pay for a lifetime. 

I remember the time when I could see the airport lights from miles away.

Now, I get to draw my curtains open, sometime on some day. 

There was a time when I set paper boats on rainy water... 

Now, I see fear written all over the man sitting on a bus to nowhere.

I remember the days when I loved the trains and the travel through town.

Now, I wear a mask of fear and nausea when I venture.

I still remember the cobbled paths and the greens that my childhood travelled on.

Now, all that remains is cold and concrete. There was a time when I had neighbours and fun.

Now, I have cable and gaming machines. Life was like meeting a beautiful stranger because strangers never cheat... I wish I could be like the seasoned bird, free to fly away at will.

But now, I am too old and too weak to migrate.

I remember all the time, I think I knew the leader as well as the dacoit.

Now, I do not know, whether appearance does matter or not.

Once upon a time life was like a virgin, free to lust and love.

Now, life is just an intercourse... momentary joy and spent feelings.