Nandini Sen Mehra: And night has come upon my land
And night has come upon my land,
the carrion birds encircling
and prayers ascend on pyres lit,
the shadows fast descending
And leaders know not how to lead,
they gape, they watch in silence
while each new day brings grief afresh,
no help, no rest, no guidance
And those who come with sturdier boats,
will row perhaps to safety,
but most, will flay, in desperate need,
expendable humanity
What will remain, when the storm has passed,
when many so loved are lost,
what will be changed, within our hearts
what will this time exhaust
May then we not allow ourselves
to be led by those inept,
for want of air while many died,
unmoved, while many wept
May we never again be fooled,
by words, by power, by greed,
put not our faith in men of stone
who use us for their need
And know that when the night was dark,
who came to hold our hand,
it was the stranger, the ones unknown,
who share this wounded land
It was the one you did not trust,
the ones who were the other,
and when the leaders all had fled,
in him you found a brother
So let no powers again succeed,
to divide us at their will,
let love remain in our battered hearts,
the hope they could not kill
Source
Thank you Ms Nandini, for this beautiful, heart-breaking tribute to our suffering people: DS
The Hindu priest struggling to cremate India’s Covid dead
Speaking sacred incantations, behind him a field of burning pyres
The wood crackles, smoke rises
He who would have performed one such ritual in a day, perhaps two
Now dispatches several hundred to the hereafter
Accompanied by workers with their bamboo sleds
Among barely visible offerings to the divine,
Amidst the sea of tears flowing down uncomprehending faces
As the flames rise, mortal remains rendered soot
In the palpable ambience of hearts rent by catastrophe
All I can see is the abyss of pain in the eyes of a priest doing his duty
RamKaran
Om Shanti Om Shanti
