From the crypt came the voice ...

I have never even read a poem truly, let alone write one. But when I started writing this blog I decided to experiment nonetheless. The result, as expected, is not good. But since I have written it, I am sharing it all the same. Those lucky enough, to get some meaning out of it, are admired and for the rest of the mortals I have given some interpretation / direction after the poem. Good luck for the ones who are still reading-

From the crypt came the voice,

Forgive me O Soldier, for I had this; but no other choice.

I had been dumb all these years,

Shouting my pain in those deaf ears.

In life I could have been a doctor or an engineer,

But it was not going to be; that was clear.

Not that I lacked an education,

It was more than that, which betrayed my passion.

Gone are the days, when they peddled in Dal,

The only sound you hear today, is the sound of lull.

I often saw the crowds roving by,

With desires unfulfilled and distress in their eyes;

The truth of freedom for me was nought,

A decent meal was my only thought.

Probably even that thought was not benign,

I had to fight to convey that aspiration of mine.

The stones hurled were only a means,

What more could I have done in my teens?

Only in death, I have been heard,

Unfortunately, violence was my messenger bird.

Now in the valley, the saffron will bloom,

The sun will rise up and swallow the gloom.

From the crypt came the voice,

O soldier, I wish I had some other choice!

The poem is set in the background of the recent events in Kashmir. The poet (i.e. me - ah! I feel like a narcissist) is trying to look at the situation from the eyes of a youth on the other side of the cannon.

Survival of the Fittest

“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”

While this age old adage by Lord Acton is quite relevant in the modern world, a more recent adaptation of the same by eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani - “Power corrupts and the fear of losing power corrupts absolutely”, fits more smugly in today’s context. Although these sayings primarily describe human behavior, the same is true for nations as well.

Whether it be the search of WMD in Iraq or the capture and kill mission in Afghanistan, the ulterior motive of these crusades are not hidden from anyone who has kept his eyes and ears open. Where in one part of the world a despot is hanged (electrocuted to be precise!) for the “genocides” committed by him, somewhere else another of the brethren is hailed as the bearer of peace and prosperity. No wonder that Sri Lanka faces several embargoes by UN for the violation of human rights in its battle against insurgency while NATO which has established “peace and stability” in Afghanistan is beyond questions.

Such behavior does seem to be immoral and unethical but, one of the most basic laws of nature - the Darwinian theory - says just the same in honorable words. The strong have always derived their living at the behest of the weak in the struggle for limited resources. If we trace history, there are innumerable examples of colonization by the developed world to keep their engines of growth churning. Since the rise of renaissance, free thinking and democracy prevents outright attempts of colonization today, we see an avant-grade and sophisticated manifestation of the desire / need in the name of establishing peace, democracy etcetera. The tool of globalization and liberation provides for the additional ammunition in case the justification is difficult to arrive at. To any extent we might despise our colonization by Britain, but today we are looking at the production of pulses in Africa which might ring a bell to the proximity of Indigo farming without sounding that bad!

The latest illustration can very well be the inflow of forex in the south-east Asian economies. Once they had already borne the brunt of being “open” and yet again they are at the brink of witnessing something similar. In this part of the world a famous dictum mentions - “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled”, and that is what precisely the currency wars are pointing at. While the giants fight for survival, maintenance and furtherance of their respective interests , the lesser nations are tested for their virility to escape extinction.