Desperately Seeking India
In Delhi
Without a visa
In Madras
An Aryan spy
Kashmir's no vacation
They tell me it's a nation
And Punjab wants to die
In Bombay
I'm an invader
In Assam
An exploiting trader
They would throw me
From the hills
Kick me
From the plains
I promise
Never
To mention India again
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Kumkumappoo
You don't really need it
My mother said
Many cannot even afford it
And you know our nation
So much adulteration
They'll drink our blood
And sell us tinted water
For transfusion
Saps your faith I tell you
Sorry got carried away
A pinch is all you need
If it is genuine stuff
If not it will only be colour
Simply colour without flavour
You would rather do without
Without the allergic reaction
So don't tell me I didn't warn you
As I was saying
Only if you want and can afford it
Add a little pinch at the end
The flavour of India
It may be from Kashmir or Spain
Nothing like a pinch of saffron I tell you
To truly finish an Indian sweet
Your grandmother would say
As she added the saffron
Now it is fit for the Gods
And to me it has always been
The fragrance of heaven
The flavour of a tradition
But a pinch is all you need
India can afford no more
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This was Nattu
This was Nattu
I said sifting through
The ashes and bones
No, said Gopi,
His lifelong friend,
Only something
To remember him by.
We cast a leaking pot of memories
Into the ocean
Right next to the sanctuary
He had made his own
Like waves in the ocean are we
Said someone
Always there
But only for moments
For ever and almost never
The rest of the ashes
We carried in a plastic bag
To the hills he so loved
And immersed in the holy river
The plastic bag retrieved
At the last minute
(“Let us not add to the pollution”)
Had some traces of ashes still
Nattu always wanted to live life to the full
Till the end
We washed the bag out
In the cleansing waters
Hope he breaks free of the chain
Someone said
As the river rushed to meet the ocean
So that was that
Why are they holding this havan
Asked Poonam
Why are talking of him
As if to remember him
Is an effort
Four years have gone by
And finally gone
Are the dark circles
So cruelly painted
Around her eyes
Why are they praying
For his soul
And our peace
When he is here with me
As he always has and will
Poonam asked
In bewilderment
He is here
And that is that
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Godhra-Gujarat
Think of the child
The girl who fainted in fear
Before the flames seared her
Her life snuffed out of her
As much by the weight of others
As by the smoke
Blackening her lungs
Even before she was burnt
To ashes and bones
What were her last thoughts
When adults children need
Set the coach on fire
The mob so secure in its fury
Think of the man
Pouring the kerosene
Lobbing the fire
Willing in glee
The ashes and bones
Others will pick
As he saw faces and hands
Pleading in fear
What were his thoughts
As he heard the screams
And smelled the fear and the flesh
The mob so secure in its fury
This was the morning that God lost
For who thought of God in all that
I want to know
And did God think of them?
All prayers went up in smoke
And then the people of faith
Went after the people of the other faith
Exacting revenge in numbers
For sins committed or omitted
For being there and their other
Even if they thought they were the land's own
What did they think they were
Foreigners in this land of temples
Have to taught once and for all
Where they belong –
Not here not here
If here then so only for our sport
The blood leaked into the road
Dissolved the ashes
Gathered in puddles
Printed itself onto feet
And tramped the beat
Of journalists and TV crew
As murderers strutted into view
It was good said the teacher
They thought no end of themselves
Now we have our pride back
You know what Ghazni did
To our temples and Gods
We have paid him back
Ten eyes for an eye
All thirty two for a tooth
Ah glorious it was
The making of Gujarat
The water of mother Narmada
And their blood on our hands
What more can we pray for
Blessed now is our soil
We've made the land safe
For you secularists too
Satiated the land goes to sleep
The demon ever awake licking its lips
Waiting for the next spark
The next round of killing
In the name of God
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