A Recollection
C. S. Murthy
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!