Artanaad

(THIS IS A BENGALI WORD WHICH

 ROUGHLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH MEANS

 A PRIMAL SCREAM)

a poem with footnotes...

                                we can be custodians

of your screams

across continents and seas, we hear you,

from Mumbai; we put our ears on the ground,

and listen; we listen beyond grenades,

rifles, guns, to the collective sound of 

silent screams ; Angel Agony brings them

to our doors; you are being shot to death

without cause, by young men who are laughing

at your fear; you are being shot in the leg,

in the neck, in your back and in your chest;

without cause; there is no escape allowed,

no mercy; only indiscriminate

slaughtering; the majestic Taj and the 

Oberoi, have become a battlefield,

without rules; blood is boiling in cauldrons,

thanksgiving?  

          we hear in the river's flow,

your outcries.  we hear you as far back as

history; staring at death in the face,

no way out; while facing Lowe's assassins

in a line; in Jallianwallah Bagh;

in Delhi; many times the British smiled

while killing; our anger has cooled but we

remember; fury is unbridled again

for your sake; for the sake of others too,

those voiceless; all over the world you scream

as you fall; we, finally, hear Those screams

as you fell: no longer complacent,

we fall with you; we're no longer Swiss neutral,

we're engaged; we have broken the silence

of your screams.

                       we pull out the screams from the

tongue of seas;  all seas, red, black, caspian,

are united; what affects one affects all,

we know so; all the seas are bloodier

than crimson; the colour of a heart shed

like a rose; children float on the backs of

prophecies; God knows what God alone knows,

we are here; we are the caretakers here,

of the screams; not vigilantes, turning

on wrath;  we do not want to put hands

over mouths; your soul is attended as

we listen; we want all to hear what you

were stifling; metanoia is our goal,

peace our way; so the screams won't be trapped in

 a painting.

                  we can be custodians

of your screams.

a poem for Bobo, who watched the news from

Mumbai bravely for 2 nights and 3 days.

11/28/08

1. The Taj and The Oberoi are two of the 

luxury hotels in Mumbai, where terrorists killed

197 people and wounded over 400 in November 2008

on Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

2. Thomas Lowe was an officer of the British

army, which had a policy of "no prisoners" during

the Great Indian rebellion in 1857.  On one occasion

76 people were lined up and shot.  On another occasion,

149 people were lined up and executed by the British.

3. Jallianwallah Bagh Incident -- On April 13, 1919,

the British Indian army under the orders of Gen. Dyer

opened fire on a gathering of men, women and children.

The British reported 379 casualties; the actual number

could be as high as 1536 according to Civil Surgeon

Dr. Smith and higher according to private sources.

Whatever may be the actual numbers, many people died.

4. In Delhi at the conclusion of the Sepoy Mutiny, in 1857

the British shot the rebels, while their wives

and children watched.  in many cases, unarmed sepoys were

 bayonetted, sown up in the carcasses of pigs or cows,

 or fired from cannons.