Why are you crying Bombay?
When your own sons
Bathe your body in blood
And hack your reputation
With violence and intolerance
And slice your spirit
With their local abusive tongues
And wish finally to christen your name
With appalling words
Like the Raj Thakeray
Or ghastlier ones
Like Bal Thakeray?
Why are you crying Bombay?
Your sons have set a precedent
They have raped your virgin beauty
Your open heart
Your enormous capacity
To hold and to love
Many sons and daughters
From across this land and overseas
Who nestle at your breast.
They have turned the Queen’s Necklace
You wear at twilight
Into a garland of beheaded men
And burnt alive your faith
In being the home to
Multilingual, multicultural, multi-religious groups.
It is they who have shown you
The face of terror – First
And set the stage
For others to replicate.
Those you call
Your “sons of the soil”
Have defecated on your face
Their undigested, rotten, foul-smelling soil
Of deep-seated animosity, anger, hatred
And poverty of their soul.
So why are you crying Bombay?
At what started on the 26th day of November, 2008
And went on for three long days
When your own sons
Bathe your body in blood
And hack your reputation
With violence and intolerance?
It was only the epitome
Of what began many years ago
When the first lady Prime Minister of India
Created for her own reasons of insecurities
A Frankenstein in your soil
Out of your own soil?
It is only an aftermath
Of heinous acts of crime
Made in the name of
Amchi Maharastra; Amchi manas!
Why are you crying Bombay?
When those who raped you first
Are silent today?
Pix:Street Life of Bombay
When your own sons
Bathe your body in blood
And hack your reputation
With violence and intolerance
And slice your spirit
With their local abusive tongues
And wish finally to christen your name
With appalling words
Like the Raj Thakeray
Or ghastlier ones
Like Bal Thakeray?
Why are you crying Bombay?
Your sons have set a precedent
They have raped your virgin beauty
Your open heart
Your enormous capacity
To hold and to love
Many sons and daughters
From across this land and overseas
Who nestle at your breast.
They have turned the Queen’s Necklace
You wear at twilight
Into a garland of beheaded men
And burnt alive your faith
In being the home to
Multilingual, multicultural, multi-religious groups.
It is they who have shown you
The face of terror – First
And set the stage
For others to replicate.
Those you call
Your “sons of the soil”
Have defecated on your face
Their undigested, rotten, foul-smelling soil
Of deep-seated animosity, anger, hatred
And poverty of their soul.
So why are you crying Bombay?
At what started on the 26th day of November, 2008
And went on for three long days
When your own sons
Bathe your body in blood
And hack your reputation
With violence and intolerance?
It was only the epitome
Of what began many years ago
When the first lady Prime Minister of India
Created for her own reasons of insecurities
A Frankenstein in your soil
Out of your own soil?
It is only an aftermath
Of heinous acts of crime
Made in the name of
Amchi Maharastra; Amchi manas!
Why are you crying Bombay?
When those who raped you first
Are silent today?
Pix:Street Life of Bombay 
Moshe Holtzberg, the two-year-old orphan of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivika Holtzberg, who died in the Mumbai attack, sobs during a memorial service at a synagogue in Mumbai on Monday. The child calmed down after he was allowed to play. The boy and the nanny who saved him will fly to Israel in a military aircraft. (AP picture) - Courtsey The Telegraph
2 comments:
Very powerful words and thoughts indeed like the Niagra Falls breaking its extremeties.
Just watching the televised horror show made me ill. Wonder what it was like for those caught in the whirlpool.I would have nightmares the rest of my life.
Our govt. and intelligence agencies are wholly to be blamed.They are ostriches with their heads stuck in the sand. It will take a bull dozer to roll over them to awaken them from their slumber.
Wonder if we will ever feel safe again? Everyone stepping out of their front door is taking their life in their hands. Even within the confines of our four walls we are soft targets.
Bombay is the city of my brother in law . He grew up there and worked in the textile sector before moving to Nigeria and Canada.
My sis , after marriage lived there for 2 years and we visited them twice.Just loved the color and excitment of the city.
Hi Amrita,
No, I don't think that there can ever be safety in our country, not ever, unless something drastic is done.
The problem in in our politics. People will spend hoards of money to travel abroad, taking their families and relatives, as soon as they are elected, and this is all our money, remember, but when it comes to improving our Security forces or our Police services, giving them, autonomy to decide for themselves in Crisis the PoA, no, the politicians must have their say there too.
There is no use turning out one MP or the other, showing them the door, the whole Congress needs to GO, so does BJP and all the other cartoons in our political arena. I advocate Marshal Law. Democracy is for those who are educated, not for a bunch of Politicians, most of whom are criminals themselves and unlettered. A few Drs will not do. hang those "chakkas"( in Bombay the word means hijras) and their phirang Madams! All must go! We are tired of shows...
And even as I say this Amrita, you know there has been bomb blast in Assam and yesterday, In South Ex, I believe there were two bombs that were found reported briefly by NDTV, but naturally hushed by the ruling Government immediately.
Julia
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