I Do Not Know

By Dr. Geetha Nambudiripad

My little cherub

How could you

In the dark attic

Of this house

Lock yourself

All these years,

I do not know-

I stand agape!

I am ashamed

Of myself

When I see you

Sit bending down

With your trembling body

And a fearful visage

With your quivering lips...

You were a kite

Deftly chatting

To the passing wind...

A butterfly

Relishing honey

Vaulting from

Flower to flower...

Oh! I do not know

How did you embark

Sitting all alone

In your attic

Shunned from

The outside world

With nothing but fear!

Now you dread

Even to sing 'Watan'

And angst to hear

Your favourite 'Rubab'.

What made you push aside

In the narrow attic of your

Single roomed hut in this once beautiful Kabul?

Is it because of

'Operation Storm 333'?

Or the pithy habitation

Of the brutal force,

Or the massacre of the religious fanatics,

That forced you to shut

Yourself in this turret?

When can I see your wings

Fluttering along the blues

Of the borderless sky...

As a fearless bird of free mind

Enjoying every single grain

In the fields...

Flying the kite again

And running after it...

I do not know

Who is responsible for this war?

Is it God

Or Satan?

I do not know

Who provides happiness?

Is it God

Or Satan?

Who will get heavenly bliss

By shutting up you

All alone in these four walls-

I do not know!

I am ashamed to say

I fathered a girl

Who in darkness

For no reason herself...

Call it fate

Or unluck

I do not know...

I dream of Kabul-

A Kabul free from religious fanaticism...

I dream of Kabul-

A Kabul echoing 'Watan'...

I dream of Kabul-

A Kabul with its sky

Filled with colourful Kites

Breaking the colourless

Strings of taboos....

By Dr. Geetha Nambudiripad