
I write to you,
to tell you of not a story
But some realities I witnessed as I live through them:
Realities much scarier than the Stories of Saturn or Vampires,
Realities much sadder that the painful death of a loved one,
And Realities where many like us, just felt more confused than we already are
I write to you,
Generations far beyond time.
I write to you,
Not to defend myself
But to let you know
That there were moments in our times, where
The loudest voice was not the most compassionate one.
That there were decisions in our times, where
Both the swords and pens picked struggles of only some.
That there was such a time
Where the poor mattered lesser than they any way do
In our middle-class realities.
And I want to tell you
That whatever they tell you,
In books and documented history
I do not know.
But I want you to know
That there were people around,
Who weren’t quite sure
Of what decisions are we taking, as a country
Of what actions are we allowing, as responsible citizens
Of what consequences are we going to face, as humans
If they tell you that
Our leaders were doing their best-
Choosing the lesser of the two evils.
Which is
Hunger, Death without Dignity
Over letting people die of Coronavirus.
Ask them –
Your country was the fifth largest economy in the world
With a 100+ odd billionaires
The largest of the democracies
You also ran the largest Employment Guarantee programme
Food for all Programme
around the world.
You don’t take a breath
While telling laurels of the fast-paced development,
With IT hubs, and flyovers and metros
You know, when someone said
Where there is will,
One finds a way.
That someone wasn’t wrong.
And if you ask, why there was not enough will?
Or why do I doubt their will?
Maybe they were well intentioned
Good Able Visionary Leaders.
Well, they might just be.
But What I know of Good Leaders is
They care that NO ONE is left behind
They know that the stronger ones can bear pain
But the weakest will perish
Good leaders fail, but they try
They take big risks,
Calculated for least pain for the weakest,
And highest gain for the situation.
They reject anything
That harms the spirit of solidarity and brotherhood.
They build on power of love
Over politics of hate
And not see an opportunity
in this crisis
of furthering their reign,
to states and territories untouched.
But what did our leaders do?
They tell me they are doing their best.
And they ask me to do my best too.
So far so good.
But they don’t tell me
Why they can’t find a better way
Of fulfilling some basic desires of the poorest
Why they can’t plan transport to their homes?
Why they can’t provide them better shelter and food?
Why they allow people to die of hunger on roads?
And my friend, I don’t even know
How long does it take to die of hunger?
2 days, 4 or 14?
I don’t know.
And perhaps will never know.
They tell me they are doing their best
But they were silent
On why this pandemic
Not united us as humans
But only divided us as Muslims and Non-Muslims
Nowhere else.
It happened only in India.
That people of this country believed
that a part of society
is deliberately, on purpose
Spreading the Virus.
And have found a way
to destroy the country
By Spreading the Virus.
They call them ill intentioned
Enemies of Humanity.
Till yesterday
They were only people
Far from our worlds
Praying differently than us
And how were they otherwise?
We don’t know
We never knew.
We never tried knowing them.
Today, they are enemies.
Not difficult to imagine.
Only in India
People believe,
Stories of Muslims
Conspiring in their own Spit
And Only in India
The media feels like a conspiracy
Against the democracy
Because they let people know
what they want them to know
But not let people question
what they have been told
It is a special power
What ancestors used to call
Black Magic
Only in India.
And if these stories of the commoners that you read
Tell you that they sympathized
Or Empathized
With the struggles of the weak
And that I am over-reacting
Because pain comes differently
To different classes.
Always.
That’s the rule of society.
Tell them.
That I don’t want to know
The logic of how we suffer differently.
What I am worried about
Is that people around me,
are convinced.
That the suffering
to our fellows, the weaker ones
cannot be prevented,
cannot be resolved.
And that they suffer,
Like we suffer.
Just different proportions.
There isn’t anything extraordinary
In their sufferings.
Remind them
To not kill the emotional being in them
Because logic has its own ways
To convince you
Of what it wants
It is by killing emotions
That a Murderer is born
A Rapist is born
And A Terrorist is born.
Tell them
I was not romanticizing
That India can pull all out of poverty
May be not
May be never.
I was only hoping
That people don’t kill
The emotional being in them.
And if they did get a chance
to define the new normal
Which I think they did.
Let that not be
Being okay with a sight of
Even more gruesome poverty
and Helplessness.
Let that be
In saluting and acknowledging
The big sacrifices the weak make
To let you be the Strong one.
To let you be the privileged.
And they don’t make this choice.
You do.
And I can’t even tell you
what you can do to pay back
Because you can’t
What you can do is
to respect them, respect the dignity of labour
give them their due share of compensation for work
and build a bridge.
Lastly,
I must tell you,
That there were always
Some voices
Some confused voices,
Not ready to swallow
Every pain killer
that the Leaders offer.
Every sleeping pill
that the Media gave.
And you can find them
In old
And in Present
Because I believe
They shall survive
And they shall be living
Just to tell you
And to confuse you.
Love

Cheers to the Spirits of living together, Long Live the Spirit! Photo Credit: Hindu Business Line