Lest We Forget the Night of 26/11
(Written three years after the attack on Bombay in 2008)
I
Night of 26/11
Lest we forget the night of 26/11
When sleep didn’t crawl into our eyes,
We lie vacantly staring at the television,
Playing, playing, playing footage of burning Taj,
Trident exploding in gunshots and fire,
Stories of bravery and treachery,
That came from across the seas.
Lest we forget what happened that night
Washed away in a burst of tears in the gloomy night
When the sky above the Gateway was a smouldering black
And over Marine Drive hung the smell of death
Rich men paraded to their untimely end
And a child left without parents
And parents left without son
We mourned all this; still we forget
Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we?
II
Victoria Terminus
The blood that stained this floor
Its sanguine past
Has been washed away
The huge cavern of V.T. station has been sanitised
The bullet-chipped granite has been replaced
That bloody night has been erased
From memory
From consciousness
From priorities.
Amnesic we plod
On granite floors smelling of disinfectant
Wondering where bombs will explode next.
Where will shrapnel enter soft flesh?
Where will cries echo in the night?
Where will the men and women be carried:
In trucks,
Handcarts,
Plastic sheets,
Stretchers,
Blood oozing from fresh wounds?
Could the surgeons stitch together?
The wounds inflicted by nails, ball bearings,
In the hearts and minds
Of the people they call brothers?
Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me.
