We came on foot, we came on boats, shouting slogans of Azadi.
We stood on roof tops and sat on walls under the burning midday sun,
Listening to the words that we had longed to hear for so long.
Words that had been scripted through the lonely fears of our hearts.
Words that were spoken now with the clarity of courage.
Words that were spoken now with the suppressed strength of pent up anger.
Words that were spoken now with the certainty of belonging to the soil
Which had become one with the dust of our ancestors.
We stood there in the waves of heat
Feeling the surge and press of countless bodies around us.
Bodies meshed through the odour of sweat
And the shared fear of a common persecution.
And hanging from the roof tops,
And tied to the poles,
And clutched in hands slippery with sweat,
And wrapped round the pillars,
And spreading into our blood,
Were three strips of colour with a wheel of spokes,
Sewn together into the shape of our being.
Woven into the folds of our future and the creases of our past.
Stitched to the seams of the earth, the water, the air and the sky
That belonged to us and to which we belonged.
And we stood there from noon to evening,
We the people of India.
Raising our clenched fists like signposts to the future.
Chanting slogans like a new anthem.
Kin to each other through the ties of community.
Born to live and die
In a nation that was ours to hold on to
And ours to belong to.
Dr Parinitha is a professor of English in Mangalore University. She penned the poem soon after participating in the historic protest against CAA, NPR and NRC at Shah Garden, Adyar, Mangaluru on 15th January, 2020.
Also Read:
‘The more you try to divide us, the stronger and united we’ll be’: Record turnout in Mangaluru’s anti-NRC protest
Anti-NRC protest in Mangaluru brings ‘media bias’ to the fore
"List it for hearing tomorrow," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice U U Lalit said, when Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for PSU banks, mentioned the matter for urgent hearing.
Comments
@ Rikaz....
You quoted as Quraan and this is not Quraan that is Hadeeth. In Hadeeth Muhammad Sallalahu Alaih Wa Sallam said pay the wages of the labor before their sweatings wipes out...
First of all government should make sure that this man should pay salaries of all employees...if he doesn't, should put him behind bar...forget about banks loans bla bla bla...in Quran it is clearly mentioned employee must be paid by his employer his wages before he wipes out his sweat....because of that reason he is suffering....he cannot get away from the curse of those employees and their families....
Mallya got into airlines is his popi kala.....it was his own death trap...
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