One more year, one more date

Has convinced us we have enjoyed

69 years of independence

What did the nation lose, what has it gained

Has yet to be analyzed

Those harsh years of struggle, rapes and murders

Are stories of the past

The innocent massacres of millions

On either side of the border lie buried

In the conscience of those who laid their lives

For freedom; the freedom which we enjoy

Have we learnt our lesson?

Perhaps not:

“Are murders, rapes, kidnappings, terrorism?”

Mere stories of the past:

The nation today demands leaders

Who will rise up above petty differences

And think about their duties rather than

Squabble in sacred ‘sessions’ of Parliament

Where laws and policies are formulated

For the progress of the nation

Adversely the sessions are crudely defiled

For selfish motives and disgusting verbal abuses

Words in the dictionary fall short of their ugly utterances

And brickbats hurled at each other

No leader is pure in moral upbringing

It seems as though might is right

The more you subjugate the other

The higher the price of the opponent

Yes, we are free, freedom has been earned

On the battle ground of bloody bath

 The hands are stained like those of Lady Macbeth

The ghosts of the past relives in Macbeth’s of today

Yes we are free, freedom is ours to enjoy

So we can disobey, we can walk in the middle of the road

We can destroy the peace of others

We can vile the environment and deafen each other’s ears

With blaring loudspeakers with dedicated songs of heroism

As though it is ‘we’ who laid our lives for the nation

And resurrected to enjoy this freedom

Tomorrow this ‘desh- bhakti’ will be forgotten

And we will be sitting in ivory- towers

Each locked in his own selfish aspirations

To rise like the sphinx

Such shooting stars will engulf the freedom

There is time … Think of the nation

To enjoy future years of Freedom

                                                                                                 ~ Shobha Diwakar

                                                                                                      Jabalpur, India