The battle lines were drawn up.
The snow girls with books in backpacks.
The olive green troopers with guns.
An eagle perched on a white cloud
relayed the proceedings to Times Now.
A snow leopard in distant mountains
stopped its hunt and waited.
Even a Yak in Tibet stopped its grazing
and looked towards the west.
A Bollywood film crew shooting a song
packed up and left.
The world grew still. The Dal lake grew still.
The waters in Jhelum paused.
In far away Kerala, people waited for the
channel debates to begin.
A hail of bullets mowed down the white harvest.
The olive green troopers advanced. They saw.
Each fallen girl held a red flower soaked in blood.
And a handkerchief on which was embroidered,
With Love from Kashmir.
( Disclaimer: This battle is entirely imaginary and has no resemblance to any event anywhere on this globe.)
About the Author
Ra Sh (Ravi Shanker N) has published English-language poems in many national and international online and print magazines. His poems have been translated into German and French. He has published three collections of poetry – ‘Architecture of Flesh’ (two editions) by Poetrywala, Mumbai, ‘The Bullet Train and other loaded poems’ by Hawakal Prokashan, Kolkota and ‘Kintsugi by Hadni’ by RLFPA Editions, Kolkota.
His translations into English include a biography ‘Mother Forest’ (of C.K. Janu, Kerala tribal leader) (Women Unlimited), two collections of poems ‘Waking is another dream’ (Sri Lankan Tamil resistance poems) (Navayana) and ‘How to translate an earthworm’ (an anthology of 101 contemporary Malayalam poems translated to English)(Dhauli Books), a collection of essays ‘Kochiites’ ( by Bony Thomas on the migrant communities in Kochi)(Greenex) and two collections of short stories ‘ Harum Scarum Saar and other stories’( of Bama, Tamil Dalit writer)(Women Unlimited) and ‘Don’t want caste’ (stories by Malayalam Dalit writers)( Navayana.)
His two books (1) a collection of translated stories from Tamil – “Ichi Tree Monkey and other stories” by Speaking Tiger, Delhi and (2) a play “Blind men write” –to be published by Rubric Publications, Delhi, are in the pipeline.