Chipped Tooth

I still remember the boy,

From my 8th class,

With chipped teeth,

And charred dreams.

He was called 'Abdul',

By his parents, but

He addressed himself

As 'Amar.'

Sanskrit was his favourite subject,

He recited shlokas,

Flawlessly like he,

Was a born Brahmin.

And our maths teacher,

Was very fond of him,

He kept forgetting the

boy's name, and made

fun of his tooth.

Calling them as

Chipped trigonometry

And Abdul Amar

Laughed loudly,

His chipped tooth

Flashing in all its imperfection.

A few girls had a silent

Crush on him

but never acknowledged

Confused about his roots

a Hindu, a Muslim?

And this chipped tooth boy

Lived life in all it's totality,

After school he would

Play football with the

Hindu boys and one day

He was shot dead along

With the other Hindu boys

While playing football.

By the Muslim community,

In the terrible riots that,

Had set fire that day,

He was found dead,

In his own blood pool.

With his two chipped teeth

Broken and fallen in

the blood pool.

Amar died that day,

Abdul died that day,

But the entire class

And school and the town

Remembered him,

As the boy with the

Chipped tooth.

I still remember him

As my crush of 8th class,

His chipped smile,

Now haunts

My charred dreams!!