Partition

The room which heard your first cries

Your first wailings which made your mum smile

The land on which you learnt to crawl

The floors which bear your first fall

“HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ASKED TO LEAVE YOUR BIRTHPLACE?”

Place where you ran to, as the school ended

Your favourite hideout, nobody would find you in it.

Whose kitchen always bore tempting, delicious aroma

Whose terrace hosted rain dance or became kite flying arena

“HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ASKED TO DESERT YOUR HOME?”

Friends who once made your whole life

On whose tiffin, you had inherent rights

Who were company to walks to school

With whom you planned all your pranks, your gang cool!

Whose presence always cheered you up

With whom you had vowed to stay, till world tore you apart

“HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ASKED TO LEAVE YOUR DEAR FRIENDS BEHIND?”

Toils day and night, I built my business

With hard work and honesty, I turned it from rags to riches

Nurtured as a child, watered the young sapling,

Slowly building it up, turning it into a king!

“HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ASKED TO LEAVE YOUR THRIVING BUSINESS?”

“HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ASKED TO TAKE AN UNKNOWN JOURNEY?”

Will it be on foot, by rail or on a bullock cart?

Can I undertake it? I have a heavy heart!

The roads of this journey seem so wearied

Trodden by people, who have been emotionally buried.

Who knows where will this journey end?

To a safe location or a blood thirsty bend.

“HAVE YOU EVER SEEN SLAUGHTER OF YOUR DEAR ONES?”

Packed onto a train, breath hung every moment.

Which curve, which bend, would bring with it a torment.

Blood thirsty people, hidden at every corner

Waiting with swords and daggers to execute the horror.

Every station bought with it a new monster

Departing with more blood-stained items, than their owners.

“HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE LOSS OF HUMANITY?”

I am no warrior stuck in a war zone

I am a common man, bundled and forcibly thrown.

Man created boundaries and called it partition.

Millions suffered on both sides in this great division.

A new place to live, a haven to find

But will it be as joyous as the fond memories in my mind??