Tales Of A Thousand Wounds

Tales of a thousand wounds that

Laid buried for many years

Oblivious to this secular world

When one night changed 

The fates of thousands 

How dreadful it is to recall 

What happened in 1990!

They believed Kashmir was the

Land to be plundered and looted

To be robbed of its scenic beauty

Whose land was rich in many resources

Apples, saffron, walnuts, or dry fruits

Its richness of cultures and heritage ;been 

Transferred to its generation next since 

Many ages, lost their traces when their

Saviors had to flee away from their settlements

In fear of being killed or transformed.

Turning the pages of the books

Narrating the tales of these pandits 

Made drops of sweat ran down my spine

I felt numb and paralyzed while imagining 

Myself to be in their shoes. 

Men could neither protect their land nor

The dignity of women who were raped

In front of their eyes so brutally 

They never picked up guns not 

Even in their self-defense 

I sometimes wonder about the 

The irony of the situation where

A religion that makes one inhumane 

And the other lets one choose non-violence

Even in the face of death.

Tales of a thousand wounds 

Now laid open and bare

To not be neglected by any of us

Why did it take 32 long years

To speak their unspoken agony?

The power of a movie came to its 

Rescue to bring alive the

Tales of a thousand wounds.