Archives of history
(Shocking media glares�stories in print of individual pain & despair�.and statements of justification...)


For a day
if I lived in them
and knew
they were not just
"news of the day"
or expressions
of heroic journalism
but
breathing lives
in these very homes and towns
caught unaware
in a dance of death
that broke loose
the beast in man
and turned them into
a horrific tale
of arson and loot
to be captured and preserved
in the archives of history
as "partition revisited "
a history
that refused to learn
its own lessons !

Uma Asopa
13March 2002

=========================================

A City's Call
(A city convulsing in disgust�a livable lovable peaceful city that Ahmedabad once was.....)


This city has cried
over and again
and begged
to be understood
and cleared of this charge
of being two faced

This city's heart
is sick as can be
its labyrinths are clogged
and arteries too blocked
with a deadly scum
called fear and hate

This city has bridges
and it has a divide
but the river of connection
flowing between its faiths
has already dried

This city has a life
full of glory and strife
but a curse of confrontation
roars down every time
the songs of peace
and attempts to revive

Has this city
a say
in what it wants to be?
a smoldering rage
of  medieval savages
or retain a saving grace
as Gandhi's place ?

Uma Asopa
15March 2002

=========================================

Evolutionary facts

(Introspection from various quarters�a humble tailor�s face , pleading to be spared; haunting on main page of news�)

Why is it?
that an act of destruction
calls for another
of greater impact
only to prove
Newtonian theories
of a world gone by
And time just records
the ruins of events
and moves forwards
to erase
humanity's scars
but
it refuses to shrug off
and let it slip by

Why is it ?
that one time or the other
hegemony decides
to make its point
and spirit of civilization
steps aside
to make way
for opportune to arrive
Survival of fittest
may have been
the fact of evolution
but life appeals
with every breath
to another life
to let live and survive

Why is it ?
that we feel
and think enough
yet the mass of emotion
lacks a will strong
so the present can stop
a misdirected future
and past won't become
an accumulated wrong

Uma Asopa
20March 2002
========================================

In God's Assembly
(A nation holds its breath; as religion takes it to ransom �Gods await settlement of their land�and mythology sulks�)

The lull has been around
too long to be true
volcanic serpents
were waiting
just round the corner
to hiss at the quietude
and strike
with a calculated rage

Did we not agree
to go ahead
with festivities of progression?
Who invited the demons
to douse the fire of homage
in this yagna
of goodwill and heritage

It is no wonder then
mythological sermons
were perplexed
at their own context
when a modern age
stirred up the holy ashes
to raise a storm
of fear and sacrilege

In God's assembly
off late
was there a furor
over a lease of land?
and did the counsel of angels
forgot to appoint
as messenger of peace
an ambassadorial sage.

Uma Asopa
27March 2002
=========================================