Shail explores themes of prediction and warning, enduring consequences of past events, and the compelling power of love across borders, exclusively for Different Truths.
New Year Predictions
A New Year.
Newer expectations.
Age-old predictions.
Though Kaliyuga forecasts extend
to 5000 and beyond
with vice, sin and ignorance
leaping across time,
there are a few seers whose
hands-on prophecies
like a slap in the face
that of Baba Vanga likely
the case, a Bulgarian seer
known widely as the
‘Nostradamus of the Balkans’.
For the year 2025
she predicts conflict in Europe,
a war-like situation – yup!
Russian predominance mentioned.
Environmental disasters
like drought and wildfire-
an out-of-tune ravaging choir.
All predicted by a soothsayer
tossed in the wind,
swept away by a tornado
leaving her blind and clairvoyant
at 12 to whom politicians
and public alike approached
for predictions.
“Commence of the ending”
she speaks of the current year,
not something we would
wish to hold dear. Let her
warnings unite us in spirit,
be vigilant and co-operative
across the unsettling borders
of the human race
Bhopal’s burning residue
Four decades of vicious venom
finally makes its way out
of a city left wounded,
bruised, rudely converted
into a sickly patient for life.
A colossal gas chamber
destroying thousands of lives
leaving uncountable others
strapped with a dying legacy.
Now, this year,
377 tonnes of hazardous waste
leave the graveyard they built
for a destination they hopefully
will disappear into forever
making a 250 km long journey
in 12 sealed container trucks
to a disposal unit in Pithampur.
40 years and an
intimidating legal threat
was what it took to coerce
an administration
to free a suffering city of a
venom permitted all these
years to harvest, hasten death.
Bhopal, like an old woman
weeps poisoned tears of relief
while Pithampur protests fearing
its turn of embracing contamination.
Love across the borders
I guess, the lure of the land
beyond, of the forbidden apple
stretches across time.
After the recent cases of
Anju, Seema, Iqra and the ones
left unaccounted for,
Badal Babu of Aligarh
crosses crucial boundaries
to connect physically
with digital lover in Pakistan.
A tailor by profession,
he stitched designs of passion
on a young woman’s heart,
dating her across the boundaries
for more than two years
all that he desired was
a release from his lonely world
of garments and sewing.
All that he clung onto was
a thread of love for
his fanciful friend across
the border.
Without a visa,
without a passport
evading powerful security
on both sides to connect
with his beloved.
Unfortunately, the law of the land
caught up with the romantic dressmaker
dumping him into judicial custody.
His parents, shocked at
this unknown rhapsody
appeal for help
while the digital lover
scampers for cover.
References:
Picture design by Anumita Roy
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