A War Poem

I wrote this poem  a few years ago when India and Pakistan were once again itching to go  for another war, post Kargil. I hope it will interest the readers. 

AN ARGUMENT AGAINST GOING TO WAR

Honestly, do we need a war

To court a man-made death?

There’re so many ways to die

Without going to war!

No, I’m not talking

Of the classy developed-world inventions:

Heart failures, cancers, air crashes

Though we have these too.

Not of the less fancied but equally deadly ones;

Malaria, Tuberculosis, AIDS …

Though we have these too.

Not even of Nature’s periodic visitations:

Floods, earthquakes, cyclones

Though we have these too.

No. I’m talking

Of our own Swadeshi innovations.

There’s the death by fire:

In which your body will melt like plastic

In a kitchen

In a jhuggi cluster

In a fireworks factory

In a cinema hall

In a marriage pandal.

Then, there’s the death on the road:

Your bus can descend into a gorge

Like a surface-to-surface missile, and explode.

It can hurtle on the highway and ram into another

Head on for maximum impact.

It can mow you down like a three-ton lawn mower

While you’re sleeping, waiting or walking on the pavement.

You can die on the rail:

Your train may derail and nosedive from a bridge

To become a spectacular heap of twisted metal and men.

It may telescope into another

To leave as many wounded and dead

As in the month-long Kargil bloodshed.

You can die by water:

Your rescue boat may capsize midstream.

You can die in high spirits

By drinking hooch.

You can die feasting

On infected food.

You can die in a hospital

Of a fake drug or of sheer neglect.

You can die

In a police station

Of mere interrogation.

And you can die for so many causes:

You can be stabbed or hacked

In the name of your caste.

You can be shot through

In the name of your class.

You can be blown into shreds

In the name of your state.

You can be roasted alive

In the name of your faith.

In short, you can achieve martyrization

In the name of any hallucination.

Oh dear,

When there’re so many ways to die here

And everyday

In peaceful times

Do we really need a war?

Do we really need a holocaust?

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