My Mom with a sigh of relief from work today,
Exclaimed with happiness, “Yay! Holiday it is”,
She asked me, “Let’s go for ice-cream !!… a?”
She paused and said, “It is beautiful!”
Admiring the sea from the ‘TAJ’ window, “Let’s celebrate this day!”
The seagulls spread their wings, as the seas were kind today,
Joyful people everywhere with bright faces, as the sun shined sunny today,
People sat on the walls by the shore, as the waves were fun today,
Blissful Boats rowed across the waters, as the sound of the coins echoed today,
Everyone enjoying the silence, Little did we know, a storm was awaiting today!
Feeling the sea breeze on my face, as I walk,
I dressed in jeans and a brown shirt, looking for, “THE….!”,
“The chocolate ice cream, yay!”, I yell as I found the happiness’s path,
Chocolate, all over my face, I craved for more of,
Little did we know, the devil was waiting to shatter the peace!
The sun like an orange ball immersed in the blue sea,
As the white moon emerged from the depths of dark clouds,
A beautiful sight to embrace, as we head to our hotel “TAJ,”
After spending a fantastic day, let’s name it “The chocolate ice cream day !”,
Little did we know, Hope immersed in the sea as the darkness rose from it!
Dressed like commoners, they descended from the sea,
With the bag full of weapons, normal they seemed,
One of them being a teenager, little did they look violent,
Turned into monsters, blood was all they wanted,
Little did we know, eyes would burst into tears witnessing a massacre.
“Taj,” the epitome of beauty, sits by the shore like a king,
Conspirators, in the disguise of visitors, entered the Crown,
They attacked through the smoke, the most horrifying spectacle ever,
Most brutal of the brutal wars, pacify when surrendered,
This appeared as some form of a foolish war, seeking the blood, not the Crown!
“Bravo!” they called each other, can someone explain to them it is cowardly,
The injured were crying out in agony, “Save us from the terrorists!”
My Mom protecting me, we hid under the table, as innocents were assassinated,
Pulling by her hair, they drag her out of the table, my ‘Mom!’,
As they shot her, I shout at them, wanting to seek revenge, BRUTALLY!
“How should I? My Mom never taught me violence!!”
Rain of footsteps approached me, while these monsters point their gun at me,
I finally realized my Mom was waiting for the time, for the NSG to arrive,
Paying them back for what they did, The commandos rescued me!
Tears roll down my eyes; wishing had they been five minutes earlier,
Or rather, it’s time to wake up from “ The chocolate ice cream day” dream …
But, but! Alas! It was a reality!
Five years elapsed,
On this “DAY OF GRIEF,”
Paying tribute to the lost souls,
A question still kills me from within,
“WHAT IS THE REASON BEHIND THIS SLAUGHTER ?”
“IS GOD THE REASON BEHIND TERRORISM …? REALLY...!!!”
- Dedicated to all the brave souls
NSG – National Security Gaurd
I was inspired to write this poem after watching the Movie, “26/11 Mumbai attack” by Director Ram Gopal Verma.
Author’s Note
Terrorism has affected millions of innocent lives across the world. It has destroyed families. It has destroyed the future of millions of children. There are political or religious motives associated with these vicious acts, which are just psychotic. It is the call of the hour to eradicate terrorism. As Mahatma Gandhi guided us to follow the path of non-violence and peace to achieve goals, we should always abide by that.
A few days back, I was watching the film "26/11 Mumbai attacks" by Director Ram Gopal Verma. I was moved by the film so much that I even got bad dreams that night about the terrorist attack. There were scenes from the movie that showed the brutal killing of unarmed police officers and innocent civilians. It picturized scenes in Hotel Taj where a woman was shot dead while she was protecting her child. However, even the child was inhumanly shot after the death of the mother. I would just classify these terrorists as insane. That's when I decided to take up ‘Terrorism’ as my social theme for my poem.
I followed the techniques from found poetry while writing this piece. I drew inspiration from the poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Motivated by the style of this poem, I adopted a similar one to my poem. The first technique which I employed while writing this poem is ekphrasis. I used a scene from the film instead of an image while describing the incident in my poem. I was emotionally attached to the scene of the mother protecting her child as stated above. I took this as a premise while writing my poem.
The majority of the poem contains elements from chain poetry. Words were brainstormed based on the theme that is highlighted with italics. The golden shovel was used to form a few stanzas based on the sentences formed out of a few of these words (such that they come at the end of each line written in bold). It can be seen in the first stanza (‘Today is a beautiful day’), third stanza(‘Walk the path of peace’), fifth paragraph(‘Sea seemed violent wanted massacre’), and seventh stanza(‘Cowardly terrorists assassinated my mom brutally’). They are not randomly placed, I also followed a pattern while placing them in my poem. The formed sentence would either describe the entire stanza in a line or imply something about the theme of the poem.
Whereas, few stanzas were framed to highlight some poetic techniques such as personification and repetition, keeping in mind the words brainstormed (as part of chain poetry). I chose chain poetry because it gave me the liberty to express my thoughts without strict confinement, however, giving me the direction not to deviate too much from the theme. The golden shovel was challenging as I had to fit my thoughts for the stanza with a greater constraint. But I chose to use it because the stanza hence formed is beautiful for the reader to read it and understand.
The social theme of the poem was directly put forward by posing a question at the end of the poem. I wanted the reader to get emotionally attached to the suffering of the victims of a terror act. After that, I urged the reader to think about the reason behind this massacre. Terrorism has to be eradicated by any means. The reason behind this brutal behavior seems insane and senseless. I tried to imply this idea in my poem. I had tried to cover all the elements of social poetry such as the use of concrete words instead of abstract ideas, usage of imagery, usage of poetic devices such as simile and metaphor. I believe I used imagery to express the details of the incident that occurred on that dreadful night. Though the tone becomes sad at points to express the strong emotion associated with the victims, I think it does not become monotonous, cliche, and sentimental.
Finally, I want to thank the professor, for her motivational comments for my work, which inspired me to write this poem.