(Written after the devastating Uttarakhand tragedy in June 2014)
I’ll find God, when to a temple I go
Allah will bless me, when in a mosque I bow my head
low
When I pray in a church, Jesus shall keep me in the
hollow of his hand
I must visit Amritsar, for it is the Guru’s land!
I shall take an arduous route
The one that goes through the mighty mounts
The one that crosses the gigantic waterfalls
I will reach my God if I take all pains
When I travel along the plains
Or row my boat on the rivers
When I climb up the mountains
Or make my way through the forest
I shall think only of God
My mind, waiting to be sanctified
My heart, wanting to worship
My soul, ready to be purified
Not once will I look at the trees
And weep, for they have been cut down to make way for
me
Not once will I observe the rivers and lakes
And moan, for they change their course so that I
travel my path
I shall reach my destination
I shall like to believe I am with my God, my creator
I shall pray to the Almighty, for my peace, my protection
For my safety, my future, the fulfilment of my desires
I shall thank God for all that I have
For my family, my friends, for those who love me
I shall ask for more
A big balance, a bigger car, the best life
Not once shall I care about the bounties of nature
Not once shall I express my gratitude for the air that
I breathe in
Not once shall I feel humble for the water that
quenches my thirst
Not once shall I vow to take care of my God’s world
But I should be safe
My needs should be satisfied
My wants must be fulfilled
My miseries should be dispelled
I pray for all that I wish to possess
And thus begin my journey back home
The potent mountains seem to stare
The raging rivers give me a glare
And then……
Newspaper headlines point to a ‘natural calamity’
Experts figure out the loss of a thousand lives due to
nature’s fury
Yet again, nobody spares a thought to human’s
recklessness
To exploitation of natural resources by humans
To our sheer negligence
To us, being the predators; nature’s only the prey
Who said victims don’t rebel?
Who said tolerance doesn’t have limits?
The Uttarakhand tragedy was nature’s response
We have our wakeup call
It is time to address the concern by us all
It is time we start erasing the long essays of
destruction that we’ve written on this Earth
And write a whole new poem of preservation,
protection and an eco-friendly existence!
