Parallel Flashback

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The tripod was set

For an informal tête-à-tête

I flipped open, not just my laptop but

Also someone’s memories of the past, which cut

To today, were just some horrors of the bygone,

Some acts that couldn’t be undone.

The first question was enough

Said the Sardar in a voice not so tough,

It was the roughest time he’d seen

For nothing could match the scene

Of a father being shot by a bullet

And witnessed by his son, who was only eight.

Life, Oxygen and Corona

When the location is explained in detail

It pulls him back through still, a tightly attached brail

Lost a home, lost a livelihood

He questioned, “Why should I remember my childhood?”

Living the life of an immigrant

Is like looking at the scraps as a Holy grant

“We’d come back, I was sure,

Who knew that only my vision was pure?” 

If it wasn’t for India, who else will it be for?

Said some of those, unaware of the shore

He believed; this wasn’t what they deserved

After all that they had persevered

Britishers had ruled for such a long while

That it made their unity too fragile

It was hurt, it was shattered

He said, “I think human life was the last thing that mattered.”

The Sardar hasn’t appreciated mobile phones ever

Said they take away the peace forever

However, today, in 2021, the age of demise,

Where death seems similar to the 1947 premise,

Unattended, uncared for, negligent

There are few who are being resilient.

He said, “Your phone is currently helping many in need,

Perhaps, if we had phones, I could at the time call Waheed,

My only friend, now in another land.”

At that time, “We picked up the swords,”

Swore to never mince anymore words

This time, pick up the gadget, but do it for the “right use,” he said,

People need aid, people need bread

“Who said History doesn’t repeat?”

Citizens always fall prey to politicians’ conceit

The collapse seems inevitable, and just a comparison,

“This time, the truth is as real as the vision”

Yes, the system is shattered

Perhaps, to them, human lives never mattered.

Image Source: Pixabay.com