Surely
A crime it is
Co-existing
Unseen lines drawn
On each step
On each look
A crime it is
Living together too.
A life started
Afresh, unaware
Stands like a question
A mark between
Indelible lines.
Those houses
Are of pa, are of Allah
These houses
Are of ma, are of their Gods
Says five year old Sahir.
Starts life once more
The same question.
So sad, even this tiny tot’s
Life can’t shake the taut structure.
Two clashing border lines
The houses of those of ma’
The houses of these of pa’
Border lines of two faiths
Between his sport and play
Marking his moves and movements
His conduct and character
-2-
Love is no crime
Keeping a Bindi on
Or wiping it off at the outskirts
No crime.
Mere habits
Simple markers
Mere features
Both
‘Saraswati Namasthubhyam’
‘Allaho Akbar’.
Yet,
Travel you must great distances
Between tow conjugal configurations
Against tow provocative names
Fignting the forbidding roots.
Yet,We remain-
She a temple,
Me a Masjid.
Then,
Which synagogue hanging mid air
Should we together
Fix as a token
For our tiny tot?
-3-
Philosophers too wouldn’t predict
If we can ever reach a stage sans religion
Even atheists wouldn’t give up
Bangles, Hindi or Saffronisms
Nor do rationalists and Kafirs
Their totems.
May be religion too like
Blood has crept up the body?
-4-
Borderline between body and body politic
Between body and religion
Between body and human bond
Between body and passion
A border line
en
tren
ching !
[Translated from Telugu by Vangunta Mohan Prasad from the volume sarihaddu Rekha 2002
poem titled ‘Sarihaddu Rekha’ (P.27) ]
