WAR

There was peace at last. Till yesterday I could hear the guns been fired, men getting deployed at various sites, till yesterday we were hungry we were tired and suffering from sleeplessness. Our brains numb with all that was happening. Suddenly there was complete silence. Strange this silence was so loud that my ear drums were giving its way. I looked at my partner who was resting by my side. He too was silent and was looking blindly at a distance. After some time he said "peace at last but this peace is like the coma, the punctuation mark, so it is just few minutes of silence". I made myself comfortable and relaxed my bruised tired body on the bark of a tree and kept thinking what he said. I felt that it was true. What is war? It is a source to torture other people a freedom to kill. When we are at war we are fighting for our country it is true and we do return like a hero and get all the heros welcome but inside we are broken souls and we know we come back with blood in our hands. All the bloodshed that we saw and all the blood that we have spilled who will remove them beyond trace? Our hands are covered with dry blood and it is so deep in our roots now that we cant remove them. I can remove the traces of those whom I have slayed.

I walked up-to the stream which had clean water once and now it is covered with blood and was flowing gently with its head hung in shame of what it saw. Stood there looking at it and then dipped my hands in it. The water was cold. i started scrubbing my hands ferociously just to remove the smell and the traces of every thing but it was of no good even after repetitive trials. I could not take any more I broke down I lay there on the banks full of moist leaves and cried like a baby who has lost some one dear..

Pallavi Moita

03/08/2012