Vijay Diwas; remembering Kargil (written in 2009)

 Vijaya Diwas

 

10 years of forgetfulness

10 years devoid of tears…

 

No resounding booms to punctuate 

The silences that now follow,

No cries of war

No silent prayers 

 

The bullets that pierced a soldier’s flesh 

And bled a mother’s heart dry 

Death awarded to those 

Who, fear so bravely defied. 

 

The thousand deities 

Of the Indian soil..

Looked on as they fell

Not a finger they raised to help,

No flashes of lightning

Simply the fires of hell…

 

Heaven ceased to exist in those days,

Leaving in it’s wake not a single ray,

An extinguished sun 

And a cavernous darkness…

 

Nowhere more pronounced 

Than in the recesses of the mind

Where memories of kargil

Seem to have been left behind…

 

For those too young to remember 

For those too old to try,

 

It’s not death that concludes life,

It’s when life’s memory dies. 

 

For those faces named and 

Those that were not…

May the valkyries bear witness,

To valiant spirits that laid their lives 

And the extraordinary battles that they so bravely fought,

 

For a country that knows not how to repay the debt.

For a country that simply would like to forget…

 

Till your own blood is laid to rest

On those mountains of bones and imminent death

You will not know what it is you’ve lost…

The victory that was won and the lives it cost.