I had never spent mornings
in elaborate obeisance
before idols of gods and goddesses
because I never believed-
all beings were born without power and strength,
and evolved only by destiny, chance and nature...
But,
.... the convinced mind was soon left in the lurch
The Uttrakhand disaster left me bare...
made me unsure of my stand..
Just as an ordinary day, in June, 2013
Rain God came down,
hurtling the 'sacred hill' in a storm of rain
It uprooted the boulders
...knotted 'all' in a ball of death
The skies sulked...the hills grieved
God who lived up there conceivably cringed
I often wonder..
'Did God really conspire this bombing?'
The flights of vultures
etched against temple's eaves,
dab many questions today...
I desire to know-
'Does God sometimes cry??'
The pieces of death
strewn along the sacred hill have reasons to rueEven now my heart ...
....weeps for the fate of those who died
and..... sinks!
I realize, in truth...I'm vulnerable, unprotected
How lucky I am to be alive, to be living!
My trance breaks...
Rubbing my hands, I curl up in my room
the pull is decisive- I surrender myself
To appease the malice of gods
Wait.
Garhwal Himalaya is considered adobe of
Gods: this beautiful and difficult terrain has numerous majestic peaks. During
the peak pilgrimage season, in 2013 , the region received unexpectedly heavy rain,
causing unprecedented magnitude of death and destruction, especially in
Kedarnath (site of God Shiva-a deity) due to cloud burst causing a glacial lake
burst and flash flood downstream. In this tragedy, more than
thousand people died, many thousands (mostly pilgrims) went missing,
several villages were completely destroyed, hundreds of villages are still rendered inaccessible.
