Re:The flag that refused to burn

["HOMI KAIKOBAD" <>]

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THE FLAG WHICH REFUSED TO BURN 

Kya Hua?
Protestors poured fuel on cloth and set it alight
And with force tried to settle a long, brutal fight

For some reason the cloth refused to catch fire
And left the zealots in an awkward situation dire.

Some ask, mystified:
Why this strange immunity from flames?

Answer:
To see omen in cloth and inept prejudiced hand
Is to see in a goat's entrails* some design grand.

Look instead at hearts which did not ever ignite
Watching outsiders* settle the matter by might

A shell* which falls in a crowded mohalla or bustee
May be from across border or homegrown hastee*

It will scream in the night and arrive in the dark
And cut a child in two because it met the mark

The people of Kashmir are upon the block for sale
Blight is upon their Valley and killers roam their vale

The Valley is no longer in Book or Tract or List
The ravagers will annihilate it and send it into the Mist*.

Meanings of outlandish words -
goat's entrails - a system of divination prevalent in the Dogones.
outsiders - everyone at the helm of Kashmiri affairs in non-Kashmiri
shell - shoulder mounted howitzers can hit a target from a mile away
hastee - make, manufacture
the Mist - Hades, Jihannum, Dozak, Narak, Hell, Netherworld

Arya












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