Shail explores the disastrous outcome of an age obsessed with negativity using methods like hijacking a train, using occult to satiate desire for wealth and a festival taken for ransom by a regime, exclusively for Different Truths.
Occult takes over hospital
Disorder is the order of the day.
If there was any doubt about Kaliyug,
events happening in the country
and the globe clears that.
The place to check in when ill, to
be treated in all confidentiality,
for Bollywood celebrities,
the Lilavati Hospital, Mumbai
now in the news once again.
Only some weeks ago, actor Saif
Ali Khan raised the TRP so to say
of the glamour hospital walking
in hurt knifed by a burglar.
Now, family feud, fraud, embezzlement
plaguing the place of healing for VIPS.
If that wasn’t enough,
urns of hair and skeletons
found, part of a master plan
to cheat, to bring harm to some
of the trustees of the hospital.
A Rs 1500 crore fraud achieved
with the aid of occult practices.
I guess, the old-fashioned way
of cheating didn’t do the job.
It needed some skulls to bob!
A train hijacking, a speed dialing terror
The Train, Escape to Normandy,
a video game about a train hijacker.
In reality, a train hijacked in the Netherlands
in 1977. Not very common like an airplane
hijackings and yet a means to trade
terror like it happened in Pakistan
recently, the Jaffer Express by the
Baluchistan Liberation Army.
Some hostages, police personnel
and militants killed. Nothing achieved
except unwarranted loss of life,
anarchy and misled thought process.
Happening that it did in the holy
the month of Ramadan, it only left behind
a consequence of a shallow system
of functioning knowing well that
the Jaffer Express had been a target
by the terrorists before.
For the youth of today, a replica
of a video game.
For those who lost their near and dear,
a lifelong trauma of hurt, tears and fear.
The Sambhal tale of discord
Said to be the birthplace of the
last avatar of Lord Vishnu.
Also, the place where the Shahi
Jama Masjid exists, the land
now an area of contention,
‘was it or was it not a temple before?’
the age-old query for most ancient
Islamic monuments. But what has
colour to do with the district of Sambhal?
Nothing but another Hindu festival
in a largely Muslim populated area, if not for
a careless, insensitive comment thrown
in the wind by a UP cop asking Muslims
to pray at home on Friday of the
Holi festival.
“After all, Holi comes once a
Year. Juma (Friday) comes 52 times a year”
he stated.
It takes a small matchstick to light a big fire
like in Holika Dahan (bonfire signifying
the burning of evil), riot a block away
from home. Surely, what Shirdi Sai Baba
achieved ages ago can be accomplished
even today, considering that people
are more flexible and understanding.
But, who’s to tie the mouths of slandering
people acting as hypocritical spokespersons
of the common man, be it politician or the media?
All wanting to have a delicious swipe of
non-existent cause of discord.
Colour knows no religion.
Is orange creating a black
of the green? After all, living
in harmony has been a reality
for ages in our country, not
just an illusion or a petty dream!
References:
Picture design by Anumita Roy
Shail Raghuvanshi is a poet, freelance journalist, copyeditor, voice actor, and artist with 30 years of experience in various media. She has worked as the Cultural Correspondent for India’s first integrated media company, PLUS Channel, and has written course material for Madurai Kamaraj University’s Post Graduate Programme in Advertising and Public Relations. She has also been a coach of Communicative English. She has published poems, short stories, and articles in leading magazines and anthologies.
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