Just wrote this poem after reading The Kite Runner. But had the idea in mind since Lajja & A Thousand Splendid Suns.
REFUGEESEarlier when we used to talk about refugees,
I used to think of them as adoptees. (by a particular country)
I didn’t used to respect them,
In fact I used to consider them as condemned.
People, who run from their country and enter the other country forcefully,
Snatching away it’s people’s rights from their native land,
And making everything bland.
But recently my view has been changed,
That they are not the people estranged.
When I got to read about them in some books,
I realised that they are the people on tenterhooks.
People who have to leave their everything behind,
And had to run for their own lives.
People, some of whom are very rich in their land,
Who have all the luxuries and living so grand.
But unfortunately they have to face this crisis,
When they feel that their life is in an abyss.
They have to face such atrocities,
Some disturbed souls’ animosities.
Obviously no one want to leave their home,
To escape to a stranger land and roam alone.
A land where they have to take others’ obligations,
But they have to do it for their own salvation.
Often the sight in refugee camps is beyond imagination,
Some people die because of starvation.
Some die from infectious diseases,
While some when the weather freezes.
Their lives change forever,
Though whatever happens later.
——
This realisation shows how shallow we live,
Why are we like that? Can’t we be more sensitive?
Now I know they too are like us,
Life is not smooth with them thus.
My sympathy to all the refugees of the world,
May God help them and save them from the whirl.Thank you friends.
Medhavi Jain
