Tiger Hill

a poem by Mayank Mohan Pande

The tale of our sub-continent is not difficult to analyze.
Without going into matters for which others are paid
to have an accurate understanding,
I dedicate these lines to my former comrades in arms
and their gallant enemies,
both living and dead.
The trigger behind this expression is the fact that
I wish to drive to Korea and people who belong to us block our land routes,
and over whom and the land of the Sindhu, we have an ancestral claim.

The guns boomed over the Tiger Hill,
The world watched with its breadth held still.
Einstein would not have worked if he had known
it would lend to external military brass,
An excuse for them to present the Kashmir war as being fought over grass.
The political equations of the great thinker’s time,
Have not changed likewise, since the days of the gentlemen who sucked lime.
Thus sometimes I weep and sometimes rage over
this phase lag between us and those who rule the roost.
Let us look to the future and the morale of our poor’s morale do boost.