Religion

     - By Prashant Narang

  (1947)

A waif squalling sheds some torn tears

In front of the just stopped Lahore-express

With 'Allah-ho-akbar' engraved on bogeys

Haunted with dead mass of Hindu blood-sludge

He being appalled and checked under his nappy

By sanguinary Sikh-Hindu young men vengefully

Muslim? No apparently, not labeled Hindu either

What's his blood religion? That matters

  (1984)

By Prashant Narang

He's back again shedding some tears

After peaceful existence of thirty-seven years

At the same railway platform in Amritsar

Now it's the grim Delhi-mail exploding

Hindu bodies shattered and flaring

They know his supposed religion, evident

From naked hair and trimmed moustache

Clueless, confused and frantic, where to go

Golden temple? He's been going there everyday

But today there he'll be blindly slaughtered

He thinks about the Hindu gods and temples

Ten incarnations of Vishnu, vaguely remembers

Tries to spell 'Om', ends up saying 'Ek omkar'

Surrenders, recites 'sabads' from Sri Granth sahib

Hindu? No apparently, not labeled a Sikh either

What's his blood religion? That matters