Ravinder Bhathal

Ravinder Bhathal (b. 1943) is mainly concerned with the plight of the have-nots. Folk tales of Punjab have greatly influenced his mind. He has to his credit collections of poems such as Kale Kohan ton Parhe (1975), Odri Dhupp (1978) and Pagal Paunan (1995).

Danabad

Don't be so sad
and don't weep bitterly
that the time is out of joint
and it will
usher in calamity.
Perhaps you think
the time is like Mirza's Sahiban
who has flung on the Jand of animosity
the bow of our thoughts
and the arrows of our dreams
have been snapped mercilessly.

Time has passed beneath our feet
like the stream of fire
Time has passed over our heads
like the storm of swords.
Only our hearts know
what we have been subjected to
and in what manner.
We saw the ghosts dancing
and the witches quaffing off blood.
We saw at every crossroad
God being slaughtered.
We saw the holy scriptures
being reduced to cinders.
We saw the mothers keening
The children crying,
the fathers frightened
and the sisters committing suicide.
We saw the houses crumbling,
The rivers in spate
The eyes deceiving, the hearts betraying
The hands holding daggers, the feet straying
and the brows knitted into the folds of hatred.

Everything is improper
everything is horrendous incredibly
but the official mansions are embellished
and the pages of the law books
flutter gleefully in the blast.

This is the tornado of Kalyug
raging fiercely all around
it will run its course no doubt
but not before causing havoc.
Many years will be needed
to remove the garbage
and to cleanse the minds polluted.

Even then don't lose heart
come along to take hold of
the reins of the time.
Sahiban is not to be blamed solely
for being untrue,
Mirza is equally blameworthy.
This time is not for slumber
but for rushing ahead to
Danabad
by holding tightly the reins of
Bucky (the mare)
to break into a gallop.
Danabad is not merely
the name of a village
it is the land of our ideas
and the pleasant dreams.
Don't be sad
and dont be crestfallen,
dithering on the way,
so long as the onward journey
beckons us.                                                 Danabad (1987)