A Run for Survival

“A roof over your head, a lock on your door and a few bucks in your pocket”, if that’s how you define safety then maybe you haven’t been to the other side!

The following poem is my take on the notion of ‘safety’ as one that we practise in our country. 

I’m humbled to share that my piece won 1st prize at the National level Poetry Writing Contest '20 organised by the Fire and Security Association of India and has been selected for publication in the FSAI Journal, 2022 (Pg 74).

Hope you have a good read and some worthy takeaways!

“SAFE INDIA”

Fire Safety, Security Concerns and Women Safety

It was always taken care 

That I should feel safe,

Cause for a girl this world is

A lifetime threatening place.

 

They say that laws have been laid

For a peaceful resolution,

So, you go out seeking justice and 

They seem as deceptive as an illusion.

Imagine a dark shady road

In the late-night hour,

Turn around for a help and

The corrupt hands are not far.

 

Self defence is the word for ‘her’

Cause her attire is one open inviting maim,

When all this while she wanted to learn was,

“Hey! You’re safe. We’ve stopped ‘his’ ugly game.”

Today, every other Indian reiterates 

This fancy word of “Women Empowerment” 

But shouldn’t we basically empower “Education-for-all”?

It would shut the critic eyes of the ignorant minds

It would shun the evils lurking in the nightfall.

Did you ever wonder?

How solemnly we tend to gather at the vigils 

of a million young women who didn’t deserve to die,

When will we realise,

Those young bright candles in our hands plead to burn safely 

Just so there’s no room for another outcry! 

An immediate concern for India

Is said to be its perpetuating poverty,

But unseen are those vested leaders

Assuring us a fallacious security.

Auctioned in the labyrinth of politics is,

Just another bait called “Development”

Shown to the world are sky-high statues,

Hidden underneath is the commissions in the cement.

Authorities that sanction arbitrary contracts or

Builders who under-report their expenses,

Who is to take the blames?

When hundreds of multi stories

Built in violation of structural norms,

Burn like hell in the arresting flames.

 

Some years ago, there was a fire in my neighbourhood

More than the sand and water buckets in hand,

I saw crowd of phone cameras capturing the incident

Either they didn’t know how to extinguish the fire,

Or they simply stood indifferent.

The blaring sirens of fire brigades

Alarm at the negligence we’d practiced through,

With low-resistance wires and no fire exits in place,

The precious life and assets bid us adieu!

Don’t we stand united 

In the name of national sovereignty?

Then what leads us to infringe 

Our fellow peoples’ security?

Isn’t individual liberty in India

enlisted as a constitutional right?

Then why there’s still a need for protests 

to claim back our pride?

No, this poetry doesn’t knock at the door of a rising Feminist voice

But yes, it’s a conscious verse advocating a Right of choice

Like a beautiful red rose has thorns,

An ideal “Surakshit Bharat” will also have chaos.

It’s about who we are and what we can become,

Will make our lives a little more wholesome. 

~Poem by AGRITA ARORA