The Poet,politician and Prime Minsiter.
Source: The Telegraph,Calcutta.
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HIROSHIMA RETURNS TO PAIN POET PMÿ
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FROM VINY MISHRA
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New Delhi, May 21ÿ
The Pokhran tests may have added feathers to Atal Behari Vajpayee, the politician's cap, but they have stained the quill of Atal Behari Vajpayee, the poet.
He must have hoped that his poem, Hiroshima ki Peeda (Pain of Hiroshima), published in 1995 and reprinted this year in a collection titled Meri Ikkyavan Kavitayein(My Fifty-one Poems) would be the one statement he made that would be forgotten. Ironically, and unfortunately for him, it was the one poem that was being recited as part of a ballet on Vajpayee's verses, produced as an ode to the man.
Archana Khosla, an NSD graduate who conceived and directed the ballet, had no satirical plans. In fact, she is one of those who loudly proclaim that the nuclear tests are proof of India's strength.
But the poem, which wonders at the consciences of the scientists who could produce means of mass destruction, just happened to sit badly with the recent "jai vigyan" odes Vajpayee has been singing to the scientists who crafted the devices that were set off to show off India's destructive prowess.
To be fair to Khosla, she was planning the ballet for a while, unaware along with everyone else of the imminent tests. She had been waiting for the Prime Minister to find time to attend the performance, but since it seemed unlikely in the near future and she had to go abroad, it was held on May 14, while the world was still rocking with the news of the blasts.
The poem goes: "Kisi raat ko/ Meri neend achaanak uchat jaati hai,/ Aankh khul jaati hai,/ Main sochne lagta hoon ki/ Jin vaigyanikon ne anu astron ka/ Aavishkaar kiya thaa:/ Ve Hiroshima-Nagasaki ke/ Bheeshan narsanhar ke samachar sunkar,/ Raat ko soye kaise honge?.... Kya unhe ek kshan ke liye sahi, yeh anubhuti hui ki unke hathon jo kuch hua, accha nahi hua?/ Yadi hui, to vakt unhe katghare mein khada nahi karegaa,/ Kintu yadi nahi hui to itihaas unhe kabhi/ Maaf nahi karegaa.
(On some night/ I am suddenly awakened,/ My eyes open,/ I start thinking that/ The scientists who invented nuclear weapons:/ After hearing the news of the horrific massacre of Hiroshima-Nagasaki,/ How could they have slept at night?.... Did they, even for a moment/ feel that what happened through their hands/ Was not good?/ If they did, then time will not place them in the dock,/ But if they didn't then history will never/ Forgive them.)"
The show ended with another twist - a Vajpayee poem which said years ago, "Vishva-shanti ke hum saadhak hain,/ Jung na hone denge (We worship world peace and will not allow a war)."
Perhaps Pakistan should call India's bluff for, this Prime Minister's heart is in peace. Or is it? ÿ ÿ
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