I live in a country which was founded on love and faith
But now I’m being taught to fear and hate
Come share with me this collective fate
Where the people are prisoners by the will of the state.
I feel numb, succumbed by these insecurities
Where the roads are wet with the blood of minorities
The rich are safe in their high security
Tearing us apart with corrupt authority.
Sometimes I think I’m living a nightmare
How easy it is to kill, but so tough to care?
You killed a man who was ferrying his cattle
God is crying seeing you win a false battle
These words are harsh but not so brittle
A Hindu-Muslim in love but scared to settle.
Children stand tall in front of a loaded gun
The tears of a mother who can’t talk to her son
The phones lines are cut with a razor sharp law
The backs are scarred, silenced with a broken jaw.
Tied to a pole, dragged by their arms
A man dies screaming ‘Jai Shri Ram’
You want to chase dreams and your ambitions
But get pulled back by shouts of ‘Haraam Haraam!’
The building plans are made, the verdict is in
One more place where alphas claim their win
What about the people whose heart bore the sword
A holy ground; yet the most unholy sins
We look alive from the outside but are dead from within
This is where I am from, where have you been?
You can’t unsee what our eyes have seen
A country which is great on TV screens
This is what we call a democracy
Lungs choked with smoke, minds with lunacy.
The value of life is lower than scum
On a pile of corpses the anthem is sung
Decaying bodies, from a tree they are hung
We are losing our minds, but we think we’ve won
Are we free and secular? We are none!
I still keep belief in our constitution
Maybe one day it will come to a peaceful fruition
Where the land will come to meet the seas
Where a Brahmin can freely hug an OBC
I might sound a bit of an idealist
But it so hurts to see this as a realist
I write this at the risk of sounding sentimental
It’s alright, go ahead call me an ‘anti-national’.
Ayushman Basu is a marketer by profession with dreams of becoming a musician one day. Even if the album might not be a hit, it will strike a chord with some people.
Featured image credit: Pariplab Chakraborty