Somewhere, from here to there,
Those stormy issues are not over.
I share with you, most frankly,
What lives within my heart’s reason.

I ask you all,
What, to the poor, down-trodden child is:
Our 15th of August?
What, to the poor, down-trodden child is:
The actual meaning of ‘Independence’?
What, to the poor, down-trodden child is:
The meaning of any dreams of progress?
Do tell me,
How will the poor, down-trodden child ever know:
What his true role is on earth?
Towards us? Towards his ancestry?
How will this kid realize his actual goals?

Somewhere, from here to there,
We must understand how ignorance
Plays its embracing deadly game.
The fact of fact has been –
This little one was born in a slave’s cradle.
He will remain in a slave’s frame.
Under the pools of continuous illiterateness,
He will breed slaves.
Stabbed by the relentless anguish of illiteracy,
Hand in hand, with this luckless kid,
The curses of many prejudices will cry to us:
We’re yours! We’re yours!

What, to the poor, down-trodden child are:
The festivals of lights and revelry?
On whose windblown sunken face,
There is no mirth, only mental darkness.
Unless! Unless! His soul is kindled by:
The light of knowledge, basic knowledge,
He will remain blind and devoid
Of any measures of human form.
Ascend! We are the chosen awakeners!
We are the silver chimes of hope:
To bring in a certain happy change,
For the poor, down-trodden child.

Let’s rise like gentle knights,
And see with human eyes,
The cause to educate –
The poor, down-trodden child.

Dubai
October 2012

Geeta Chhabra

Recitation took place at a very recent event of EKAL in Dubai, UAE – promoting the importance of ‘basic education’, for the less privileged children of society. For more information on EKAL, please visit the website: www.ekal.org.