Why India, Ma?

 I asked the divine, “Why here, why now?”

“Why India, Ma, when the world is wide?”

And in the silence, winds did sigh,

And the soil beneath me softly replied.

“Because here,” she whispered, “the Earth remembers.”

Each grain of dust, a scripture, a prayer,

Each breeze, a hymn from forgotten temples,

Each tear, a drop from the eyes of care.

India, where past and present merge,

Where spirit walks in every lane.

Where fire burns with ancient urge,

And rivers cleanse both joy and pain.

“You carry a light,” the good god said,

“That belongs to this land’s breath and thread.

Its story runs through your waking dream,

Its pulse beats beneath your every theme.”

“Stay, because your roots know this ground.

Stay, because your purpose circles round.

Stay, because your voice, your soul, your fight—

Are part of restoring my trapped light.”

By Gulsha Begum