The Gift

[What does it take to make our ministers sit up and pull up their socks? Isn’t it high time our mantris took some punitive as well as preventive action against terrorism?? If this incident doesn’t make our politicians take charge of the situation, nothing will.]

The Home Minister of India came home that evening,
And remembered on seeing his daughter:
That next day, the young girl would be turning
Ten; yet he hadn’t bought any gifts for her.

The girl was on the couch- watching TV;
The minister sat himself down too.
“Tomorrow’s your birthday,” he said, “So tell me,
What gift would you like me to get you?

Speak your heart out, ask of me anything,
I can give you diamond mines- forget mere earrings;
You know I’m a minister of this country,
There’s nothing which is out of my capacity.”

And while this was being said, the little girl
Never once took her eyes off the screen;
The girl was watching a news channel,
And was appalled by what she had just seen:

Everywhere in the country, there was wanton bloodshed,
Scenes of brutal violence were being shown;
The public, sick of terror, and full of hatred
For the minister, wanted him to be overthrown.

And as another building billowed up in smoke,
The minister’s daughter finally spoke:
“Rid your nation of terror, restore tranquility-
If not for your people, at least do it for me.

“Daddy, if you give me this gift for my birthday,
I should like it more than any diamond.”
And saying this, the girl simply walked away,
Leaving her minister-father stunned.

Her words, though spoken with sheer innocence,
Were more powerful than nuclear fission;
And the only sound that broke the silence,
Was of gunshots from the television…

[The Gift was published and displayed at Kala Ghoda by the Times Group as part of a tribute to 26/11 terror victims.]