RAM LALLA CALLS

RAM LALLA CALLS

This cold is killing,

The spine is chilling

But the mind is willing

To visit Ram Lalla

At holy Ayodhya

At his very own dwelling.

The heart is swelling,

Our love is welling,

But the foes are felling

Brickbats galore.

The wounds are sore,

The deaths of gore,

Those souls no more

Who fell for Ram,

Dead and done,

Under the sun,

And were cast into

Holy Sarayu's run.

Their memory flashes

This holy morn,

Of times bygone

When Ram Lalla played

In dewy dawn

Ere the swords unsheathed

Of barbarous force

With no remorse 

Reduced the site

To rubble and dust.

Then the House

Of 'The God' came up

And was forgotten soon

As the foreign foes

Withdrew from the land.

But the children of Ram

Never gave up claim

And tried access

To their holy site.

'The God's' own ones

Raised ruckus, fight,

To pray, to preach,

To their own ones reach.

Brothers in arms

Now fought and sought

To right reclaim

Their coveted square.

The ruling came

That if all were game,

They both could pray,

Worship, stay,

On either side

Of railing raised,

The Lord be praised,

Should settle things.

But riots broke out

Oft and killed

Holy lives

With unholy knives.

The blood flowed

Till freedom time

Mother's arms

Were spared no harm

And severed from stock

In the butcher's block.

India freed,

Patel agreed

To build Somnath yet again.

But none decreed

The same for Ram,

The holy dham

In waste lay dead.

On a dark, dense night

At the holy site,

A flash of light

Blinded sight

Of gateman Ali,

Barkat by name,

Whose sight restored

He saw in store

Ram Lalla's form,

Self-manifest

To which pious he

Did soon attest

Before Magistrate.

The idol placed

By human hands,

Foes did claim.

The locks sealed all

From view of Ram

Save the priests in charge

To ritual deal.

Years rolled on

And on and on

Till one fine morn

A bereft mom,

Of husband shorn,

Divorced, deserted,

Did call the court

To seek redress

On meher's count.

The Court Supreme 

Did deem it right

To set aright

Her life's raw deal.

The beehive struck,

The clerics berserk,

Did force the rulers

On their knees

To enact a law

That would outlaw

The Court's decree.

Shah Bano denied,

The Mullahs sighed

In brief relief.

But the Hindus cried

Against the deal,

They did appeal

To the masses at large

That the men in power

Did meekly cower

For votes to please,

To yet appease

The regressive ones.

But the very same

In Ram Lalla's name

Would not but bend

An inch from end.

The rulers' fright,

In deepest plight

Now took to flight

From sanest course

To counter-please

And set to ease

The Hindu mass

To lock release

And let them in

For worship, sight

Of Ram's misery,

Terrible plight.

The call went up

For freeing the site

From Babur's right.

The rulers reeled

Yet again

And let shilanyas

Be for gain.

Elections round

The corner now,

The feud fuelled

Did reach the brow.

Till the mob swelled large

And the bullets rained

Innocents died

And the movement gained

The said momentum

In chariot charge,

Across the length

Of the nation large.

One fateful morn

The gates did crash

Of thousands gathered

They made the dash.

Down went the dome,

The disputed home

Of conquest, force

And culture clash.

Riots broke out

Throughout the land,

Innocents died

Of every strand.

Bombay suffered

The worst attack

In serial blast

The city was racked.

A thousand died

And hundreds more,

The nation bled

In gushes galore.

'The Places of Worship

Act' being passed

Had stalled meanwhile

All claims to site

That disputed stood

Barring Ayodhya alone

On its fate to brood.

Exempt from Act of '91,

Ram Lalla to court

To see it done,

Filed the case

To settle His rights,

The matter by law

In place of fights.

ASI survey revealed a lot

Hindu relics beneath the plot.

The Courts did rule

And unrule claims,

The case lingered

While both sides blamed

Their rivals in and out of court,

Faith fuelling feud that sort

But all the same

In holy name

They did in fact data lay,

Dates and legal tact and play

Before the judges,

Wise and free,

A bench of five

To oversee

Whose right it was

To holy site.

The judgement came

To Ram reclaim

His ancestral home

Where he did roam

As child and youth

And best of men

And God on earth

Till Sarayu's waters

Laid its claim

On the holy form

To run its course

And raise its norm.

Ram has thus come 

Full swing free

To breathe in life

In the race that be

Of solar descent

And of sunlit sight

Where the third eye sees

Through the dark deep night

That engulfs the world

That with sword but kills

And might unfurls

For an hour or two

Ere like dust arisen

As dust doth die

While the temple spire

Doth rise so high

That men may see

Ram Lalla nigh.

No more, no more

In tent or lock,

No more, no more

In butcher's block.

They have passed away

Those barbarous hordes,

They have left behind

Their broken swords.

Now rising with the air so free,

In fragrant spring Thou ever be.

Ram Lalla plays in Ayodhya's groves

With Lakshman, Bharat, Shatrughna roves.

Never again shall the dark night be,

Behold the boy who shall set us free.

Composed by Sugata Bose