13th April, 1919. Jallianwala Bagh.
We’ve all heard the stories,
We’ve all studied the chapter in school,
We’ve all read in horror about the atrocities from that day,
We’ve all cursed General Dyer,
And we have all moved on with our lives.
Every year, on this day, we remember the incident,
We read about it in the papers,
We post updates on social media,
We say a prayer for the departed souls,
We curse General Dyer again,
And then we move on with our lives again.
Until next year.
But seriously,
Spare a moment,
Think about it,
A thousand lives lost, maybe more,
No one knows how many,
No one knows their names,
No one remembers their faces,
No one can be sure who they were,
All we know is they were freedom fighters,
Gathered peacefully, on the occasion of Baisakhi.
Let them not have died in vain,
Let their sacrifice never be forgotten,
Spare a moment for them,
Remember them in silence if you must,
But do remember them,
Remember their sacrifice,
They died so we could breathe free air,
They died so we would be free from the shackles of oppression,
They died so that we wouldn’t have to die for our freedom,
Let’s spare a moment and say a prayer for them.
Gone but never forgotten.