My Neighbour Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

My neighbour, I can see him always at work at the borders,
The Indo-Pak border not,
The Indo-Chinese borders,
In the northeast,
Busy with making a narrow lane,
Planting trees,
Which will remain their
But the fruits will hang by in my campus
Which I cannot pluck.

My neighbour with the spies of his own, keep others spying for him,
Raising the curtain,
They keep hearing our talks,
Seeing in that way,
Marking as thus,
Sometimes giving support to my enemy
Who is his friend,
Building roads in Pak-occupied Kashmir.

Always in the effort to turn the border stones out,
Heaping soil,
Intruding into,
Shaking hands and calling Tibet its own,
India too poked into the matters of Tibet
As it was an independent state,
The Indio-Chinese war kept all the treaties, pacts at bay
And we lost many of our soldiers.

Again, have they started patrolling the area,
Saying it that it is a blunder of history
That sold they the lands,
The surveyor measured not rightly,
So the Chinese surveyor must be called in,
India saying that his surveyor too will stand by
And see the measurement,
But Mr., lands are not measured, but settled,
As given by the government in the interest of the people.

Chou En-lai visited India, shook the hands with Nehru and betrayed
India’s emotions by saying Hindi-Chini bhai, bhai,
So, keeping in view, fear I my neighbour the most
As he also wants to build a passage around my house
At the cost of my own,
Saving his own plot of land.

In 1989, I saw the Tiananmen Square protest
And the army crushing its pro-democracy movements
And protesters as per the domestic policy,
Marred by protests, violence and the bloody crackdown,
With Li Peng as the Premier
And Zhao Ziang as the secretary,
But heed not towards
As for why to poke into others’ matters?

Again saw I them intruding into the disputed borders,
The Chinese helicopter and the soldiers,
Camping for a few days and retuning thereafter,
Breaking the camera and other hoardings,
Calling Arunachal Pradesh a part of it
As per its expansionist programme.

If this be the thing, what to say of my neighbour,
Building a route near my plot of land,
Trying to encroach into,
Wanting to have forays into,
Making it prone to
Outside movements,
Sometimes on speaking terms with me,
Sometimes without,
How to capture, the hidden plan and agenda of his.

On the borders, why so many problems, infiltrators trying
Infiltrate into,
The enemy country giving arms and ammunition to,
I mean the unlicensed pistols,
Made by a retired personnel of the ordnance factory
From local iron sheets,
My neighbour’s daughter a sweet spy
From the ISI or the RAW to be appointed the cultural minister
And the Bombayans making a film over to make money
But the real spies dying in jails as convicts and criminals
And the countries bothering it not as human rights sake.

My neighbour the president and his wife the prime minister,
His bold and blunt son the defence minister,
Another educated son the foreign minister
To visit foreign countries on a goodwill mission,
As for to prevent the impending war, trying to settle the border disputes,
Taking the help of Russia, America and others too.

Trying our best as to restrain the army stationed and drunk soldiers
With the hands on the trigger of the guns,
The finger points on the nuclear warheads,
But bomb not, bombard not,
Maintain peace and amity,
Have patience,
Resort not to firing even if provoked,

Take the lessons in peace from Buddha,
But fearing I the post-Kalingan Asokan policies
Weakening the strength of the nation
And the Maurya dynsty,
I thinking about the son of Lady Gregory
Whom Yeats remembers in his poem,
About the brother of Katherine Mansfield
Killed in the air as a pilot,
About Wilfred Owen the writer of
Strange Meeting, Spring Offensive and Anthem For Doomed Youths.

Heavy shelling and bombardment from across the borders
By the enemy forces,
With the divisive forces inside
Helping them in their mission
As they working as Bibhishana
Willing to burn Ravana’s Lanka,
No less than Rama,
If had love for Sita, what wrong
Had it been in being in love,
As one can definitely.

But I ordering for not keeping in view my wife and children,
The loss and casualties,
I trying my utmost best
To avert and avoid war and its horrors,
Modern war and its horrors,
Nuclear war and the aftermath
And even if he challenges, I shall not wage a war against
As this is my foreign policy.

If order I, command I the army to fight, they will naturally collide
And as a result of that collision,
Many precious lives will be lost
And after that, who will give so much ex gratia,
Emptying the treasury,
Who will look after their widows and children,
How shall I do the welfare and development works thereafter?