Desert deluge

A flash flood submerged area in the Khawas village, Barmer district of Rajasthan part of the Great Indian Desert or Thar Desert on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006. Some of the villages are submerged under 25 feet of water. The children below 8 years in these villages have never seen a drop of rain in their life!

 

Golden sands stretch

simmering in the noon time,

The land of death

a beacon, isolated, pulsating,

A desert draped

in the chronicle of times ancient,

The scorching heat

and the sand dunes beckon.

Amazing legends

Of romance and heroism

Sing regretfully

In the pink castles of royalty,

Pink, blue, golden

Cities welcome mysticism,

A quiet retreat from

the harsh wrath of reality.

Proud moustaches of

men with vibrant turban,

Painted pots poised delicately

on smiling beauties,

Hidden faces in bandini odhni

and heavy jewelry,

The colourful Ghagras in

a rebellious swirl of festivities.

Rajasthan has seen drought

drought that squeezes her dry,

No Rain God answers

the soulful Bhopas echoing pitifully,

Eight years of drought

crushed spent looking at the sky,

Till the heavens one day opened

and poured rain relentlessly.

People danced with

elation as welcome drops fell,

Like a prisoner of war thankful

thirsty parched land drank,

But the cloud burst pouring down

vengeance from hell,

Under 25 feet of deluge water

many villages sank.

Houses gone

washed off in the seething torrent,

Lost is life to the rain

they had waited for years,

Cattle, crops all gone

with the water that came to torment,

Watchful eyes now look

at the desert horizon with fears.

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved

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