Let me tell you the truth O’ man!
The avaricious humans have built dams and barrages
And the Link Canals upstream
To block my flow towards the Ocean
And cultivate their own lands…
Nasir Aijaz, a writer and journalist from Sindh, Pakistan, shares his poem
Nasir Aijaz is a Karachi-based Gold Medalist senior journalist, researcher, poet, multi-lingual writer, and author of ten books, including the award-winning book ‘Hur – The Freedom Fighter’, and around 1000 articles on history, literature, culture, languages, human rights and other topics. Dozens of his articles have been published in South Korea, Nigeria, Egypt, India and Singapore. Many of his articles have been translated into Arabic and Korean language. His English poetry as well as its translation in over a dozen languages, including Chinese, Greek, Albanian, Bengali, Hindi, Telugu, Arabic and other languages, has been published in various countries. He is also the representative of South Korea-based The AsiaN, in Pakistan
The Whispers of Indus River
The Whispers of Indus RiverRambling along the banks of Indus River
I heard the whisperings.
“I’m the river, once called the Mighty Indus”
“Have a look at me. Am I still the Mighty?”
Sand dunes have emerged in my wide riverbed
Whirlwinds are there
Where once used to be whirlpools.
Look around you O’ man
You will see the withering leaves
Of dried up trees
And the wilting plants
Across the farmlands
The humans and animals
Wandering for the water
To quench their thirst.
Don’t you know O’ man?
The groundwater has
Turned arsenic
The forests and wildlife are fast vanishing
The entire ecosystem has been destroyed
In my lower riparian region
Creating the food insecurity
Posing the threat of a famine-like situation.
It was me, the Mighty Indus
Which gave birth to a great civilization
People worshiped my jewel-blue stream
While I hopped over the rocks happily
Emanating from the Himalayas
Flowing down thousands of kilometers
Traversing the mountains and plains
To meet the Sindhu Sagar, the Ocean
And the Rig-Veda, ancient Vedic Sanskrit hymns
Were composed sitting at my banks.
Are you listening to my whispers O’ man?
It was me, the Mighty Indus
That flowed down splashing
And curving gently through the forests along my banks
The people used to come for pilgrimage
And take a drink finding my water very refreshing.
The aroma of the forest was great.
Have a look at me, the Mighty River – the lifeline
Of hundreds of millions of souls
But you will now find only a dried up river.
Listen to me O’ man!
Scientists say, the glaciers are melting fast
Due to global warming
Causing the floods in the rivers.
If, it’s so,
Why there are no floods?
And the drought prevails in the lower riparian region
My Delta has been destroyed and the Ocean is intruding
Devastating the fertile lands and crops
And causing the extinction of marine life
Snatching the source of livelihood of millions of souls.
Let me tell you the truth O’ man!
The avaricious humans have built dams and barrages
And the Link Canals upstream
To block my flow towards the Ocean
And cultivate their own lands
Despite knowing they are working
Against the nature, ravaging this part of planet
But unknowing that the Nature will retaliate one day
And ruin them too.
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