Devesh

Poem and Text

Pratishtha Pandya

Editor

Labani Jangi

Painting

large_01-IMG_20220228_234528-LJ-.jpg

medium_01-IMG_20220228_234528-LJ-.jpg

small_01-IMG_20220228_234528-LJ-.jpg

thumbnail_01-IMG_20220228_234528-LJ-.jpg

01-IMG_20220228_234528-LJ-.jpg

His country was more of a dream dreamt by crores of people. There were people who even sacrificed their lives for it. Since the last few years he too had started dreaming.  He would see a mob would appear from nowhere and burn a man alive. But he was not able to stop them. This time he saw a desolate house with a crowd in the veranda and a few women crying. Some men stood motionless in front of two dead bodies covered in a shroud.  A woman was lying unconscious next to the body. A little girl sat there staring at the dead bodies. He felt guilty for dreaming all this time. He should have stopped long ago. He knew that outside the dream world, the country had already turned into a crematorium. But he did not quite know how to stop dreaming or how to get out of it now.

Translated from Hindi by Pratishtha Pandya

A dream, a country, a crematorium

مقتل میں تبدیل ہوتے ایک ملک کا خواب

ఒక స్వప్నం, ఒక దేశం, ఒక శ్మశాన వాటిక

ஒரு கனவு, ஒரு நாடு, ஒரு சுடுகாடு

ਇਹ ਦੇਸ਼, ਦੇਸ਼ ਨਹੀਂ ਸ਼ਮਸ਼ਾਨ ਹੈ

ସ୍ଵପ୍ନଟିଏ, ଦେଶଟିଏ, ଶ୍ମଶାନଟିଏ...

स्वप्न, देश आणि स्मशान

ഒരു സ്വപ്നം, ഒരു രാജ്യം, ഒരു ശ്മശാനം

ಒಂದು ಕನಸು, ಒಂದು ದೇಶ, ಒಂದು ಸ್ಮಶಾನ

એક સપનું, એક દેશ, એક સમશાન

मरघट मं बदलत जावत देश के सपना

श्मशान में बदलत बा, एगो मुलुक के खाब

খোয়াবে পাক খায় চুল্লিতে পুড়তে থাকা এক দেশ

মৰিশালিলৈ পৰ্য্যৱসিত এখন দেশৰ সপোন

मरघट में तब्दील होते एक मुल्क का ख़्वाब

Mumbai

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

All our content is, and will forever be free to consume. If you enjoy our work, you can support us by becoming a volunteer or by donating to help fund our work.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

A dream, a country, a crematorium

On 21 March 2023, the World Poetry Day, a poet dreams of a country and mourns a dream

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit