Victory?

Death must always win.

All one can hope for is an exit with a little dignity


Ras

Kalpana`s death has a special significance for the partition refugees in both India and Pakistan.

//The Chawlas` odyssey- February 02, 2003
On February 1, just 16 minutes before the Columbia Space Shuttle was to make its scheduled touch down, at the end of its 28th mission, it exploded over Texas, at a height of 200,000 feet.

Lost in that explosion were seven lives, including that of Kalpana Chawla, 41 -- a horrific end to a life that had its genesis in horror of a quite different kind.

It was sultry, and dark, on an August evening in 1947 when Banarsi Lal Chawla, then 14, lay on a railway track, thirsty, hungry, unconscious and bleeding. Around him, open coal wagons echoed with the cries of children, most of whom were living the final hours of their lives.
.....
.....
Meanwhile, a second generation was growing up – and taking inspiration from Kalpana`s odyssey from Karnal to outer space. Megha, a standard five student, told this correspondent shortly before Kalpana took off on what was to be her last voyage, that she wanted to be an astronaut like her aunt.

Till the evening of Saturday, January 31, the story was pure Horatio Alger -- a man who survived untold horrors and went on to make a fortune; and his daughter who, against the odds, went on to make her name in one of the most challenging of careers.

Today, that daughter`s life, her achievements, ended in a fireball that destroyed her spacecraft. And left behind, by that explosion, is an old man who, finally, finds a tragedy too great for even his innate stoicism to withstand.

Good stuff...... I think it was written in Urdu first. Its sad lately we don`t see the great characteristic of ``wazan`` in urdu poetry. Some time back, even free verse poetry would be rhytmic. Being a musician I always get annoyed by urdu poetry without rhythm.

Its true that we should let a poem be how it comes, but for some it comes WITH rhythm, and thats superior. It has a lot to do with how much poetry and literature you have read, and how you were taught rhymes and rhythms in the pre-school time.

I respect the expression of the writers` feelings here, and I wouldn`t want him to stop writing if his feelings dont confirm to the rules, but I really think poetry is a superior form of art only because the true poet feels and thinks in rhyme and rhythm.

i am so thoroughly depressed now t.
...promises of life with death, yes we`ve heard those promises more than enough.
i love the urdu....it`s beautifully sad.
love,
ana xo

promise vs. matter
surf vs shore
life vs death

a lot said
briefly
and in english and in urdu too!

PS: ``Death`s victory, death`s defeat``??
Come again, brother t
zara samjhayyay, braader t

t:

touches as a depressing poem. helplessness?

more importantly, do you write these in urdu or english first? :)