Response Poem 2: On Agha Shahid Ali's 'Muharram in Srinagar*, 1992' - Aliza Bakht

Muharram in Benaras*, 1992

Young and quick-footed, teenage boys sprinted

Dressed in new clothes, towards the Imambara

located somewhere in Benaras, A holy Hindu city.

The young ones sulkily stood on the side.

Only the old get to participate in the funeral

Of the prophet’s grandson, along with the

72 others who had harmed nobody but

Had to be eradicated for political reasons.

While women wore black and wailed loudly

Enough to drown out the death songs of the sirens

And men whipped their bodies and bled

A white mosque was demolished in Ayodhya.

Leaving behind permanent remnants painted

In the colour of dried blood and black ash.

The crowd of the mourning men moved now

Further into the many pathways of the many streets

The wailing voices of women transformed into shrieks.

Meanwhile, a thin bureaucrat from somewhere in the plains

Tucked his first-class ticket in his bag very safely

And flew towards Kashmir, sipping expensive champagne.

* Quoting the footnote from Agha Shahid Ali’s ‘Muharram in Srinagar*, 1992’, “Muharram, the Muslim month of mourning, marks the martyrdom of Husain (Prophet Mohammed’s grandson) and his followers in the battle of Karbala.”

Imambara: Compound of the Imams. Built in their memory, also a religious site for Shia Muslims. The main procesion generally starts from one.