Let Me Ask The Train Drivers As For Partition Tales

I do not the historians, Let me the train drivers As for Partition tales, What did they And how did they? A few trains Returning from Or going to, Which is whose With an exodus of refugees, Partition people? I do not the historians Neither the leftist Nor the rightist, Neither the communal version Nor the political version Want I to hear it. I just want to see the photographs, The photographs of the people, The black and white photos Of the Indian masses Displaced and dislocated Wayward and lost and missing And for that I want to hear, Hear the tales from the drivers Who as a witness, A witness to those Saw them with the naked eyes And can say it about. The people leaving their houses Going, Going on the paths taking to, Taking to Unknown and unseen, People turned out of their own homes, People left to die on the paths. People, half-fed, half-clothed Indian masses Of that time On the bullock-carts, into the tents, Under the trees passing, Passing nights As for unknown locations To be taken or rehabilitated. How to walk for miles and miles On foot as pedestrians, commuters, How will the old and the infirm Telling a saga so cruel and bitter, Partition saga of life, The life of displaced and dislocated people? People atop the trains, The Indian railways of that time, Crowding the compartments, The bogey full with And the trains reeking with The people in dhoti and kurta And the turban. But God knows, Why was the nation partitioned And who partitioned For what, Whose interest was what, What did they get it from Giving unnecessary pains to the common people Who have nothing to do with politics? The ghost trains moving from West Bengal to East Bengal, West Punjab to East Punjab And vice versa carrying the mass loads of people, Partition people Partitioned in haste Without informing the parties, Whose people where are they going? Was it not a criminal offence to partition The lands without settling them, Was it not a criminal offence, Who approved for what And who hastened it the process, Who wanted what, What was whose vested interest? The gory scenes of Partition, The bloody and brutal bloodshed, The carnage Want I not to see, Hear it about, The bogies full of people, People sitting atop with bundles and bags, Hanging onto, Is this the history of modern India We are going to make a tryst with?