MY UNFINISHED NIGHTMARES

Godhra, 2001. A communal riot ensued one night.
It killed people left and right.
Strips of bloody flesh got wedged on the building wall
Naked limbs lay scattered afar with the bones sticking out of them all


Bodies precipitated from the sky
Churches were charred, children fried
Men died. Women died. Cats and Dogs too.
One of the guys in my college disappeared. A guy I scarcely knew


He used to read quietly
In a corner in the library
He liked solving crosswords with his earphones on.
We often smiled, passing each other. But now he’s gone
I never really got around asking his name or talking to him.
I found out later, only from news reports, that he was a Muslim


This brings me to the second part
And I start
To think of people that went missing,
In my life and others, often commingling
Most familiar, all mysterious,


A few I know from rumors
Some from a random newspaper on a rack


First is that beautiful girl whose face I saw
In a train window, some nine years back
Then that waiter who always served us with selfless care
During our late night latte days, sometimes for half the fare


My thoughts also go to Eva,
Our neighbor in our old ancestral dwelling
Under whose maternal gaze I spent my childhood,
My days of clumsy fledgling


My best friend in school who left his home
For adventures he envisioned
My mysterious uncle who sailed ashore on a naval ship
As he went on a secret mission


Alexandra Powers, the ingénue I adored
Who threw up her acting career and got lost in Scientology
And DB Cooper, the notorious hijacker,
Who jumped off a flying plane to disappear with ransom money
Lastly, the Fallari twins- Pulat and Ipson
Who were reportedly abducted by Aliens


I think of people who went missing and I am bewildered
I wonder where they are, who they were and why I suddenly remembered


I’m often haunted, in my sleepless nights
By the memories of an unfinished face
That belongs to one of those
That disappeared, without a trace