Charity Poem by Ratnakar Rout

They ruled us for centuries
tortured us like slaves
plundered our valuables in one plea or other
brutally exploited our mothers
sisters, daughters and wives.
Polluted the wombs of our women
implanted illegitimate offspring
and engraved the scars in our soul.
We tolerated their oppression disorganized
for centuries. They pretentiously divided us
in to various splintered groups and exercised
their unchallenged authority on us.
Unbearable subjugation resulted in sporadic upsurge
and forged an unity among the various warring groups
Finally they succeeded in dividing our motherland.
At last they became the victim
of their own serious contradictions. But When they
left their so called colony, sown the seeds of ill feeling
hatred, despair and what not. Now they are showing
us sympathy to eradicate our poverty and backwardness.
They have become very benevolent of late
but are they really so compassionate for the distressed
or harbouring new method of exploitation in guise
requires an elaborate scrutiny of their design before acceptance.
A few survivors of the ordeals of by gone days
still recollect the heinous cruelty they had to
pass through who later on mustered courage
to wage nonnegotiable movement against the oppressors
to set them free and champion the cause of emancipation.
They are the forerunners of human values
their rights, freedom of speech and democracy.
This holy land suffered for centuries upholding
it's cultural heritage in welcoming them as guests
with the noble ideals of 'atithi debo bhabha'
which has been imprinted in their souls for ages.
The soil teaches the rest of the world to forget and forgive.
They have been forgiven in the meanwhile for their
past misdeeds and are welcomed again to this land of BUDHA
where CHANDASHOKA, the crown king of Magadha
gave up weapon and embraced peace
and universal brotherhood. Let them realise the benevolence
of this soil and vow to uphold the dignity of the mankind,
at least to erase the scars those craved in the blood of the people
of this land for generations to come and win the confidence
of the liberal present generation
for furthering the bilateral relations.