Irom Sharmila

You had the will to stay

Without food

For sixteen years;

So that our conscience awakens!

Your act of non-violence

In a sea of violence—

Rapes, arrests, wanton deaths

By the army, with impunity,

Touches deep within,

And will stay till infinity.

The salt that Gandhi once made

While walking to Dandi,

Now has by its side,

The iconic image

Of your feeding tube.

You resist violence

By denying yourself taste;

Make haste, O world!

Listen to this voice,

It carries within it—

As you place a sea-shell by the ear

You can distinctly hear,

The roar of the ocean—

The cries of thousands of dispossessed

Suffering people.

The gesture

Is a silent one,

But so potent,

So full of love.

I salute your courage Irom,

for bringing home,

To my generation

—ahimsa.

August 9, 2016 Sagari Chhabra

(On Irom Sharmila breaking her fast after 16 years. She was fed by a feeding tube inserted through her nostril, by the state.)

(Poet, playwright, filmmaker and author, Sagari Chhabra's latest book is In Search of Freedom—Journeys through India and South-East Asia; it has been awarded the National Laadli Media Award)