Nugget store

When all the money I needed was the 50 paisa coin
for the old man to fill air in my bicycle tyre
on the way back from school,
where friends were made
who would never be lost.

When maximal guilt was after I returned happily
having played a quick game at a new place, with new found friends.
But to some very worried faces and an angry one.
Four hours had stretched into eternity
along with several search expeditions.

When I couldn't sleep without my mother next to me
telling me things that I would remember forever.
Like the time I lost a gold earring
and she defined what precious was.
It wasn't it, but was me, she said.

When staring at the stars,
like they held the answers,
dreams were dreamt of a future full of questions
but answers too.
And those in joyful abundance.

When stories were spun
of places and people that had been seen
and those just imagined.
And worked with friends,
these thoughts only imagined
could then come to live.

I have a dream

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
- MLK Jr., I Have a Dream

The end does not justify the means. Taking an innocent life can never be justified.

Land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it's the only thing that lasts.
- Gerald O'Hara, Gone With The Wind

Not sure if I agree with this anymore. I probably did when I read it the first time, around 10 years ago. But no piece of land can never be truly yours. It can never belong to one person. It lasts, but it has never been yours. It never will be.

All boundaries are drawn on paper. And they have caused a lot of misery. They will continue to, until we as a population, realise that we are not local anymore. There is no way we can contain ourselves within a border. This makes the border a senseless, archaic, violence causing artifact.

I have a dream that there will be a time when borders do not matter anymore.

Edit: This was written after Prabhakaran was killed and the Sri Lankan army declared victory.  Should the justified struggle of the Tamils have been conducted from a higher moral ground? Would there have been lesser human tragedy and a cleaner, surer victory? I wish I could tell.