The Buddha was smiling.
The palace in the mountain kingdom
Was filled with laughter, and there was merrymaking.
The little baby grew up to be a Great man,
And then went on to become the Enlightened One.
Peace heralded upon the face of earth,
And so was the legacy for millenniums to come.

And then there was oblivion.
Earth shook, some walls cracked,
In the hearts of few fear struck-
What! Earthquake! And then there was dust.

From ashes to ashes and from dust to dust…
Oh! Shame upon you, the country of Peace,
You sacrificed the age-old legacy!
And great a birthday gift you gave
To the one who showed you the olive branch-
His second death on the day of his birth!
-12\5\98, Calcutta-63

COMMENTS :

This satiric poem was composed on the day after India's nuclear explosions, the summer of 1998. Incidentally it was also the day of Buddha's birth- the Buddha poornima. To add to it, only two days after this she proceeded on with another set of explosions (it is to be noted that this poem was composed before that second round of explosions- in the two days there were five nuclear testings). This incident is the occasion of the poem. The poem however gives the impression that the Indian tests was the first encroachment upon the valley of peace- the author wants to clarify it a bit. Peace has always been quite non-existent upon the whole of the earth taken together; there has been war, rebellions and bloody revolutions. Despite these the meaning of the author was that the explosions were unnecessary complications which ultimately achieved nothing but lost much, setting off an unwanted arms race in an otherwise stable region. This was a shameful act of aggression coming from the country where Buddha was born.

In the years since then I have had a better understanding of the whole matter, and have come to realize that there are ways in which this isolated act can be justified (from India’s point of view), but still the fact remains that nuclear capability is a luxury which we could have done without.

NOTE: ‘The Buddha is smiling’- this was the code language used to signify the success of the first nuclear testing at Pokharan back in 1973.

See: Devil and his counterpart