Farewell – My Countrymen

Farewell my countrymen, may you ever prosper.

Am so grateful for your prayers, though in vain;

But do not despair;

Am much better off in my new domain.

Better to go in a blaze of glory, serving the Motherland;

Than end up a vegetable; a burden on all.

Nor did I fancy retiring, with struggles galore,

Seeing the woeful plight of veterans,

Agitating valiantly for our rights and honour.

Grateful too for the PM’s gracious visit,

Despite his onerous chores.

Regret couldn’t stand up and salute,

And apologize for the blushes caused,

In surviving his tributes to us - the fallen.

Those who told him, ‘there is no hope’,

Should have known better.

Comrades would dig even with bare hands

Till the last remains are found.

I humbly urge the powers that be, follow the Global norm,

Don’t sound “the last post” till one is actually gone.

Soldiers yearn for decorations and gallantry awards,

Fills them and their ‘paltan’ with pride.

And if one has to go,

What better way than draped in Tricolour.

Having received immense love and adulation,

There’s nothing more I can ask for.

My only regret is, had I known what awaits me,

Would’ve bid my family a more befitting farewell.  

Where I am, I’m beyond needs or pain.

But not so with the dear ones I leave behind.

I request that their dues be promptly paid,

Whatever little our poor country can afford.

My wife is a simple, uneducated village lady,

Who knows not the intricacies of Babudom.

My daughter, too young to comprehend what’s happened,

Will cry out when with hunger she’s overcome.

Please be aware their pain will torment me, 

Regardless, wherever I am.

I urge you therefore, my dear countrymen,

Do not let an insensitive and uncaring system

Compound the miseries of the kin of martyrs,

That regularly turn up in flag-draped coffins.