Missing! How and what do I write about it? I usually sit down to write as soon I finish watching a video or a web series or short film. But this piece made me want to sit back in silence and ponder over all that Rakesh Tiwari said in his poem.
Today, I regret not stopping and giving time to the missing faces stuck on the walls of the railways stations and train compartments, the faces who were begging for my attention. They were not daily commuters. Today, I wonder how they would have wished to become a part of that everyday crowd, what would they trade to being pushed and experience the frustration I faced while traveling and not have the luxury of being a face on the poster which is not sweating or abusing the outsiders trying to be insiders. How that would have been a luxury for them.
Hats off to Rakesh Tiwari for verbalising ‘Missing,’ a subject, a reality we simply don’t care about. We don’t bother looking at the child always lying unconscious in the hands of who doesn’t look like his family.
His poem made me wonder whether losing a loved one to death is better than his simply going ‘missing.’ At least you know that he/she is safe. When a loved one goes missing, the family spends sleepless nights constantly thinking if the missing one has eaten or is being beaten, if he has been killed or just being chopped, one organ at a time.
The poet needs to be super talented to touch upon something like ‘Missing’ which is a part of your daily life but is slid under the bed as it doesn’t affect you, not till your loved one goes missing, and then move you to such a level that the next time you see stranger faces on the familiar walls, you will unknowingly stop and try to recall the face because you never know he/she might just find you on the road and ask for a biscuit, not his/her address.
I was left shaken, a little ashamed, heart-broken, and teary-eyed. If all of us together start looking for the missing ones, we might be able to give the homeless their homes back.
Missing isn’t just a poem, it’s a cause. Don’t MISS it.
Where to Watch? YouTube/UnErasePoetry
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