AWARDS:

• Yuva Kavita Puraskar,
  Delhi Hindi Academy

Had we willed we would have lived a life
Without building a home.
Had we willed, we would have livead a life of
common people
But we chose to make a window for making merry
in each room
Insted of limiting our needs, we tried to find
new sources of income
we kept on saying and the century passed by.

From here the human faces acquired masks
to hide the flesh of our bodies, we put on skin cover
By our masks and skin
we made the people laugh so much that they wept
And they said that these are tears of joy
And we assured ourselves, they have learnt to hide fear

But the fear within them kept on spreading
and then came a day when they could not live a life
without fear
They could live without love
but not without fear.

- translated from Hindi by Ritu Menon