War through the eyes of a boy

Zehra Nigah's "Gul Baadshah"

Zehra Nigah is a well known poet. This is a nazm (a free flowing form of poetry in Urdu) which was written by her which narrates situation from the perspective of a boy caught in midst of a war. This was written in context of Afghanistan war and conflict in the zone during the troubled times of civil war. "Gul Baadshah" is that boy from the countryside who sees everything burning around him and near and dear ones getting killed.

Through her unique sensibility the poetess very aptly describes the nature and futility of martyr-dom, and the in the final stanza in a (sarcastic way) tells what humanity means in context of war - from the perspective of Gul Baadshah when he narrates why terrorists do kill the kids.

लोग कहते है ये अमन की जंग है

और अमन की जंग में हमलावर

सिर्फ बच्चों को बे-दस्त-ओ-पा छोड़ते है

उन्हें भूखा नहीं छोड़ते

....

आखिर इंसानियत भी कोई चीज़ है