QUOTE : Can’t say my Uttarpara ancestral home isn’t my homeland,<br />I know unidentified bodies, their eyes plucked out, float by in the Ganga.<br />Can’t say my aunt’s Ahiritola isn’t my homeland,<br />I know abducted girls are bound and gagged in Sonagachi nearby.<br />Can’t say my uncle’s at Panihati isn’t my homeland,<br />I know who was killed, and where, in broad daylight.<br />Can’t say my adolescent Konnagar isn’t my homeland,<br />I know who was sent to cut whose throat.<br />Can’t say my youth’s Calcutta isn’t my homeland,<br />I know who threw bombs, set fire on buses, trams.<br />Can’t say West Bengal isn’t my homeland,<br />I’ve the right to be tortured to death in its lock-ups,<br />I’ve the right to starve and have rickets in its tea gardens,<br />I’ve the right to hang myself at its handloom mills,<br />I’ve the right to become bones buried by its party lumpen,<br />I’ve the right to have my mouth taped, silenced,<br />I’ve the right to hear the leaders sprout gibberish, abuse,<br />I’ve the right to a heart attack on its streets blocked by protestors,<br />Can’t say Bengali isn’t my homeland.