It is not yet the world to be
footloose and fancy free.
Eternal vigilance is still
the price of our freedom.
Imagine a twenty four year old man
stabbing a seventy five year old man.
Stop. It actually happened.
The victim is on ventilator.
The youth had the strength to cut
through the skin and the flesh
to reach the liver after
puncturing the neck.
With his strength and his reach
Hadi Matar could have been some-
where else. But he chose not to be.
He chose his path through the author.
Just a day before his country
celebrates seventy five years
of independence at midnight
the author may lose his eye sight.
How poor is that freedom
which is under vigilance!
How poor is that nation
where authors have no vision!
Amit Shankar Saha