Clueless Ink

We are the Audience, Not the Soldiers..

Honestly, I’m so confused.
I’ve read so many articles,
heard so many opinions,
and I still don’t know where the truth lies,
because missiles don’t.
Dead bodies don’t.

I know there was a security breach.
I know there were terrorists.
I know innocents died.
I know some facts.
But what India is doing about it,
or what it should do,
I’m not qualified to say.
I just know
I’m not here to manifest war.
I’m just scared.

Maybe it’s because I’m lucky.
Lucky enough to pretend it’s not all real.
Because denial is the best medicine,
as long as it doesn’t destroy you.

I’m scared,
sipping my overpriced coffee,
reading about yet another massacre.
I scroll past another war,
another headline, another horror,
and then I go back to my to-do list.

But I still don’t think a whole nation
should be expected to have
a loud, unified opinion on war.

To people drowning in so much content,
they’re forgetting something important:

We’re just the audience.

And those in power
want us to pick a side.
To scream.
To hate.
To validate their decisions.

The media’s portrayal of Operation Sindoor
makes it seem like
the whole country is cheering for war.
Not fair.
We shouldn’t manifest death.

I believe we have access
to all kinds of information,
truthful or flawed,
biased or honest.
Which makes it nearly impossible
to know the whole truth.

Every version is being sold to us.

So let it be.
Let us close our eyes.

Now we just want
a full Bollywood moment
and to stay in our bubble.

Because honestly,
this fight, this endless noise,
shouldn’t reach every home
lucky enough to survive
the hell of this world.

Because we cannot help you.
We, sitting and screaming from the comfort of our homes, cannot help you.
We can pray for you.
Sometimes, we’ll just make it worse,
screaming random hate
that destroys the nation.

We have been lucky.
Lucky enough not to live the horrors
of Palestine,
Jallianwala Bagh,
Pahalgam,
the concentration camps of Germany,
Kashmir, Gujarat, the Twin Towers,
history’s endless cycle of merciless killing.

We have been lucky.
Let us be.
We cannot help you.
We can pray for you.

These half-truths
that shape entire opinions,
they destroy humanity as a whole.

So,
let the praja not care
about someone else’s religion or region.
Let the praja be.
There’s a reason not everyone is a soldier.
Not everyone is meant
to carry the weight of war
or make decisions for a nation.

And the more the praja screams,
the more truth gets buried.

So maybe…
don’t tell us anything.
Let there be peace among communities
who cannot contribute,
but can only end up
hating and killing each other more.

Let this bunch stay “dumb,”
the way you’ve always seen us.
Let us be dumb.
Because in our bubble,
at least,
there’s still a little lucky peace.

Maybe someday,
it will be this unlucky bunch.
And someone else
will raise a glass,
to their own denial.
To their own luck.
So let it be.

In the end,
there will be a throne,
a bloody history,
a king,
and yet another generation
of lucky, clueless praja.