Pretence of Normalcy

Pretence of Normalcy

by Dr. Bilal Ahmad Bhat

In the vale where chinars dance with the breeze,
Where mountains hum hymns of eternal peace,
Where meadows wear shawls of emerald green,
A shadow fell—cold, silent, unseen.

They called it normal, they dressed it well,
With tales of calm they tried to sell.
But the ground knows truth, and the skies cry loud,
In Kashmir’s heart lies a sorrowed shroud.

Pahalgam Baisaran, a heaven carved by time,
Where joy once echoed in every rhyme,
Where laughter of tourists kissed the air,
Was pierced by silence, pain, and despair.

They came as guests, hearts open wide,
To walk the hills, to dream, to glide.
But bullets spoke in the tongue of hate,
Snatching lives, sealing fate.

What coward strikes the hand of grace?
What monster haunts this sacred place?
Innocents, far from war or feud,
Were met with cruelty, raw and crude.

O land of sufis, of saints, and lore,
Do you not weep from your very core?
Your tears now flow in every stream,
Your soul is trapped in a broken dream.

The snow has melted, red, not white,
It stains the soil, denies the light.
And all for what? A fleeting show?
Of power masked in a deadly blow?

I condemn this act with all my soul,
This bloodshed digs a deeper hole.
A wound not just on Kashmir’s face,
But on the soul of the human race.

What justice comes from causing pain?
What glory hides in such disdain?
When tourists fall and children cry,
Do not the stars themselves ask “Why?”

To the families, whose hearts now break,
No balm, no word, no prayer can fake.
Your grief is ours, we share your scar,
Though you’re distant, you’re never far.

To the world that watches from afar,
Don’t let the silence be your scar.
Speak of this valley not just in bloom,
But of the shadows that hold its gloom.

Peace is not the absence of sound,
But justice rooted deep in ground.
It’s not a mask we wear for gain,
But truth that stands through storm and rain.

Let not this land be sold with lies,
While mothers scream beneath the skies.
Let not the pretence write the page,
When history demands righteous rage.