Vincent S. Niez         BSED 2-N    Bicol University College of Education

English Education       Professor Renelyn E. Bautista

Nirvaya

by Shanta Acharya

Do not ask if I dare to dream of a land

where I can walk free, without fear,

the sacrifices made to flicker in that flame of hope;

did not know the price would be so dear.

Life is a gift, I thought, did not expect it to be cheap,

callously plucked-half chewed

bones tossed drunkenly after the feast.

In the night of the splintering womb

my dreams turned into nightmares.

No mountain could carry my grief,

no ocean wash away my shame, no wind dry my tears.

Do not ask how many times I touched the heart of grief

prized open like a pomegranate

my seeds spilling like rubies.

Battered and broken, no hope of being,

my sorrow speaks in myriad voices, will not be silenced

till the sacrilege of rape and violence is atoned.

How long must we suffer, burn like incense?

hold on to faith, dreaming of change?

We have an entire universe to rearrange.

After centuries of dreaming we are awake, alive,

know what holds us together when things fall away.

As long as I can summon the strength to pick myself up

when cast in gutter, and my hopes can rise like a phoenix

I'll let the universe know it does not exist without my dreams!

Life is a gift that God gave to us. He gave this for us to enjoy his creations.

As I've read this very beautiful poem I felt sad because of the tragic story of a girl in India. She is Jyoti Singh Pandey, an Indian native she was raped in a bus in New Delhi on December 16, 2012 and died later on in a hospital in Singapore where she was sent for treatment by the Indian authorities.

The poem talks about freedom, where anyone can walk and enjoy the place without any signs of danger. It was stated that life is a gift she thought did not expect it to be cheap. This passage says that life in her situation though it is a gift is wasted. The author wants us to realize that even if we are surrounded by person that is very subjective still hold on and have faith because they will not control you forever. As we all know, there is no permanent thing in this world except change. It was also stated that the sorrow of the girl in the story will not be silenced unless the justice is achieved.

It was entitled Nirvaya because of the author's fight for the whole world to know what happened to this girl that was raped in India. In Indian language Nirvaya means fearless one.