CHILLIANWALLAH- George Meredith

CHILLIANWALLAH



Chillanwallah, Chillanwallah!
Where our brothers fought and bled,
O thy name is natural music
And a dirge above the dead!
Though we have not been defeated,
Though we can't be overcome,
Still, whene'er thou art repeated,
I would fain that grief were dumb.

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
'Tis a name so sad and strange,
Like a breeze through midnight harpstrings
Ringing many a mournful change;
But the wildness and the sorrow
Have a meaning of their own -
Oh, whereof no glad to-morrow
Can relieve the dismal tone!

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
'Tis a village dark and low,
By the bloody Jhelum river
Bridged by the foreboding foe;
And across the wintry water
He is ready to retreat,
When the carnage and the slaughter
Shall have paid for his defeat.

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
'Tis a wild and dreary plain,
Strewn with plots of thickest jungle,
Matted with the gory stain.
There the murder-mouthed artillery,
In the deadly ambuscade,
Wrought the thunder of its treachery
On the skeleton brigade.

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
When the night set in with rain,
Came the savage plundering devils
To their work among the slain;
And the wounded and the dying
In cold blood did share the doom
Of their comrades round them lying,
Stiff in the dead skyless gloom.

Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
Thou wilt be a doleful chord,
And a mystic note of mourning
That will need no chiming word;
And that heart will leap with anguish
Who may understand thee best;
But the hopes of all will languish
Till thy memory is at rest.

A serendipitous discovery

It is possible to have half a truck on a full truck and still get somewhere on it. Taken on the road from Banur to Zirakpur, one of these days.

Well, there are at least two discoveries to report. One of which is serendipitous. The first being that I had to run up 5 flights of stairs for no specific reason and the second being that the process of running up the stairs is suddenly easy, and had a mild euphoric action.

For my Bangla friends

One Bengali = poet.
Two Bengalis = a film society.
Three Bengalis = political party.
Four Bengalis = two political parties.
More than four Bengali's = Countrywide agitation to bring Ganguli into Team

Mcleodganj

Mcleodganj
Originally uploaded by Shubh M Singh

I like this shot, it captures everything I like about the place. The anonymity, the red robes, the mist that obscures me from the world and the trees that reach out to touch.
Maybe I need to be there soon.

Singh is Kinng...Funny

Singh is Kinng...Funny
Originally uploaded by Bombayite

This is so cool.