Neelam Bhatt — Writer, Poetess, Editor, Translator; New Delhi
मुश्किल दौर में बहुत से लोगों ने अपने स्तर पर कोशिश की, जरूरतमंदों की मदद करने की। उन्हीं में से एक एन.पी. ऐश्ली ने अंग्रेजी में अपनी भावनाओं को व्यक्त किया, जिसे मैंने हिंदी में ढालने की कोशिश की। कविताओं की कड़ी में एक और कविता… जो दरअसल उन सबको समर्पित है, जिन्होंने अपने सीमित संसाधनों के बावजूद मदद के लिए हाथ बढ़ाया ।
We were mediators.
Between the promise of an egalitarian and inclusive republic and a portion of its constituent people who were lost and trapped without food, we wanted to mediate by doing whatever little we could; admittedly very small, still…
Between the homes that were away and the minds that hoped for comfort and care, we wanted to say “you matter” with food packets…
Between those who could inspire by imagination and those who wanted to do their bit elsewhere, where we got to become a connecting point…
Between those hearts that beat for the suffering fellow human beings and the famished people, we tried to create a small bridge…
Between neighbourhood and friendship circles, we were discovering/inventing that new intersection which belonged to all of us but at the same time, to none of us, as the mission was greater than all of us put together…
Between private kitchens and community hunger, we tried to close the gap in our immediate surrounding a bit… On every bead of rice, the name of the person who is to eat it is written, goes an old saying. Destiny had us deliver here.
We were, as I said, mediators, after all.
