My Ancestors Came from the Snows of Kashmir: Justice Markandey Katju's Poetic Journey Across India Alternative SEO Headlines

Justice Markandey Katju's 'My Ancestors Came from the Snows of Kashmir': A Poetic Tribute to India's Unity

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A Journey Through India in Verse: Justice Markandey Katju's 'My Ancestors Came from the Snows of Kashmir'

Read Justice Markandey Katju's poem "My Ancestors Came from the Snows of Kashmir," a lyrical journey across India's landscapes, cultures, faiths, and shared heritage, celebrating unity in diversity through personal experience....

By Justice Markandey Katju

My ancestors came from the snows of Kashmir

I drank the water of the Sangam

And have eaten the fish of Kolkata

I have seen the temples of Tamilnadu

And strolled on Marina beach

I have swam in the Narbada

And seen the taals of Bhopal and the Marble Rocks near Jabalpur

I have been to Khajuraho, and have lived near the Chambal Ghaati

I have seen the jauhar site of Chittor

I have marvelled at Konarak

And the Ajanta Ellora caves

The jathedaar presented a saropa to me in the Golden Temple

My eyes boggled on seeing the Jahaaz Mahal in Mandu

I have lived in Colaba and eaten bhel poori on Chaupati

I have driven on Marine Drive and enjoyed Juhu beach

I ate lobsters and sea fish at Colva and Calangute

I have been to God's Own Country several times

And have put a chaadar in the Ajmer and Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargahs

I have visited the Garden City of India several times

And have visited the Shringeri math, and conversed with the Shankaracharya there

I have seen the Bahubali statue, and Tipu Sultan's palace

I have sat on the Vivekanand rock in Kanyakumari

And have visited the Ibaadatkhana in Fatehpur Sikri several times as a pilgrim

I have played football, cricket, hockey, tennis, table tennis, badminton, and even boxed in my youth

I have conversed with monks, philosophers, mathematicians, scientists and poets

Maine sab ghadon ka paani pi liya hai

Now I only look upwards into the open sky

Waiting for the rains on my arid, parched land

Like a papeeha looking at the clouds

And waiting to see the stormy petrel

The harbinger and herald of the coming tempest.

(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India and a former Chairman of the Press Council of India. These are his personal views.)