Country or Family- Neeraja Krishnaswami

We have learned to die for our country.

We are habitual of not living with our family.

But, the lesson of dying for our country

Has been learnt from the lessons

That family gave us.

When we never backed out

Or thought twice

Before sacrificing ourselves

For the good of the nation

How can we tell our family

To not even shed tears for us?

When we go to the battlefield

Leaving someone behind

Hoping for our return,

How can we snatch

That little ray of hope from them,

Which becomes their guiding light

In our continued Absence?

What spirit ignites in us

Making us perform each time

Isn’t it there in our alive families?

Everyone has a heart

But those who Ignite in us

The Will to go on to the battlefield

We couldn’t keep our loyalty to them.

What might that family be thinking,

Who didn’t bat an eye-lid

When sending us away

Not knowing when we might return

Or knowing that we might not return at all,

Just for the sake of the bright future of the nation

That they see in us?

Proud to be the lamp of such a family

Which teaches us to give

The place of family to the nation

But when we have to choose between

Country and Family

We get pulled towards our country

And leave our family in the lurch,

Yet, the family does not make us feel ashamed,

And still consider us the Sons of the Soil.