WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE AN EXILE
By Dhanya Parthasarathy
“I am Tired,
i am tired doing that 10th March ritual,
screaming from the hills of Dharamsala.
I am tired,
i am tired selling sweaters on the roadsides, 40 years of sitting, waiting in the dust and spit.
I am tired,
I am tired eating rice ‘n’ dal
and gazing cows in the jungles of Karnataka.
I am tired,
dragging my lungi in th dirt of Manju Tila.
I am tired,
fighting for the country I have never seen.”
On January 2002, Tenzin Tsundue climbd up the scaffolding to the 14 th floor of the Oberoi Tower, Mumbai and unfurled a Tibetan national flag and blood red banner, which read “FREE TIBET” down the hotel’s facade. Chinese Premier Zhu Ronji was adressing a conference of Indian business inside the hotel. The world’s media featured this feat and Indian police officials congratulated him in the prison for the standing up for his rights.
The poet activist and founder of the NGO “Friends of Tibet” was here on monday in the Stella Maris College to brief students about the politics of the Tibetan problem .
The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary declared 2004 as the Year of the Displaced and in keeping with siprit, the students opened their eyes to the issues staring at the exiles of the roof of the world. Mr. Tsundue was the guest speaker and around 30 tibetan students performed traditional prayer chants and the couple of songs in the open-air assembly.
“we learned about what it is like to be an exile. we saw how far they have come, and how far they have to go for freedom,” said Priyanka Joseph, student’s union president.
