Silent Scream

from We Make the Road By Walking by We Make the Road By Walking

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about

"Silent Scream" was written after I had visited Pakistan. On my return journey, late at night, from the plane, I saw a long line of lights breaking the dense darkness. A passenger told me it was “The Border” between India and Pakistan.

The story of the partition of India is known to everyone in the two countries. The narratives may differ, but no one disputes the fact that more than 500,000 people were killed, more than 14 million people were displaced, and it was the largest mass migration in human history. As an Indian, I too have grown up hearing the tragic stories of severing a country into two, dividing families and friends, setting neighbours against each other. Today, even after 68 years, the wounds have not healed.

Somehow, to me, that line of lights became a symbol of all that humans have done to separate, to divide, to create enmity where there was none. We have done this over and over again in history. For greed. For land. For God.

I'm waiting for the day when the silence is one of peace.

Gulan Kripalani

lyrics

I had gone there for the first time
Everyone had been so
kind, warm, hospitable
Still: us and them
Supposed to be enemies
Families torn apart
by arbitrary maps
On the flight back, late at night
I looked down
and saw a long, long line of lights
in the absolute darkness
The line started I don’t know where
disappeared who knows where ...
... An unending line of lights
I asked the person sitting next to me
if he knew what it was,
He said “It is the border.
We put lights along the partition.”
Blackness on both sides
and the line of lights – a wall
Like a silent scream

credits

from We Make the Road By Walking, released November 26, 2015
Lyrics: Gulan Kripalani
Voice: Gulan Kripalani
Arrangement and Guitar: Ami Yares
Viola: Shoshana Gottesman
Percussion: Tamer Omari
Upright Bass: Gavri-Tov Yares
Mixing and Recording: Ami Yares & Tamer Omari
Mastering: Alain Paul