October 05, 2026 04:25 am (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Asian Games 2026: India beat Pakistan to clinch gold in men's cricket | flydubai cockpit attack: Deleted posts expose Omani co-pilot’s views on women, alleged extremist past | flydubai cockpit horror: Omani co-pilot Hamam al-Hammami attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with crash axe, tried to seize control | flydubai temporarily suspends all Israel flights after co-pilot’s alleged cockpit attack, crash attempt | Grounded in Oman over ‘radical views’, then hired by flydubai: What we know about Omani pilot Hamam al-Hammami | ‘Hanuman Chalisa gave me courage’: Smit Machchhar recounts flydubai cockpit battle to PM Modi | PM Modi speaks to Flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar who foiled crash plot, praises his courage | Putin praises Modi’s ‘good ideas’ to end Ukraine war, thanks Indian PM for peace efforts | Flydubai cockpit attack: Injured Indian pilot Smit Machchhar airlifted to Abu Dhabi | India backs brave flydubai pilot Smit Machchhar, Ambassador meets family after cockpit attack
Poetry
Photo courtesy: Unsplash

This Indian diplomat in Europe is a poet. Read his verses on the emotional price of war

| @indiablooms | May 15, 2025, at 02:06 pm

Arun Sahu is a diplomat and writer who is presently the Ambassador to Bulgaria and North Macedonia. Earlier, he was India’s High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Canada, and Deputy Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).  He served as a Board Member of the US-India Educational Foundation and the Canada-India Centre for Excellence in Science, Technology, Trade and Policy at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. As a diplomat, he has served in the Indian Embassy in Beijing, London and Tehran. He writes poems, fiction and non-fiction in English and Odia. His publications include “Trinidad and Tobago: A Diplomat’s Cultural Expedition”, Iguana and Other Poems

 

One of his recent poems is on war and its tragic consequences even for those who survive it. Read on.

Waiting / by Arun Sahu

I waited and waited  
Until waiting turned to a prayer,
Faithless and bare.

Monsoon withered; leaves dried
And dreams turned to ashes
In the forest of fire.

In an early afternoon,
On a scorching summer day,  
You appeared in body and flesh.

I thought,
Perhaps someone had ended the war.

Moist in hand, I rushed.  
To embrace you, kiss and cuddle,
But, alas, you had turned to ice
Without any care.

 


(Ambassador Sahu can be reached at arun.sahu68@gmail.com).

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.