Prayer for India on this New Year

Lord Tennyson had rightly said that The old order changeth yielding place to new and also that More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.

Well this is my prayer for India (inspired by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore) on this New Year…

Let the fresh rays of the sun mark the dawn of a New Order
Where women can live without fear and hold their heads high
Where the womb has the freedom to beget daughters
Where girls are not killed in the name of family honour
Where boys are not bullies and girls are not submissive
Where society is not fragmented by selfish patriarchal interests
Where words of sympathy are matched with truthful action
Where law enforcers are not predators
Where a few are not ‘more equal’ than the others
Where humility has not given way to brash arrogance
Where the light of love snuffs out the darkness of hatred
Where the dignity of womanhood is not trampled
Where women walk alongside men, and not behind them
Where all strive to live in peace and harmony
Into that bliss of existence, my country people, let us together lead in the year 2013
Amen!!

Shobha Shukla
Citizen News Service - CNS