A Poem by Sharik Currimbhoy Ebrahim
Two roads diverged — but not for us.
We never chose between the dust
And gold. We took them both in hand.
We were the sword. We were the land.
We built the court. We burned the field.
We wrote the law. We were the shield.
We held the line where empires spoke
And from the ash, the morning broke.
We did not flinch. We did not kneel.
We forged our mercy out of steel.
We loved the wound. We blessed the scar.
We were the near. We were the far.
They ask which road — as if we chose,
As if a river only flows
One way. We were the flood, the drought.
We were the faith. We were the doubt.
We lit the war. We held the peace.
We were the hunt. We were the feast.
We walked through fire and called it home.
We broke the bread. We broke the bone.
Not gentle, we, into that night —
We raged, we raged against the light
That said the road must end in one.
We were the road. We were the sun.
We are the walk. We are the way.
We are the night that made the day.
By
Sharik Currimbhoy Ebrahim
About the Poet
Sharik Currimbhoy Ebrahim is the great-great-great-great-grandson of His Highness Nizam-ul-Mulk, Nawab Mir Tahniyat Ali Khan Siddiqi Bahadur, Afzal-ud-Daulah, Asaf Jah V, G.C.S.I., the 5th Nizam of Hyderabad and Berar, sovereign ruler of the largest princely state in India; the great-great-great-grandson of Honorary Major-General Al-Haj Nawab Sir Muhammad Ali Beg, Afsar-i-Jang, Afsar-ud-Daulah, Afsar-ul-Mulk, Sardar Bahadur, K.C.I.E., M.V.O., O.B.I., A.D.C., Commander-in-Chief of His Highness the Nizam's Regular Forces, Hyderabad, Deccan — the first native Indian officer entrusted with command of an entire army; the great-great-great-grandson of Nawab Muhammad Faiz ud-din Khan Bahadur, Khurshid ul-Mulk, Imam Jang, the great Paigah noble and Chief Minister of Hyderabad State, whose youngest daughter married the 7th Nizam; the great-great-grandson of Major Nawab Osman Yarud-Daulah Bahadur, whose wife was the youngest granddaughter of the 5th Nizam and whose wife's younger sister, Sahibzadi Mazhar un-nisa Begum, married His Exalted Highness Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, G.C.S.I., G.B.E., the 7th and last Nizam of Hyderabad; the great-grandson of The Hon'ble Chief Justice Nasirullah Beg of the Allahabad High Court, whose courageous stand in the Keshav Singh case (1964) established that the Constitution, not Parliament, is supreme in India; the great-great-grandson of The Hon'ble Chief Justice Mirza Samiullah Beg of Hyderabad State, who also served as the Governor of Nagpur; the great-great-grandnephew of The Hon'ble Chief Justice of India Mirza Hameedullah Beg, Padma Vibhushan, the 15th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India and architect of the Basic Structure Doctrine — described by constitutional scholars as India's greatest contribution to global constitutional jurisprudence; and the direct male-line descendant of Sir Fazalbhoy Currimbhoy Ebrahim, 1st Baronet, C.B.E., the Merchant Prince of Bombay, a hereditary Baronet of the United Kingdom created by Letters Patent of His Majesty King George V on 20 July 1910.