Dreamliner’s Dream Shattered

Prof. M Zahidul Haque

By Prof. M Zahidul Haque

On a dawn-less June, the sky fell still

A bird of steel, once bound for dreams

Tore through the breath of Ahmedabad—

Clipping trees, shattering beams.

Homes that once held quiet prayers-

Now echo with the thunder's cost.

A campus still, a chimney scarred—

So many souls, forever lost!

From London’s light to India’s land

Hope was packed in every case.

But fire claimed 241—

Each name, each smile, a vanished face.

An Indian boy with bruised arms fled

The only breath among the flame.

“I don’t know how,” he whispered low-

“Why me? Not the same?”

He called his father through the ash-

His voice a ghost in burning wind.

His brother gone, the sky was mute

As if to grieve what could not mend.

Portuguese hearts, Canadian dreams

British tears with Indian cries—

Now scattered ash, in silence kept,

Beneath the smoke of shattered skies.

O Dreamliner, your wings are dust

But memory won't let you go.

Each name, a flame that flickers on

In hearts too full of sorrow!

(Dedicated to memories of all those who were killed in the ill-fated Air India Flight171)

(Prof. M Zahidul Haque is a regular contributor to ‘Greenwatch’, Dhaka)