Oh my tormentor, did you ever think of me?

Oh my tormentor, did you ever think of me?

A guileless child that I was,
I was unable to understand,
Your devious and brilliant mind,
Your delight in sadistic pleasure,

You were a leader,
A man born to rule,
I was a follower,
A beast of burden cursed to follow,

I was so naive,
That I did not even know,
I was permitted to hate you,
I thought hate for people like you was not permitted for the likes of me,

Not once did I think ill of you,
During all those school days,
When you used to gather the entire class,
And rag me to an avalanche of tears,

I tried to run away and make new friends,
So that I will not have to stick to you and your lot,
But I had to give up and come back to you,
And you would look at me with mischievous delight,

I remember when a newbie asked me for my name,
You took the trouble to introduce me,
With words so humiliating and harsh,
That they are still seared in my soul.

For years, I suffered because of you,
I still used to admire you,
For your brilliant wit,
And razor sharp intellect,

You were a brilliant writer,
An intellect par excellence,
I enjoyed watching,
The brilliant skits you directed in school.

I don’t know when I started hating you,
But somewhere along the line,
I discovered that I had the right to hate,
And hate you I did, with all my heart.

I followed your rise in life,
You rose from height to height,
Soaring very high in the sky,
I doubt if you would have given me another thought all those years,

Today when I typed in your name in Google,
I discovered that you had passed on from this world,
You had died of the dreaded cancer,
They say you fought bravely for a hundred days,

My immediate reaction was to feel happy,
But as my emotions subsided,
I realized you were just a tool like me,
Playing your role in this magnificent cosmos.

They say there is a hell and there is a heaven,
I wish sincerely that you have found a place in heaven,
I am sure you would have passed the entrance exam for heaven,
After all, you cleared both JEE and CAT.

But wherever you are,  I have only one question for you,
During the hundred days that you battled with Lord Yama,
When you rode in the valley of death,
Oh my tormentor, did you ever think of me?