Up the steep steps
as you reach the age old fort,
you breathless behold
the green valley down below
and that magnificent mound of rock
by the name Robinson Hill.
In the sweet silence of birds' chirping,
the winds reek of rifles and gun smoke
and you hear not the rustling leaves
but bullets echoing all over the valley
one more down, another down
as they held the fort till fell breathless
passing into tombs and memorials
you read to pause for a breath
up above the green valley
where the grasses grew over the blood.
Duar War (1865) declared by the British on the Bhutanese.
Inadequately armed and outnumbered, the Bhutanese fought gallantly at the Buxa Fort, Duars before falling to the might of a superior army.
A visit to the Buxa Fort in April, 2016 inspired this write.