Yesterday was special in our class..Fred is a Phillipino, taught us about Peace Zones & their importance. He asked us to break into groups of 4…quite an interesting group ours was – Ankur, Manolin, Chen & Me…Now none of us have any skill or talent close to Poetry….while giving us the instructions, I picked just one word that Fred said, you can even write a poem. I began writing the first line & Ankur joined & when he saw its a song, he said yes lets write a song…I only initiated writing the first line…ankur & chen just followed in like notes in a tune. They began giving me points – I liked Chen spoke of children going to school, about commuity life, cattle grazing in fields. Ankur said write about women, prayers, jails getting empty, Lastly Ankur being true Indian,influenced b y our Hndi films insisted we write about doves flying over the peace zone…Manolin was little slo yesterday bcoz he was lil under weather.he spoke of respect to all, obey elders…what i did was write it all in a form of song…pl read…

“Lay down your arms, you army and rebels, come join hands for peace
Let the children play and send them back to school
Let the women tender us with their love as they keep the families together
Let the men go out to the fields to work, so the markets can flourish
Let the bells toll in the Church and we all join in these praises of peace
Let us all bow together as we thank the Lord for this peace
Let the people travel again so that they wear smiles once more
Let us all celebrate this festival of Peace!
Leave your goats and cattle to graze in the fields
Let the jails empty as the police can enjoy a life with their families
Let there be jobs for all so that no one cries anymore.
There is no hunger in this village as there is food for all!Let the people live with each other peacefully as they respect each one equally
Let the doves fly over us to spread this message for peace!”
(Written, conceptualised by : Ankur, Manolin, Chen & Neeta Kolhatkar, Rotary Peace fellows class of Apr 2009 )