Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Pledge

I am proud of the pledge of today's India.

India is my country
All Indians are my etc. etc.
And my motto is
What do I have to do with that?


Good morning, I open my eyes
Low whispers of crowd echo in my ears
Local don chopped down his son last night
Didn't used to pay him regular hafta
I give out a big yawn
"Oh! Has he shot down my son?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

I leave for office, I walk to the bus-stop
In the square en route I see his sister
A heart-broken ruffian, a bottle of acid on her face
She cries for help
Crowd and I sing in unison
"Oh! Are you my sister?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

I board the bus, watch the beautiful scenery
I hear a loud crash at a traffic signal on the way
His severely wounded brother cries for help
All the passengers echo me gleefully
"Eh, are you my brother?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

I reach my office, relax in my A.C. cabin
He enters staggering, says in a collapsed voice
The boss found in him another candidate of V.R.S.
Warns me tomorrow it could be your turn
I say sympathetically
"I agree but has he fired me today?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

I return to my home, switch on a news channel
A beautiful smile on the face of a beautiful newswoman
There is just another a billions rupees scam
I remember his father was one of the investors
Must have lost all his provident fund
I laugh carelessly
"Has my father lost even a penny?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

My wife and I go to a five star hotel
To enjoy our money with a candle-light dinner
Wife suddenly lowers her voice
Says yesterday his wife got molested
By few friendly political activists
I bark at her
"Don't spoil the romantic mood, was it my wife?
Then what do I have to do with that?"

We enjoy the night, go to bed
Once again I recite my holiest, dearest pledge
India is my country
All Indians are my etc. etc.
And my motto is
What do I have to do with that?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I wrote it in the second year of my B.E.
My English was surely weaker then than it is now.
But somehow it couldn't prevent me from scribbling down these lines.
Perhaps things are a little better or my point of view has changed.
Just thought I would post it before it completely loses its relevance because of either improvement or degradation of the situation around.

Take care,
Onkar


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.