Lessons

The boy on TV looked so happy

With his big chocolate and bigger grin

Papa, why won’t you buy it for me?

It will make me happy too.

Or the latest video game

With fake villains and real fun

And the big screen TV

Just to go with it.

Why oh why, don’t you buy

That shiny car with the famous hood

I’ve heard from friends, and it’s true

Doubling the wheels, doubles the joy

Beta, there’s a saying in Hindi

That goes in English too

You should never stretch more

Than the size of your blanket

Why don’t you solve

Some Maths to pass the time

and pass the test on the side.

That will be a big bonus

Important men have skills

To do sums in their sleep

And count to pi with their toes

Beta, I want you to be big

And a man,

A big man.

Papa, let me remind you

Some words about a magic blanket

That shrinks for my needs

And stretches for your dreams

Beta,..

...that’s the difference between greed and ambition. 

Tune Me Out

Goodbye, year bygone

I watch you thundering away 

On your wheels of time

like a train rumbling past

You had barely ruffled my air

with your breeze of motion

Then you decided to crush me

with your last bogie

As December drains away

being sipped away in gulps,

like a lukewarm cup of tea

The final dregs reveal

a  fly in the drink

 I stare at the dead, wet insect

Was this the stuff I was drinking?

What made me retch, I don’t know

Which part of the corpse, in or out

I should close my eyes and drink some water.

Water

I throw stones at the setting sun
it ripples
but is still round

I stare at the evening sky
A flock of birds heads home
Except the one who got lost

Some leaves fall from the trees
the price
of having been swayed by the wind

A dog with his chin to the ground
Stares at his reflection
I'll drink later, he thinks.

Chatter and hum disturbs my reverie
A wind blows over the drain
I pinch my nose and move on

I'm one of the sparrows

When was the last time
I had something to eat
Was it stale bread, a banana peel,

some paper or meat

It had been something
From the garbage I had stolen
They all taste the same
Once they're rotten & swollen

When I'd been in my village
I had it all
But the mouths were many
And the morsels were small

So I ran away,
& came to this town
But my hopes were shattered
My world came down

The city was ruthless

A sweltering dustbowl

Millions of bodies

Not one with a soul

They said I'd get food
If I just lift some bricks
Tough job for a girl
Who's hardly of six

In a day's work, my hands

were bruised & sore

And hurt so much

That it hurts no more

I had been promised

But I still wasn't fed

So I lived on the pavement
& begged for my bread

It's an easy life,

Only two things to fight

When the rabid dogs

& the cold, both bite

There are many just like me

Frail bodies, stone eyes

Ghosts of misfortune

Only just alive

We've all grown up

Though not in years

Lived all our nightmares

Faced all our fears

I've lost my childhood

But I hardly care

Because I know at my home

My brother gets my share

A curtain and a boy

This is a poem inspired from a sepia pic Abhishek Padhye (my friend, chief-ed and confidante) took in an orphanage in Jamshedpur. See the pic and then read the poem for full effect.

Do you hide from me
My little child or,

Are you trying
Not to look

In half a mood,
To be left alone
And in half a mood,
To be found

But you should know,
My little child,
Even when you hide
For all to see

The world is busy
Looking for itself
And no one,
Looks for you