1.
A HANDFUL OF ASHES
If think I am bad,
I won't be able to sleep.
If I think I am good,
Only I know
It is an illusion
In my face,
They give me thumbs up
When as I turn my face
Thumb is down
The smile turns a frown.
I am like a 'talisam'
At every step
Something new comes up
I know about myself
Only that has lapsed into past.
So much was I
When I just thought about myself
And look,
How little was I reduced to
A handful of ashes!!!
2
UNREFINED OIL
When we mix different items,
And put them in the refined oil
And give them light fire
They lose their identity
And let it mix
Into a larger matrix
Their individual taste stays
But only to enhance
The total joy of a recipe.
That is our national identity
Hundreds of individual consciousnesses
When put in the refined oil of love
For the nation
Shed their individual fixation
To take the shape of a nation.
A recipe with a flavour, a taste great .
The variety of the ingredients
Makes it a wonderful conglomerate
If we use unrefined oil
Which tells the ingredients
To stick to their identities,
And when forced under vagrant fire
To wage a war against the other
We can make out very easily
What the recipe will be like.
The talk of national identity will be empty
And national pride, a sham.
Let us use refined oil,
And heat it all slow
And ensure
No ingredients are challenged
For their racial profile
Rather the focus should be
On mutual love, and co-existence
So that we put up a joint front
And the world looks upon us
As a nation of undivided loyalty.
3
TAKING GODS FOR GRANTED
Gods had received gold-plated invitation letter.
A great businessman has organized
A big community lunch
Gods were eager to see how men went about
Religious activities.
They were pleased to see some stone images of gods and a great worship going on.
Gods received another call from another
Worshipper who had invited a few destitute children at his home.
The great bizman had invited some old people
Who looked like saints.
Gods saw that had political links
Because they had a huge security cover
It was fine, Gods gave him full credit
For his selfless activity
Feeding hundreds of people
Was a great act of charity and godliness
Gods saw the other man who was
Feeding some poor kids at his home
His whole family involved soulfully
In this act of selfless love.
What is this?
Gods were shocked when they saw
Some men carrying cameras
Some channels covering the event
The saint was being interviewed
And the man was happy
His event was covered wonderfully
He posted some photos on his fb
Gods did see this proud gesture of the rich fellow.
The gods obliterated from their score board
All that the bizman had done
As pride, arrogance and insolence
And made for the gentle man
Who was feeding the kids at his home
4
THE FINISHED PRODUCT
Policies were taken so seriously
That teachers were kept busy
In computing data
Submitting reports
And forcing students
To break records and win.
Those who lose in this competition
That education has become
Have no market
At the most
They can open cyber cafes
And cook some money like hot cakes.
So much is there in the market
Everything has to be
Flushed into
The minds of the students
So that they are always trembling
To look at the unaccomplished work
All teachers who talked of values
Of goodness were singled out
As rotten pages of academic fraternity
You know Ramayana,
But what use it is
Unless you have Scopus score.
Teachers professors and professionals
Are in a race with each other
Just after skills
And how to make money,
And how to succeed in business.
If you are not a success,
Hang from your bath tops
Every student by the time he has gained MBA
Must have following qualifications
Otherwise no firm will hire them
Ruthless competition
Heartless success mongering
Even one feeling can infirm you
From appointment with a great firm.
Love, compassion, kindness, goodness
And family,
All such colonial baggages are
To be ticked out or they can stand
Between you and your success.
Just focus on punctuality,
Growth and profits.
The Finished products of this University
Don't fall to easy temptations
Like good.
Or even God.
It is an Evil world
Whose finished products
Can be seen in Universities and colleges.
(Dr Jernail Singh Anand is author of 167 books d Laureate of Charter of Marava. His name is engraved on Poets' Rock in Serbia)
English
Afrikaans
Arabic
Bengali
Bulgarian
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
Filipino
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hausa
Hindi
Hungarian
Igbo
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Malay
Malayalam
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Spanish
Swahili
Ukrainian
Urdu
Yoruba