Money Order Economy Poem by Asit Kumar Sanyal

India has a small district ‘Udupi'
in coastal Karnataka
from where lakhs of people
go outside for job
At least one from each family
Muslim and Christian go abroad
Gulf, Canada, USA, UK …
Some join underworld in Mumbai.

Hindus go to Indian cities and towns
Open Udupi hotels, restaurants
Bring helps, cooks, stewards
from their own villages and towns
Send money at home
from where they work or stay.

Before two decades millions of rupee
used to reach ‘Udupi' everyday
through money order
Finance people would say
Udupi runs on money order economy
Receive crores of rupee in a month
Now post office lost its job
money reaches there through bank.

I seen same scenario
in Bihar, Kerala and in many states
Even seen in my home state West Bengal
in the border districts
'Murshidabad' and 'Maldah'
From where masons go
To Indian cities in thousands
And send money home
at equal intervals of time
through post office and bank.