The New India I Never Knew Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

More vibrant, chaotic yet confident,
The picture may still look a bit cloudy
Like monsoon's pregnant sky, hopes nigh hazy,
The new India seems to me resurgent,
As if her old spirit has been reborn,
Yet, is there need aloud to blow our horn?

Millions of starving mouths agape no more,
Yet, amid islands of wealth aplenty,
I see a sea of abject poverty,
Million aspirations rushing ashore,
Unlettered heads hanging on hungry maws,
And a new caste cast in consumer cause.

I see scores of far-flung homes without let,
Dreamers therein dreaming for better life,
All watching winds of change on screens raised rife,
Homes thatched, unmatched, but with an idiot set,
Connected, closeted by phone mobile,
A whole population highly mobile!

A mix of potions makes heady cocktail,
Greed there's for growth, wealth flooding over rims,
All seem on wings, but nebulous are dreams,
The restless young minds on the move to hail
New India in an unforeseen hurry,
Out they are old paradigm to burry.

All jostling in for a mere toe-hold,
Where's common man in this tectonic shift?
Pension pushers, of wherewithal, adrift,
Hapless and mute, scrambling for life blind-fold,
Dazed by daily doses of scams, scandals,
Oh lost in storm and boats have shattered hulls!

Ways of my world have callous grown, O Lord,
Bordering on white-collar theft and fraud:
A man is slain, nowhere the slayer is,
A fraud is fraught; fraudsters walk free in ease,
One plucks, a partner packs and profit makes,
One commits crime, caveats partake the stakes.
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Happenings | 02.01.11 |