The Opening Of An English-Medium School In A Village-Town Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

The Opening Of An English-Medium School In A Village-Town



The Opening of An English-medium School In A Village-town; Resounding With Good Morning, Please And Thank You—The Englishmen In The Making

Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning to everybody,
One saying it to another,
The students to teachers,
The teacher to the self-proclaimed principal,
Not the headmaster,
Of the local govt. school,
But the college principal
Of an English-medium school,
Good morning,
Good morning with a stress and rhythm,
All walking into the toes,
The toes of the principal
And good morning vibrating it,
Intermittently,
The children to their teachers
And the teachers,
Jobless and unemployed
To their younger principal,
Yes Boss,
The giver of food
In Unemployed India
And Fateless Destiny,
Lo, the bogus and dolt clerks too
Speaking in English,
Trying to speak,
Not sure of, perfectly,
Exactly, probably,
Thank you, goodbye,
All byeing one another

And I felt it bad,
Really felt bad
In being with the speakers,
Trying to be English,
Yea, the Englishmen in India,
The Indians
Of the vernacular languages,
Trying to be Englishmen,
Good morning,
Good morning, sir,
Welcome, sir,
Hello, sir,
How are you,
I am fine,
He said, I am fine,
But God knows,
Who is fine,
Fine or not fine,
I just went on seeing
The spectacle
All that was going on?

On marking them,
The teachers
And the students
And the guardians,
Please, excuse me,
Thank you,
Sorry, sir, could not understand,
Repeat it,
The teachers entering,
Saying to the principal,
The students to the principal
And the teachers one by one,
I got nervous,
Started forgetting English,
As for my rustic Indianness,
Studied English language and literature
But could not be refined,
Felt shy and coy
Of wishing happy new year to anyone,
Bidding goodbye,
Saying thank,
Good luck to you.

Even the villagerly clerk
Who was not an English-medium student,
But a villager
Was behaving like
An Englishman in the making
In India
With please, thank you,
Good morning,
Kindly,
Sorry, sorry,
So sorry,
See you,
Bye, bye, met you again,
Now you can go,
Come some other day,
Meet you again
Or when we meet for the next time,
A man jokerly
And yes sirring,
Thinking himself
An Englishman
Knowledgeable
And yes sirring the principal.

Sunday, January 4, 2015
Topic(s) of this poem: art
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