Today's Urban Children Poem by Shakuntala Sharma

Denied all nature's beauties
Deprived of all simple joys

Condemned to hear cell phone beeps
Instead of chirping of birds

Surrounded by plastic flowers and wall papers
(No place to grow plants)

Forbidden to open the windows
(Room is air-conditioned and so much dust outside)

Never get a chance to walk
( Who wants to walk? Roads are filthy)

Go to school in an auto packed like sardines
Or run for an over-crowded bus

No time to play
(Where is the ground anyway?)

Glued to TV sets
(Multiple channels offering maddening stuff)

Or else buried in books
( Lots of homework, weekly tests, competetive exams)

Sagging shoulders (thanks to bookloads)
Sunken cheeks (no time to eat breakfast)
Or bulging bellies (junk food does the trick)
But no healthy muscle

Never learn music or art
Except gyrating to pop or rap

No conversational skills
Out to dominate and bully
Or cow down peevishly

Know no values other than money
Read no classics nor poems

Seek petty thrills in birthday bashes
And once -in-a-while picnic parties



(Hyderabad) (September 07, '09)