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On leave,
Relaxing at home,
Boring files no longer grimace at me,
Move out to the town to search for her,
She is nowhere found.
I am surprised how she is missing here in a small town,
Her name - Loneliness.
II
Move through the narrow winding lanes and streets,
Search for meeting joints of lovers,
The places where Romeos waited for
Their Juliets coming from schools or colleges,
Population explosion has brought with it,
Congested houses and congested traffic,
Emblematic of people with congested hearts,
Which results in heart attacks and strokes,
A thing so rare in the past but so common today.
III
Schools and colleges have mushroomed,
Education sold at every nook and corner,
But values nowhere inculcated,
Newer generation does not
Care for the grey hairs.
The choked drains brewing stench and mosquitoes,
Are the “objective correlative” of the stench,
In the hearts of the homo sapiens living here,
Are the raison d'être of progress.
IV
The progress comes,
Through release of public money,
For health and hygiene in the town,
The contracts acquired through unfair games,
The result - the bellies of the progress harbingers swollen!
The lanes and the drains remain the same,
Wine flows to celebrate the progress,
The politicians, the bureaucrats and the middlemen,
Sharing the state’s kitty with glee.
The vox populi lies in the gutter,
Hoping for another Gandhi to liberate
From the homely oppressors.
CBI and Vigilance teams raiding the hideouts to unravel
The public money looted from the public exchequer.
Will the likes of Anna Hazare deliver
Freedom to the Aryavarta
From the canker of corruption
Eating into the rose of its public life? |
