Anhad ka Baaja

Like schoolchildren in detention We wait for the headmaster To release us from this agony But the archetypal headmaster Considers all students troublemakers All students guilty until proved innocent

If the suited-booted futures-trading hot-shots Were to get their feet muddy For one season Just one season Growing tomatoes Would they be less inclined To call a field of rotting tomatoes Just a

Sitting comfortably at home I whine  That my coffee podi has run out That without my daily fix I cannot write poetry On the road Thousands of my countrymen Without their daily fix of khana Without

Politicians promise you the Earth God-men promise you Heaven Experts of all hues promise you The truth in various hues It takes a coronacrisis to realise That all talk of Earth Heaven Truth Is just

It’s there in your sneeze, it’s there in your cough It’s there when you kiss, it’s there when you laugh So don’t you dare do any of these things Else you will be giving the virus wings Just stay at

Between the haves and the have-nots There used to be A schism Now there is  An unbridgeable chasm The virus has exposed this For all to see (If they choose to) In Gated Communities Walks are taken