Manto of Current Times

Love

Sex

Hatred

Partition

Massacre

Separation

Death

Ignorance

Humiliation

Loneliness

You drank everything

Like Manto

Yet people call you

Only alcoholic

 

It’s cirrhosis of liver

They will find on your post mortem

So sure they were about it –

the cause of your death

But if they were so sure

that you are going to die

Why didn’t they bother to stop you

 

Cirrhosis of others is easy to spot

Have they ever wondered about

their interpersonal cirrhosis

Deep down

They know they have it

Yet they never told each other

Fear of ostracization, you guess

This cirrhosis

their kids will find on post mortem

 

Manto must be laughing at them

As he laughed at himself

If you knew you would be cirrhosed,

there was no harm in saying “Cheers!”

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Torture of Dashratha

Why there is  a need to humanize characters in epic

If they have shown their true colors

let them be: true to their spirits

If you really want to do something

understand their motives

 

Why Kaikeyi

Why don’t you humanize Manthara

Why was she made a scapegoat for crux of the epic

Was she was really a hunchback

Was her dehumanization made her one

 

Let’s unfold what could have happened

A second queen is a second class citizen

Why will Rama bother to like you

You aren’t his mother, Kaushalya is

Kaikeyi must have sensed her provocation

But she didn’t stop her

For she knew deep inside

there is nothing one can manipulate

if there is nothing to manipulate

Just because you have guns

you don’t go on a shooting spree

 

O sympathizer where were you

When she mercilessly asked two of her boons

Exile of 14 years for Rama

And throne for Bharata, her son

And what timing she had chosen

Dashratha must have had a heart attack

She wouldn’t take no for an answer

 

Lying on the death bed

He must have asked himself

Where was the need to give her boons

and why exactly two boons

one for driving his chariot in war and one nursing his wounds

Why did he spurge on boons

 

He remembered: she had laughed.

When he told her

You saved my life

Why did she laugh

He didn’t understand it then

but he must knew now

In those giggles

she must have said this

If you don’t value your life

What can I do

Taken.

Your life is mine now.

I’ll take it when

I want to live like a widow

 

Or you sympathize with her because

She was the mother of Bharata

An epitome of fraternal love and devotion

But did she contact Bharata

before asking him the throne

She just asked the throne

 

Loss of faith in Dashratha and belief in Rama

She grew insecure and scared

Scared dog barks unnecessarily

and bites randomly

and rest as they say is blood

 

In blood lies history

history of fatherless king

history of kingless kingdom

history of forced abandonment

history of loneliness

and absolute lack of joy

 

Humanization of selected few

is our common problem

Not much has changed 

We stay true to our epic’s characters

Ask anyone in Ayodhaya

Aren’t they waiting for Ram Rajya

whatever that means 

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Domestic Vice

 

              Creaking doors and sounds of thunder bolt

              muffle the voices inside the house

              The water tap has been left on

              The plates with left over vegetables float in kitchen sink

              The chicken curry stays on the induction 

              The smell of charred meat and metal lingers on

 

              In the living room

              tables and chairs are in disarray

              pictures and ornaments are strewn on the floor

 

              Kids look into broken mirror pieces

              they see her feet, her pajama, her T-shirt

              and then her face

              With her face turned one sided

              She has been swinging back and forth

              and on sideways

              Just to be sure

              kids peer into mirror pieces further

              Yes, she is swinging

 

              Swinging alone in the park

              was forbidden for them

              You may fall down

              She told them repeatedly

 

              Yet she isn’t falling

              Maybe because father is holding her

              cheering her

              with bloodshot eyes

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Magnetic Pull

 

            This girl who leaned against a pillar in bus stand

            chews on her school identity card

            with her sparkling white teeth

            while talking to someone on the phone

            walking away from one pillar to another

            she closes her eyes in smile

            puts her fingers in her curly hair

            looks up and stares at cooing pigeons

            sometime she listens with a curious face

            other times she says a long noooooo

            and follow it up with a giggle

            she walks out of the bus stand

            under bright sun and that’s when

            her caramel complexion

            acquires even more magnetism

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Occupational Hazard

 

As long as I was an air hostess

my boyfriend had no problem

it’s only when I left the job

to stay with him

he left me

 

Fake wigs, fake white skin, fake smile

She talked repetitively as if giving directions

Fake welcome, fake thankyous, and fake sorrys

My love life had become an exercise in insincerity

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Frozen Existence

As I see the grey sky

from the snow frosted glass window

I wish to be free like a bird

and to trust energy stored in my body fat

to take me to places

or any place for that matter,

away from here.

 

I open the door

to confront snow and chill.

I saw my boss approaching.

A fear takes over me.

Sweat trickles on my spine.

My wings have receded into me.

 

Listening to her subtle derogatory comments

the passion for flying in me starts to freeze,

worse even,

I find myself nodding to her words.

 

Every winter I ask:

How can end I misery

of my stilled existence?

When I don’t find an answer,

I continue to believe in walking

though this can’t be a substitute for flying.

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