Here are the covers of two of my books. One is a translation of Punjabi Dalit poet Madan Veera's selected poetry and the other a collection of my own stories in English. Hope the books would interest some readers.
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This poem on a contemporary leader might interest the readers of this blog.
On the
Leader-Speak
He has painted
his own face black
with his own
hands
to shine in the
firmament in brightest colours
He mistook his
own face for that of another
to outshine him forever
Would history
that relentless judge assign him
to the murkiest
corner of the firmament
where the darkest
luminaries form a cluster
Turning the pages
of history
if he could in his
afterlife
would he become
remorseful
about the
torrents he let loose day after day
or feel at home among
the ensemble
of Margdarshaks
who mentored him
to unbridle his
tongue
---
---
Raining Guarantees
During the last seventy years
they did nothing worthwhile
at best they were measly miserly
Today we are showering guarantees on all
on th hungry
on the homeless
on the old
on the sick
on woman
on farmers
on one and all
Further we have opened safe havens
for those chased by sarkari bloodhounds and handcuffers
they have just to walk in with their baggage
And above all
We are dishing out Bharat Ratnas
for those who feel their leaders have been left out
Now Ratnas are theirs for the asking
at a price though
---
Please read the poem and two comments that follow.
MENTICIDE
Killing of the mind!
How is it done?
No knives
No clubs
No guns
No bloodletting
No violence
of any kind
not at all
It is done
gently
quietly
seductively
insidiously
projecting the hologram
of a messianic face
all over
everywhere
All else is submerged
in its blinding darkness
The mind sees
only
one insignia
one colour
one face
and bows
in blank submission
---
Two comments
on the poem
FISH DID
NOT DISCOVER WATER
"IN FACT,
BECAUSE THEY ARE COMPLETELY IMMERSED IN IT, THEY LIVE UNAWARE OF ITS EXISTENCE.
SIMILARLY, WHEN A CONDUCT IS NORMALIZED BY A DOMINANT CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT, IT
BECOMES INVISIBLE. "
‒ Marshall McLuhan
"Our may
become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but
by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching
our children."
‒ Thomas Sowell
These days I am translating selected poetry of a Punjabi Dalit poet, Madan Veera, and shortly going to publish the collection. Here is one of the poems from the collection:
Taxidermied Man
Atma
Rama
now
you are neither the veheda’s Atma
nor
the veheda’s soul
because
in the haze of bharm
in
the fog of dharm
your
identity is shrinking
your
existence has been circumscribed
You
are scattering into bits
floating
like specks of dust
rhapsodizing
about dharm
in
the rush of hollow slogans
in
the hope of securing your afterlife
in
the effort to break out of the cycle of eighty-four
seeking
the path to mukti
you
have become a dweller of the chimerical world
of
dharm gurus and dharmsthans
Searching
for moksha
you
have found like many others like you
your
own Sarvashaktimaan
that
matches your deluded mind
Now
the reins of your life
are
in the hands of
your
self-created Tyrant
your
folded hands are bound
in
your self-made handcuffs
your
closed eyes enclose
self-created
stale dreams
your
closed lips are iterating
a cycle of sleepy words
Now
to listen with your ears
to
see with your eyes
to
speak with your tongue
is
sinful for you
Now
you are no longer a
shining
burning
thinking
human being
you are a milch cow’s
taxidermied
dummy
of
the calf that died last month
stinking
stuffed with straw
that
we use
at
the time of milking
---
I wish to draw the reader's attention to the title of this poem, Taxidermied Man. While searching the Internet to check if I had used the right expression, I was horrified to discover that there indeed existed a real example of a Taxidermied Man. Please read the following to experience the horror perpetrated by a white man on a black man:
Taxidermied Man
Man stuffed and displayed like a wild animal
In the early 19th Century, it was fashionable for Europeans to collect wild animals from around the globe, bring them home and put them on display. One French dealer went further, bringing back the body of an African warrior. It was on display as a museum exhibit in France and Spain. Generations of Europeans gaped at his half-naked body, which had been stuffed and mounted by a taxidermist. There he stood, nameless, exhibited like a trophy titled El Negro.
This is what one visitor says on watching the display.
'This was not Madame Tussaud's. I was not staring at an illusion of authenticity - this black man was neither a cast nor some kind of mummy. He was a human being, displayed like yet another wildlife specimen. History dictated that the taxidermist was a white European and his object a black African. The reverse was unimaginable. I flushed and felt the roots of my hair prickling - simply from a diffuse sense of shame.'
Please go to the following link to read the full story on BBC website that makes one’s hair stand on end.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37344210
This touches the lowest depth of Whiteman’s racism. Thinking of what is happening in Gaza these days one wonders whether the European man has undergone any substantial change of heart.
Let us understand that ethnic cleansing is not new to the Western man. It has a long and continuing tradition: Cleansing of North and South Ameria, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Africa of their indigenous inhabitants.
And why forget Europe itself. The Europeans were bent upon cleansing Europe of the Jews, having had a centuries long history of persecution of the Jews culminating in what happened around the WWII. The Europeans, after the German massacre of 6 million Jews in the holocaust, succeeded in getting rid of the vast majority of their Jewish population pushing them off to Palestine, their so-called Promised Land, and helping them to cleanse Palestine of Arabs who have lived there for centuries. Isn't it ironic that the Zionist Jews who suffered the most at the hands of the European Christians, instead of wreaking vengeance on their persecutors, are using them to persecute the Palestinians who hardly had any serious history of quarrel with the Jews. Gaza is the latest playground of this White man's game of ethnic cleansing.
Readers might enjoy reading this poem.
Dandy and the
Cheetah
[Dandy:(i) a man
unduly concerned with looking stylish and fashionable
(ii) an excellent thing of its
kind; the Winchester Model 37 shotgun is a dandy, at a low price]
and a sleeveless
jacket
holding a
state-of-the-art camera
as if raring to
go on a safari
of course, the
African
But he was on a
different mission:
to unveil to the
nation the homecoming
of the cheetah,
the magnificent cat extinct long ago
He gently rotated
a circular handle to open the trapdoor
and out came,
majestically, two Nambian cheetahs
one by one, one
male another female
But let us first
focus on
the most
excellent thing of the event: the hat
the cheetah the
next excellent thing can wait a bit
What brand of hat
is he wearing?
Fidora?
Homburg?
Bowler?
All three were
made famous by famous men
Fidora, first
worn by fashionable women in the US,
made a symbol of
wealth and status
by Prince of
Wales, later King Edward VII
became a
trademark of rough and tough cowboys, gangsters,
detectives, celebrities,
film stars, political leaders, jaaz musicians:
Humphery Bogart,
Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Michael Jackson
Winston Churchill,
Eisenhower, Adenauer, even our own Raj Kapoor
And lo, even Bhagat
Singh!
Depend on him to
join these worthies
and emulate them
for nation’s glory
And it was on his
birthday too.
The whole country
cheered him on this momentous occasion
The media went
gaga gaga sarey gama sarey gama pa pa…
calling it
another plume on his cap, rather his hat
Don’t be
surprised if he makes another promise,
one more among
his many,
to snatch and bring
back the Kohinoor,
if Shah Jehan’s
name doesn’t baulk him
Or may be some
other spectacular feat:
His best is yet
to be
But we have
almost forgotten the cheetah,
that excellent
animal of its kind: like that dandy
the excellent
Winchester 37 Shotgun, at a low price
Where does he
stand in comparison to
the Fidora, the Homburg, the Bowler?
The pair step
out, relaxed or surprised, crane their necks
to survey and
feel their surroundings, the new landscape,
the new air, the
new smell, the new light, the new touch
Do they like it?
They have no
choice
They have to
survive, procreate, multiply
to obey the
compulsions of Nature
not for the glory
of the country of which they know nothing
Their benefactor
watches them through his branded camera
takes
photographs, cheers them by the clap of his hands
But do they know
who he is?
Do they look back
at him?
Do they thank him
for homecoming?
Or curse him for bringing
them into exile?
We don’t know
But we are
pleased, yes pleased, pleased…
The country has
got its cheetah back
Namaste cheetah,
namaste cheetah, namaste cheetah…
---
A Court Scene from the Mahabharat
Blind Dhritarashtra
yet secure on his throne
is now
deaf
dumb
even though
he can
see
hear
speak
He knows all
Draupadi
disrobed
molested
clawed
mocked
paraded
cries out
for help
Bhishma is mute
sworn to loyalty
Gandhari sits blindfolded
courtiers watch unmoved
Pandavas disabled
having gambled away
their valour
Krishna is nowhere near
Mobs run riot
For Draupadi
all is lost
--
--
