Above: Illustration by Anthony Lawrence
~By Dilip Bobb
As elections near and the weather changes, it brings about a sense of poetic justice or doing justice to poetry. The din and dust of competing claims and pollution levels may be a limiting factor but so much is happening around us that it all automatically gets translated into iambic pentameter. However, thanks to pre-election freebies, it is appropriate that free verse takes pride of place. Here goes:
I did delight
In the sight
Of the Taj by moonlight
Now I discover
It’s a monumental blunder
And I thought it was a wonder.
So, teardrops on my cheek
As Tagore once did speak,
while the RSS says it’s a crime
the site was always a Hindu shrine.
Yogi steps in to clear the air
wielding a broom with vigour and flair
with cameras on hand so he can be seen,
showing that his intentions are clean.
And sweep away all such fears
so tourists from America are in tears
having seen roads made of glass
in MP and not in Agra, alas
where CM Chauhan rates
his roads better than the United States!
And so to Gujarat, the battleground,
the source of much surround sound
with Twitter feeds and heated rhetoric
telling the voters whom they should pick.
Patel rap and other community matters
render electoral calculations in tatters
and star campaigners take the cake
with many air miles to go, promises to make.
Where GST becomes Gabbar Singh Tax
and flood relief shows the EC was lax,
the state can break code of conduct laws
so the centre and state can play Santa Claus.
And where hotel rooms have no privacy
Since CCTV cameras put you at the mercy
of beady-eyed cops and intelligence snoops
who feed the visuals to TV channels as scoops
while non-political guests say whoops!
We were merely having a romantic interlude
and now we are featuring on YouTube!
And there, is that a bird or a plane?
A man with the cape resembling superman?
It’s superhero NaMo bearing gifts galore,
like Father Christmas who says Ho Ho!
Namo instead turns it into RO-RO!
While riding a ferry instead of a sled.
Meanwhile RaGa says people have bled
having been shot with a double Tap
that GST and demo led them into a trap
from where there is no escape.
But Jaitley says we are in great shape
that the economic flag has been unfurled
we have the highest GDP in the world!
So ignore all these dogmas and isms
and nattering nabobs of negativism,
we have even provided a massive infusion
of money into PSUs, so there is no confusion
about our ability to bail out the weak
even if it’s like loading gold on a boat which leaks.
Our government’s mantra we have always chanted
come election time we can take it for granted
whatever the odds, Bholanath be brave,
there is still no counter to the Modi Wave.