Skip to main content

Slum-Dweller



We can't sleep early.
We can't sleep enough.
We can't sleep together,
One room, not enough.
  
We must wake up early.
We must stand in a queue.
We must not shit in pants
Hold the shit like a glue.

We must stop the fights
Of the husbands and the wives
That's the life in the chawl
One lives till he dies.

We don't save at all
We don't get enough
We live in today
Future stays in the next suburb.

We don't ask for rights
We forget what is right
We learn only wrongs
We grow in the night.

Our schools are full of us,
But education.
Talent isn't a big deal
But opportunities limitations. 

We aren't scared of cops
We are habitual to the allegations
We are habitual to the blame
For this country's demotion.

When we grow we can't reach
The sky-filling branches of the tree
Like a mushroom we have to be
Be a shelter for the family.

We are poets,
We are singers,
We are fighters.
We are the experts. 
But when we drink.

But when we don't drink,
We dwell in reality.
Dreams shrink to nothingness
A life's cruelty. 











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Little Women - Not A Book Review

 12th September 2020 When we read a story, we enter a new world; a world which sometimes seems very much similar to ours and sometimes just like a dream. And as we progress through the pages we unknowingly become a part of this fascinating world. A sense of belongingness starts to creep through our bones and captures our minds and hearts like a traitor. A few days back, wearing my invisibility cloak, I entered the world of March Family or it would be more appropriate to say March sisters- Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. I was immediately drawn towards these sisters as each was similar to the other yet was different in her own way. Meg’s simplicity and dreams took me back to my 17 years old self when I too had my perfect ‘castle in the air’ in my head. Jo’s ferocity and determination reminded me of the times when I was too adamant to not give up on my dreams easily. Thirteen years old Beth’s humility and gratitude reminded me that there is a sense of pleasure in doing things for others,...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Not So Unacceptable Change

I am so proud that I grow up in the 90s. Not only I am super proud of this golden era of Indian music but also of the schools that I came across – from a then very popular convent school to a Municipal corporation school to a Zilla Parishad school in a village. Time changed everything, but I wished it shouldn’t have changed the meaning of schools.     Then I hated my school for being too strict. Even a minute late, and the gate of our convent school would close. The parents who brought their little ones would go back disappointed with a self-promise of getting up early the next day and making it up. We - the kids - would literally have a race on the pavement with those seven to eight kilos of school bags on our backs to reach the school on time.     Whether it was Alex sir of the convent school or Jadhav sir of the Zilla Parishad school, they both believed in discipline. I don't remember I ever had a filmy haircut, my shirts tucked out, my upper button open...
Post a Comment
Read more

Drishyam: Movie Review

“Drishyam” - Don't Miss It Expectations are huge when a masterpiece already made in three languages and has been super hit, is remade in Hindi, and when you have National Award Winner power performers like Ajay Devgn and Tabu, expectations rise about the limit. Drishyam is Hindi is not only known for its base ‘The Devotion of Suspect X’ but also for the completely different treatment given to the dimensions of the characters by the lead actors. Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn), an orphan, who has learnt to live his life the hard ways, is now running a cable operating services in a fiction town in Goa. His happy family consists of his wife (Shriya Saran), his elder daughter (Ishita) and his younger daughter. Vijay is well-known for being a very nice ‘seedha-saadha’ man to all the people in the town, but not to the corrupt Police Inspector Gaitonde. Events happened in Vijay’s life, leading to an unwanted accident, and he falls in the traps of Police. The story is about the V...
Post a Comment
Read more