Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Keki is hurting


Something is amiss in the nation when its poet is in pain. Our poet and essayist Keki Daruwalla. Of a Heart of Darkness he writes today in The Indian Express (July 20, 2017). Perhaps, poet Jawaharlal Nehru, if he was around would have read the essay; perhaps, called Keki Daruwalla and talked to him. Said a Sorry. These times have no graces. Absent decencies. Daruwalla writes: 'We have been having a mournful feast of words recently. ...But all this is so broad brush......Junaid Khan, a handsome fifteen-year-old boy going for his Eid shopping was killed because he wore a skull cap, looked like a Muslim and horrors, was a Muslim.... Nothing subverts like lynch law.' Me bet is none will bother. Me may come across a bhelpuri wala packing bhel in a newspaper cone bearing Keki essay; after bhel munching, will crush the paper cone, litter the road. Since Babri Masjid, India is a kabaristan for Muslims; since 2014, Dalits and poor share the underground. Economic growth statistics will not reflect the mishaps; nor me bother. Bharat Mata ki Jai is a must, a Bharat Mata disowning Muslims, Dalits and poor. In her collection of poems, Learn from the Almond Leaf, Eunice de Souza says: '..Mrs.V beats her husband. The churchman says: Into every life, a little rain must fall.' Rain drops are not descending, poetess. A Hindu woman falls in love with a Muslim man; marries him; becomes a Muslim; has a child; her relatives slaughter her husband; a news item, a lead item for the night sub in The Indian Express. Over. She will cry; her tears will dry; life will be a fry. Are we being fair to ourselves? We check our Aadhaar cards before starting a friendship. For business papers and business channels and business journalists (me was one for 37 years), news is a drop or a rise in GDP; Chinese investments with Chinese keen on dollars to make and nothing else; RBI governors and Finance Ministers make sense. Long time ago anchors on a business channel raised a toast to the Sensex crossing some important number. It was a public show. Eunice is a poet not a journalist, not surely a business journalist. Business journalists may like her line: ' A compound full of silver cars. The sky with not a single silver star.' Dislike her lines: Finally, the Lord said: Move that damned highrise. Let there be light. 

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