GETTING OLDER

(a poem written in college)

GETTING OLDER

No jumping and shouting like before...
Life is not the same anymore...
I am no longer brave and bold...
Maybe I am getting old...

My limbs complain of pain...
Tired thoughts trouble my brain...
My (once) boiling blood is turning cold...
Surely, I am getting old...

The walk is getting slower...
Spoken words are fewer...
My hand needs another to hold...
Of course, I am getting old!

And of me, says a modern sage,
"At last, he is coming of age!"

- Pravin K Sabnis (1989)

SECULAR THREATS TO COMMUNAL GROUPS!

Hey, within minutes the police were there
To forward a complain of fear and scare
Those naughty secularists were at their game
To claim that Hindu, Muslim and Christian are the same…

The adminstration acted in double speed
A call for harmony can be dangerous feed…
These talks are giving us a bad name
By exposing the nationalists’ stand as lame…

How dare these people demand serenity?
How dare they insist on tranquillity?
Why do they insist on dousing out the fire?
Why do they call my leader a liar?

No confusion over who shares the blame
Muzzle every voice that tries to be sane…
Hang them at the nearest lamp post,
But even when killed, arises their ghost!

It is an old human tale that never seems to end
These humanist nuts drive me down the bend…
We stopped them then and thought they would learn,
But, they come again to put our plan to burn!

My Lord, my God, instill in them some fear
Please spare me their irritating cheer…
May they fight over the smallest of things
We need to rejuvenate our right-wings!

--- thoughts of a communalist as observed by Pravin Sabnis (31 July 2007)