Wednesday, 26 May 2010

It all belongs to thee

This is my land, where I was born,
Richness of wheat, rice and corn.
This is my land where I toddled around,
No worries, no limits to me bound.
This is my land where I played hide-and-seek,
A few missing teeth and a dimpled cheek.
This is the spot I was kissed my first.
Some new feelings, then felt not nursed.
This is the land I toiled with my father,
Being a lawyer, I preferred rather.
Drenching in the sun made no sense,
And money after all covered every expense.

I chose the green notes over the greener paddy,
Being modern I thought was good and faddy.
A new home made far away from ‘home’,
In a city that looks like a posh glass dome.
A place that paid so much in dollars,
This “Independence” really pulled up my collars.
Elated was I to know I was my boss,
This life seemed full and red like tomato sauce.

It was all happening like a dream come true,
Until I was ushered to see things, without a clue.
All that was “real” seemed then, like nonsense,
I wondered what made these houses have a fence.
Was it only me alone and isolated?
Probably something was ill-fated!
The fake brilliance this city had once shown,
I could see through as the veil had blown.

It was too late to go back I guess,
This is an excuse, nevertheless.
Its’ easier after all to “suffer” and stay,
But challenging to walk out and go astray.
And yet if I go that way, once forgotten,
My land where the water never went rotten.
I see that I have to prove my identity,
As if to show I’m sane, a harmless kitty.
This is the place where I now want to be
And yet couldn’t, without paying the fee.

In spite of the affair I had with the land for years,
Why would I have my eyes not welled with tears.
The land, the water, the air was all free,
Until you decided it belonged to ‘thee’.

The worse is that I played your game with open eyes,
So how would I blame you for my own vice!

3 comments:

Abhinav Gupta said...

Deep! Profound!

Everything was free untill someone came along to proclaim that they owned everything and rest all need to run in the race to survive, that too without being aware of it.

This poem is a gem in the necklace of your endearing creations. Very well written and thoughtfully put forward, Arpita!


Bahut acchi hain!!! :-)

Beyond said...

Yes the land has turned from green pastures to green currency notes.. and we have grown fond of looting.

Maverick said...

I liked the penultimate para...awesome