Self-dependent (A Poem)

Self-dependent!!

Self-dependent we were before someone said to be,

Even before this pandemic, during the day-to-day fear of rioting and lynching.

Yes, even before the task of proving citizenship and nationality,

Self-dependent we were before the slogans like ‘everyone’s development, everyone’s company’.

Government changes – politics revenges, but we remain the same – self-dependent.

Economy grows – billionaires in the Forbes, but we remain the same – self-dependent.

Indexes rise up –speeches flare up, but we remain the same – self-dependent.

Bloody self-dependent we were while dying in famines, riots and massacres in British Raj,

And while living in the partitions, communal carnages, emergencies, gas-tragedies, dam-tragedies so far.

We have borne the brunt of every calamity, how could we escape then this disaster.

We will bear this too, imprinting our blood-stained footmarks on the sun-blazed roads,

Emitting our starving souls in stuffed compartments of misguided and mismanaged trains,

Crying for a glass of water and a piece of bread –

Our children, women and elders slept for ever feeling too ashamed to beg.

We don’t mourn, too busy we’re to carry the corpses

And some stubborn life still left with us inevitably,

And we assure you, we’ll remain self-dependent…

~Ravi

P. S. Photo is taken from the Internet owing full credit to the original creator/owner.

The above poem is on the plight of the migrant laborers who used to work in the Indian cities earlier, but due the Pandemic hit by the Covid-19, they had to leave their job-places and to move toward their homes on foot, on buses, on lorries on trains and on whatever conveyance they got on the way. Read this poem, and if you like, do share it. Thank you so much!

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