Waiting For The Twenty First Century [Poem]
1) Revolution!......
The romantic tradition;
A vision for all
Truly universal!
Start with matter;
Theorise with science;
Recall vividly
The history of struggles;
Pour one's heart,
And distil the feelings!
Mass of humans
To rise as One!
With the blood of
Kith and kin they make,
A brand new Life
And vision of Future
Spread their Message
Of Universal Happiness.....
2) Nehru saw these
Clearly too!
And fo!lnd a meaning
For Modem life!
The Indian wisdom,
Or fear of blood,
Or Mahatma Gandhi's
Mystic force,
Or the British background
Of careful thought,
He spurned violence
And drastic change!
In heart he loved
The romantic Left!
Pained to see them
Crushed with force!
3) The nineteenth century
Gave us Marx,
In the early twentieth
The Soviet was born!
The International (e)
Was a heady call!
The dictatorships
Were overlooked,
As they were made
On people's name,
The History
Was the juggernaut,
To crush all
Thoughts and dissent alike!
Nehru spoke
In agony but
The developing countries
Under Colonial yoke
Needed somebody
To cut the chains;
Liberation wars
Were the heady calls.
And people's blood
Poured allover.
The masters fought
To keep the mines,
Tea gardens
And the access ports.......
The leftist goals
Were limited to
Tactics, alliance
And short term gains!
The ruling Left
And the fighting ones
Had different goals
In life and fight.
But slogans were cried
To rouse people
In whose name
They all swore.
The international (e)
Became formal
For fiery speech
And manifesto.
4) Science changed
The production tools,
And the products
That were marketed;
Nuclear bombs
And missile force
Made many wars
So irrelevant!
Technology changed
So fast! So much!
The transport, guns
And everything
Communications
Became so fast;
And computers gave
The power and might
To those in charge of
The State to rule;
They monitor men,
And women and all!
Of every rebel
To keep them tracked!
The Leftist States
Used these with zeal
To keep under check
The peoples' fervour.
5) Liberals abhorred
The States' new eyes
And the kill power
At their disposal;
Men like Sartre
Rebelled and fought
But knew not
What the humans
Could do.
Despair, gloom
And hopeless doom
Fell on those
Who thought of the status
Human race!
One-fifth lived in
Glory and boom
Four-fifths rot in
Penury and pain!
6) The new Left
With its youthful men
And women of courage
And passion for change
Jumped into fray
To fight in streets
In cities, jungles
And any place they choose!
Che Guevera
With an ascetic courage
Fired their minds
And wiry bodies!
'Fight and die!
And kill them all!'
Was the message
They took with them!
States, both of Right and Left
Hated them
For asking change!
Change to what
And how and all,
No one knew.
And guns were shot.
7) Technology and trade
Jumped in!
Newer guns and
Terrorist tools!
Gory groups
And mass murders!
Language, religion or
Any other divide,
Was good enough
For a leftist to crutch!
Some went to polls
Siding one side
In a parochial divide!
Some were clever
To make a business
Of the human uneasiness!
Some still fought
From hills and towns
With an eye on power!
Some cried
Within their hearts
And took on
Petty jobs!
Nehru leaned on
Buddha's thoughts
On science and human mind!
He talked of
The miles to go
A quarter century gone!
8) Some naxalites died
In Nehru's own land....
And we hear many others die!
Reasons vary
And places vary
But the overall vision
Looks so wary!
9) The Soviet Union
Is showing cracks
Of nationalist
And ethnic hatreds;
Shampoo, soaps and cosmetics
Better dress
And fun, they want!
Eastern Europe
Is shackling down
Its rusty
Leftist bureaucracy!
China still is
Under the lid
Of party-military
Overlords!
West is buoyant
And Africa dull.
And the Latins
Are without their zest;
Part of Asia
Has gone with the West;
The Islamic societies
Are searching themselves;
10) And India waits!
For too long it waits!
Tied up
In its pluralism!
Where to go?
And what to do?
Answers are not
Coming forth!
Past weighs heavy;
Present looks tricky;
How will future be?
Many are busy
With daily routines;
The Left is lost
With Nehru's century!
11) Yesterday Rohana died,
An angry man
Of disarrayed left,
Ethnic hatred
The fuel he used
Engulfed him,
In its spit-fire!
Whatever be it,
The last of all rebel
Is dead and gone
For the world to see!
12) Look at the world!
And think of it!
Is it marching on?
Or drifting along
Sedation phase?
With dreams and loves,
Passions and peace,
Of visions of
Past and future;
Engineered through
Electronic means?
Are their lives
Governed by Will
Collective or individual?
Or are they a part of
The Market Force?
13) Is it necessary
To find answers?
Is it possible
To find them all?
May be,
It is beautiful
To walk along
To run and sweat
To tire and sleep
To wake again
To feel fresh
And walk........
And act with passion
And peace in mind.......
Does it sound mystic?
Or agnostic?
Optimistic?
Or pessimistic?
14) Lose not hope
In humans or Life
The complexity
Is now puzzling us!
Stop not the search,
Or the questioning mind,
Or the work at hand
Or the newer tasks!
Walk, march, run,
There are miles to go,
Never there is an end,
Life is what you make it.....
November 14, 1989