feel good

 they call something like feely good, feely good - 

the government-maibaap has released this good gas

that everything looks goody goody.

while sweeping their streets,

we stealthily peep into their glass windows 

and lo, there spring fountains of colours in their picture-box

and we hear some ghost shouting:

Hindia shaaining…Hindiya shaaining..!

we hear some urchins singing :

bharat udoy…bharat udoy…

India shining, India shining!

everywhere we hear: sarkar maibaapno jai --

victory to great government.

sarkaar maibaapsays :

fly kites as many as you like,

whether it is uttarayan or shraddh --

Kites Day or Memoriam Day.

high caste people climbed on their skyscrapers,

with special snacks and sweetmeats like undhiyuand jalebi.

whole sky was full of kites,

in saffron, their favourite shade. 

our Galiya’s father got mad with the merry making crowds, 

smashed his begging bowl on the ground,

and started flying the string-cut torn kite

abandoned by its owner.

tugging the string fast and frequent

against adverse wind and with empty belly

that he broke stitches of his chaddi from the bottom !

what to do at the scene : laugh or cry?

with clamouring children

waiting for the  paper-dishes of left-over undhiyu and jalebi,

tempting like those cut- of kites falling from the sky

and landing on the ground.

Government maibaap has released this very good gas:

what do they call ?

‘feely good, feely good.’

our basti could have enjoyed flying these cut-off  kites much

had they but tied their tails a piece of bread.

sarkaar maibaapsays :

whether it is Navratra or Shivratra,

dance day and night at the glorious garba of mother Gurjari !

in the post-Godhara riots,

the high caste mobs had broken into the C G Road malls –

that now they look like Gopi and Ka’an, 

in their dhoti-kediyas and chaniya-cholis

and dancing like whirlwind the dandiya-raas !

who knows, our dole-application for the Kunvarbainu Mameru

flew off in the sky with this feely good gas !

our younger one is a Padamni, the dance-girl of the God

but who will allow her dance at the garba chowk,

draped in that  piece of shroud

collected from their cremating ground !

government maaibaap has organized endless yatras and padyatras:

no sooner one spectacle is over,

lo, there is one more thumping the roads, 

and more exciting than the earlier!

a pot of bones of some Shamji Karasanji Varmaji had come to our basti 

so, we too had gone for its darshan.

we were chuckling among ourselves :

what is new for us carcass-collecting untouchables

that they make it a pious pilgrimage for us !

there would have been real feely good-feely goodfor us,

had they come with a piece of cow-bone instead,

Babban Khan butcher would pay us five rupee for each !

we used to watch bhavai and other folk dramas in olden days,

these are new tamashas of sarkaar maaibaap --

of  feely good- feely goodgas.

government maaibaap says :

river Revaji will reach to each well and village.

sprinkle a handful of this Gurjari Ganga in your tanning pits

or fill your leather-bags full

and clean spick and span the loos of your high caste lords  !

we feel really happy,

looking at the Narmada canal,

they call lifeline of Gujarat

like the Patel’s green plantations,

there would indeed be feely good feely good for us all,          

if only you had sent with the stream

a small stretch of land to sow seeds of our sweat and blood !

sarkar maaibaap has released this gas good  --

but it has now started to release its stink ,

entranced people are spitting out its aromatic odour,

the feely good- feely good gas bubble is about to burst.