of human bondage

we are your slaves,

yes,  you are our lords, sirs

although we are of the same age—

but can we slip into Patel’s shoes

or call Darbar’s buffalo a buffalo ?

our women and children and donkeys—

all are brought up

under open suns and naked nights

by hard labour of hands

on borrowings or beggings

and filling the bellies by meager mouthfuls

we pass our days and years.

no omens, no Sundays, no holidays

no Sabbath of any sort

tilling and sowing and harvesting all life.

bodies are bent

and skeletons are coiled

and wages for the years of toils

are left-overs in the fields and homes

to be seized or shared

with birds and beasts.

have we  killed anybody’s Kamdhenu, the holy cow

that we are cursed to this confinement and contempt?

o lords, what is our crime

that we are bonded to lifelong labour

and perennial persecution !