"Teachers tear-gassed,lathi-charged "--
Reads a bold-letter news item.
One law binds the teacher, not to cane,
another law
canes, flogs and batons them.
With frustration writ large
they still teach.
India, only in India,
where teachers demonstrate
and lie prostrate
where scientists commit suicide
where a teacher grows
bald and blind in hope
where but to teach
is to be full of sorrow.