I sat by an ailing parent
amid the mingled echoes
of agonising angst
watching the goings-on.

A withered man lay wailing
of a gangrenous leg
demanding doctor's attention
praying for the Lord's mercy.

Next to him
a lean, grim, gaunt man
too tall for the ward-bed---
liver cirrhosis
was his diagnosis.

In the corner far off
sat a mother in vigil
over her son in teens---
his neurosis
the aftermath of a car mishap.

A charred young lady
on a stretcher brought
specialists and sisters rushing
machines and medicaments.
Some seconds of struggle
liberate the lady
from human *******.

The sisters shout
"  Remove  the body "!
Specialists turn to depart.
Everyone in the Ward
goes about lackadaisical
sans a sigh of emotion
sans a streak of affection.

Those wonder-waiting eyes
bigger than his belly ---
that mouth
set grim in sadness .
Poets and public-men
watch, write and talk
of his travails .
All over the globe ---
how often he dies !
how well he dies !
One day
he will be recognised
and rewarded.

Students of a school
to help support
their  teachers,
sold apples on the streets.
The state short of funds
urged institutions
to sell services
to improve
living standards
of underpaid  teachers
and
make a success
of their
Work-Study Programme.

With your sudden depart
to keep your
destiny-date,
noons at the Coffee House
will never be
the same again
my friend.

We, your friends
sit at
your select table
to reminisce
the debates dialectical
and your
fervid fervour.

Even now, we sit
dilate & declaim
over steaming
cups of coffee.

The moment
the wall-clock
strikes
the one & a half hour,
we rivet our eyes
to see you enter
and attune our ears
to hear you say " Hello ".

The goings -on now
veer round to
what we said
and did through
your presence.

We still keep
the time of
your departure
2 o'clock.
Which reminds us
that you're not
going to come
forever and forever.

Every day l watch
A grim visual
Outside a milk-booth
in the City Beautiful.
Crates containing empties
of customer -consumed milk
allure a crowd of urchins
with their mugs and bowls.
Whosoever is quick to collect
the left -over drops
calls it a day
and runs away.
May be to provide
a succour-diet
to a baby-brother
or an aged parent.

"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.

An inner emptiness is apparent
on the face of a waif vending
NEWS on the pavement.
The stack at his feet
is in a language
which will remain
alien to his comprehension.
Still to earn to live
he has to sell this
mute writing on newsprint.
His desolation is deadlier
thank an organic breakdown.
The message
waxes eloquent in his eyes.
His hunger is for
Speech and not for food.