By TK Thomas
Windows '95,
this is too technical, man
its sharp corners may hurt your
polished/romantic/well nurtured/seasoned/
cultured/snobbish/.... values and tastes.
Still I want to open Windows '95, installed
on the insulated wall of complacency.
Windows '95,
a peephole into the valley
beneath, where misery dances with the wolves
atop a pile of mutilated and half burnt bodies
of somebodies and nobodies:
some who went by train ( Ferozabad tragedy)
some who tried to make it big in vain( Naina Sahni)
some who worked hard to gain( Rajan Pillai)
and these happen again and again.
Windows '95,
has a fundoo glass framed on it
which reflects the market place.
All the indices climb on it and grow to
bar charts, pie charts and line graphs.
The inflation rate is nose-diving, man
its logic is updated to World Bank standards.
No more it considers silly things like
Chaaval and Aatta, and Channa,Aalu and Machi.
Rupee is gaining against dollar
and see, we're getting MicroSoft products very cheap.
Visual Basic is very powerful, man
overnight you can build applications.
Then why can't these dumbheads computerize everything
and make a better world for you and me to live.
Windows '95,
of my ivory tower
trembles in the explosion of cannon balls
fired on provocation, and more coffins
reach village railway tetions and
an empty train filled with orphans
haunts me all along my way.
Picture of a militant killed in fake encounter
whips up my patriotic zeal and I who
clad in a pair of jeans,
after having a Shoba De hot cake,
take a pickaxe and join the cries
for demolishing another idol
on the altars of thousand minds.
Windows '95,
in that, fantasy and reality
lose their definitions to overlap
and this Indian release reduces to
a play in the theatre of absurdity.
Our alter-life appear in TV serials
and we are confused, which one we enjoy more.