I burnt my books
and tore my Ph.D.
What a waste that career
of half a century.
Teaching is so boring
Learning is a pain
Knowledge is recalling
Ancient texts in vain.
No more of that for me
I’m tired, don’t you see
How soothing it would be
To slide into illiteracy.
I sought the B. J. P.
To placate my sensibility.
That lettered trinity
My mascot hence will be.
‘Bartan’, ‘Jhadu’, ‘Pochha’
Is the assigned task for me.
“Bartan”, “Jhadu”, “Pochha”
My destined end shall be.
My “Bartans” will gleam so bright,
My “Jhadu” will sweep so white
My “Pochha” will bathe and dry
All excrements of earth and sky.
They say dissent is sedition
And protests revolution.
Reasoning is blasphemy.
A housewife to office bound
Booked for bigamy.
It’s all so bewildering
So baffling, so perplexing
The mind, powerless to see
Or grasp a new vocabulary.
Withdraw me into my den
With “Jhadu” and “bartan” to attend.
It’s lockdown for you and me
Remove the cobwebs instantly.
Thus are we fortified.
Ishwar Allah reconciled
“Bartan” “Jhadu” “Pochha”
Show the way to all of us
“Bartan” “Jhadu” “Pochha”
Will defeat the virus.
