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.