Croakings of a Clumsy Frog -- 3

 

Yamuna is up to a complete facelift this time. More rains, more torrents packed with hilly sediments. But the runnels of Yamuna rushing past the flood plains in Delhi still bear the marks of defecations on her holy brow. There was a time, as close as three years back, when two elephants played on the semi-stinking sand, raised their trunks to pay homage to the inherent holiness. The laws have their claws. They were dispatched to some sanctuary. The mother seems to miss its muddy roly-poly babies.

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The lush green rippling pastures of yore are gone. It’s now a barren, stony waste stretched for miles after miles in my heart. The fiery sun bakes the sand and the sandstorms screech and howl. Joy only so little as would amount to some lone dewdrop on a singular blade of grass if that can survive. And the sufferings lay piled up like daunting sand dunes. They don’t change, they just creep invidiously. The rose that once blossomed and smiled when all this was a lively, joyful garden is now a dry thorny memoir. It stands there like a crooked garland of thorns draped around the heart. It pricks and lets loose a torrent of memories that nibble at whatever moisture lies there among the barren waste.

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A lot many words have lost their essence in spirit. They survive half-alive in ‘letter’ only. They are no longer those perfumed living entities that their ‘spirit’ bestowed them. If ‘letter’ is the body, the ‘spirit’ carries the soul of a word. We have squashed the ‘spirit’ like a worm. To take our mechanical assault one step ahead, we are pummelling the ‘letter’ part now. The literal meanings of all the nice words have entered the obsolete book of poetic justice. Guys for the real practical meanings rub these shiny words till the blindfolding glitter vanishes to show you the more realistic stuff.

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Institutionalised plundering has been the first priority of the political class in democracy. We aren’t saying anything about the outright autocracies because there plunder, looting and exploitation isn’t a mere ‘priority’, it’s an outright and sole ‘right’ of those who wield power. In a democracy, sadly our ruler has to come out of this breed only. Is there a way out? Yes, it’s the civil society. Guys cast your alternative vote. Join the ranks of the civil society movement. The civil society guys are basically a thorn in the flesh of the democratic autocrats. The world is yet to witness its first perfectly democratic government, by the way. Peep over the wall and see the massive bundles of lies, conceit, forgery, falsehood, loot and plunder that go through the legal machines of autocratic democracies. A slightly heightened sense of awareness is the eligibility to be a foot-soldier of the civil society movement. In future, the civil society would become the flag bearer of democracy in autocratic democracies. 

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Life isn’t all about pursuing your dreams; it’s also about fighting for the leftovers lying in your plate after the hungry fate has satisfied its gluttony.

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