Can you hide a mountain by hanging a cloud over it?
Once I saw such a mountain
I could hear the harsh cries
Of many a vulture of our culture.
There were natural vultures also
Hovering, searching, eager for food.
Their intentions were good
Because their intentions were natural.
Have you ever seen the unnatural?
Vultures dressed up in khaki or black coats
Waiting patiently in their offices
For charred bodies reeking of kerosene
Of women in their bloom
Sent by happy parents to their husbands’ homes.
These blossoms, the new families burn
Then try to turn everybody’s attention
From the mountain of their crime
By hanging a cloud over it.
With bribes somehow, anyhow
They help to thicken this cloud.
The vultures of the family sans DIL,
Walking the traditional mill,
Are out scourging for fresh food.
Their intentions are good
They just want their family to prosper
The girl’s family to confer upon them the earthly goods.
Can you see through the cloud?
Can you hear the cries loud of the girl who dies
Burnt in the fire of their greed?
Can you erect a mountain
Over marshy, shaky grounds?
Unfriendly families using
The new women friendly laws
Are turning the ground gained to a deadly loss
Thereby rearing cynics gross.
—
Poetry lover? Check out Gitanjali: A Collection of Indian Poems by the Nobel Laureate
