Monday, April 16, 2012

But we continued watching TV, cinema, and cricket



When the tribal chief turned into a brute,
our ancestors rebelled against him,
and freed the tribe from his cruelty.

When the king metamorphosed into a tyrant,
the peasants from my village rebelled against him.
Our ancestors resisted every brutal onslaught of the State,
they fought the landlords,
they fought the British.

Then we were born.
And so was the now ubiquitous TV.
and Capital unleashed attacks
against our schools, against our farms,
against our livelihood, against our very existence,
But we remained indifferent, and continued
watching TV, cinema, and cricket.

They appropriated our forests, our mines,
our mountains, our rivers, our reservoirs,
our oceans, our resources,
But we continued watching TV, cinema, and cricket.
and blabbered on about the youth of Egypt and the Arab Spring

They initiated a brazen and frontal attack on our democracy,
where the mere act of speaking out was deemed sedition,
But we continued watching TV, cinema, and cricket,
and were all praise for the revolt of the adivasis.

They peddled nudity in the name of culture,
an impostor gymnosophist in the name of religion,
and Anna in the name of democracy,
and we applauded.
this is how we were bamboozled.
But we continued watching TV, cinema, and cricket.

2 comments:

  1. yes, the well-off 20% comprising of corporates,mine-owners, business men, politicians, bureaucrats, urban middle class are watching cinema, cricket on TV.
    The exploited and oppressed 80% masses cannot watch cinema, cricket because they don't have TV!
    Stan Swamy

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