Driven by Ideals

Anyone who wishes to rule,

Has to learn to manipulate,

Bend people to achieve his goals,

Make them listen to what he says!

The motivation that people need,

Is best achieved by pandering,

To their fears and baser needs,

But packaged as loftier things!

Nothing works like carrot and stick,

Our basic nature hasn't changed,

What  changes are stated ideals,

The motives need good packaging!

Single minded pursuits are good,

Forsake all for power and  profit,

But since that is not very noble,

You need Vision Mission statements!

The horse that is drawing the cart,

Needs to feel it is important,

While it tugs and heaves and gives its all,

The leader plays patriotic songs!

Vicarious Living

Unchecked euphoria one day,

Sunk in the depths of gloom the next,

What's it about the game of cricket,

That swings us from one to the other?

Only a few countries play it,

A few more have heard about it,

A win, and we are world beaters,

A loss is blow to self esteem!

Any victory we appropriate,

Nobel, cricket to gold medal,

What is it that makes us claim credit,

For something we didn't help create?

A person with few things to show,

As victory against his name,

Will always seek to bolster his pride,

By claiming others' as his own!

A nation that is so obsessed,

Shows a deficiency within,

Very little to celebrate,

Always looking for silver linings!

It's time we got busy doing,

What we expect our heroes to do,

Put in our best in everything,

And, individually, excel!

A victory should be par for the course,

Any defeat a stepping stone,

It's time we stopped looking to others,

And claimed victory for our own!

Please let them be!

They first came for the sick,

Then targeted the weak,

Then all us healthy ones,

Finally, they will target the kids!

Please! Just let them be,

They don't need your poisons,

They who cannot consent,

Don't feed them your noxious potions!

Please! Just let them be,

We grown-ups have destroyed the world,

They are healthy, were born that way,

Please please please, leave them alone!

Dystopia

Biometric,

 with location  tracking,

 with vaccine mandates,

 with authoritarian regimes, 

And quarantines,

with a scared populace, 

The world is a prison,

Each guards the other,

A morbid suspicion,

Against every brother,

Big brother gives you a bracelet,

To wear everywhere you go,

Embedded with several chips,

For whatever he wants to know!

Covid in Dharavi

An article on Dharavi, the largest slum in Bombay, probably in Asia, says that only eleven percent of people  there have been vaccinated so far.

Nine lakh people compressed inside three square kilometres. Where social distancing is impossible and people  practically live on each other's toes.

What they will never say is that the fatality rate in Dharavi is extremely low. And it will continue to be so, whatever number of variants may emerge.

Add to it the fact that they lead normal lives , not like many of us cloistered at home, panicked in the mind, forever fearing for us and everyone around us, exchanging notes on how little we have stepped out and how tight our masks are, and the irony is complete. We think we are doing it to protect ourselves when the only protection is in following the example of Dharavi, and making sure we get exposed to everything out there.

Those  are two worlds out there. The Dharavi world is far more vibrant, and way more healthy.