Something like this

How beautiful it is

To imagine, superfluously

About the beautiful world

To drift into one’s imagination

Like a drunkard.

Walking up in the morning

In a state of hallucination

Wishing the welfare of all

Praying everyday

Praying over and over again

For the wretched

How easy it is

To refuse water from a well

To a human being

Translated by Yogesh Maitreya

Personal Interview

To  secure  some warmth,

You immolated Dalits.

To obtain some melted ghee

Bastis were burnt to ashes

How could you do this?

You left them run-down and deprived.

The new generation of victims

In questioning you

How could you commit such heinous acts

In the name of religion?

Who gives you a certificate of superiority?

You fled to England and America

Before you could be interrogated.

Translated by Yogesh Maitreya

Idiopathic

People are very stupid

They pluck beautiful flowers

Early in the morning

From trees and shrubs

As offerings to statues

Made of rock

Translated by Yogesh Maitreya

Personal Interview

Religion and Caste

Become the prime concern

In one’s personal interview

After I passed the written examination

My caliber and competence

Melted like a candle

Became thinner than water

A single wave

Turned the rock-solid fort

Into sand

Caste is like the flow of electricity

The wires are visible

But not the current

Translated by Yogesh Maitreya

A Worker at the Farm

I have one roof

A few necessary  things to live off

Children who are brilliant at studies

And a diligent wife.

In the morning

I go to the farm to work

By dusk, I return

Tired by the laborious work,

I sleep audaciously on the Godhadi

I see beautiful dreams

Of the world

I love this life so much

I’ve just got one

I live by the definition

Of a maverick dreamer

I do not commit suicide

Like a farmer.

Translated by Yogesh Maitreya

Life is Beautiful

Grandamma  Vasanti died

Amidst the chaos of the wedding

All the people

Helping out there

Came together

And said in a furtive voice

“For now, quietly cover her up

And keep her in the storeroom.

Well look into it

Once the wedding is done.”

Translated by Yogesh Maitreya

Chairman

Having listened to the routine appearing

Happy, exceedingly exciting speech

A broken brother

Posed a cactus-like question:

“Why are we so doomed?

Why the movement has suffered a setback?”

The moment I got to the answer

I pulled the pistol’s trigger.

And the mirror in front smashed to the ground

Making a shattering noise.

Translated by Yogesh Maitreya