Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Other

I was dining with four learned men only the other day.

And learned indeed they were, truly men of the world.

A little afar, sat huddled, almost afraid

The expatriate family.



Who they were, we knew not.

But this we knew, and knew above all else,

who they were not: Us.

They were The Other.



Thus spoke the first learned man:

Look there, if you will

Those people, over there

I've seen cleaner cattle, you know.



Said, the second learned man:

(And he was keen with numbers, as good as they come.)

They drain off what little we have,

And give but little in return.



The third learned man,

He was a man for order, apparently

for he pointed to their crying child,

and said something about lack of discipline.



And the fourth learned man,

he was a man of Religion.

He spoke with intensity,

of their corruption and ineptitude.



Thus they spoke, those wise men

Men of the world, who knew many a thing

But hadn't yet learned, in their long years

to see the man at the other side of the wall.



The expatriate child, noisy and unruly,

Running around our table, oblivious to contempt, as yet.

She plucks a flower from a potted Rose,

And smiling like an angel, she gives it to me.

13 comments:

  1. Came here from Sujata's. Fantastic writing. Read your earlier posts too and came away totally impressed by your lyrical style.

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  2. thanks for dropping by. Hope to see u again. your writing/poetry too is remarkable.

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  3. I liked your blog very much.Its very nice and I appreciate for your beautiful post.Now I have become your follower so I will be visiting your blog.You are welcome in my blogs.

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  4. Thanks Babli, You are welcome here wholeheartedly. I liked your blog too, eager to see more.

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  5. Thats a nice poem, Gopu. Perhaps this is one purpose of poetry; to point out the diminishing humanity in our lives....

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  6. Hi Bala, haven't seen u in a while here. Thanks and welcome back

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  7. wow. thats a lovely poem. :)

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  8. b'ful.
    makes me wanna come bck for more :)
    thnks for droppin by on my blog.

    cheers.

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  9. beautiful!! The more we acquire knowledge, the lesser humans we become? its a sad fact. more prejudice, more typecasting, more walls, better to be a child with a heart that can offer a rose to everybody, than to be a cynical adult!! You are a great guy! keep going!!

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  10. beautiful. i can picture how good a doctor you are.

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  11. brilliant but them wise men are fools.. true wisdom is the capacity to continually accept your wrongs.. but you words hit the desired mark.touche

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  12. the men u sat with may be elite but not wise.
    brilliant writing!!!

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  13. Hey, nice one that was. I like people who write on social causes. This one hits the bull's eye.
    I also share your view about academic degrees do not always succeed in opening the minds of the proteges and make them better human beings. May be we are not learning it the way it should be after all. Check out my label 'social causes'.

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Thanks for giving me this moment of your life.