Soliloquy in Vacuum

plenty petty pennies in the

name of pilani, four years of

drought under the clouds of queries,

clarity too subtle for the

two eyed ones,

ghots and nots,                         ("ghot" in BITSian lingo meant a bookworm)

seniors and the lot,

all collegiate assessor of things,

trying to out-sell one another,

entire generations diseased by salesmanship,

theories,

more theories,

of intellectual existence,

of its glamour,

of how a squared

added to b squared

becomes c squared

inspite not knowing

what it actually means,

how clearing an MBA exam

meant you could start being cocky,

and how having a friend at

the placement team in tandem

could help you land a job of

eighteen lakhs per annum;

...

and now,

would you look at all of them,

stuck to their laptops and zoom calls,

monkey see, monkey do,

in other cases,

being slapped around

for not manufacturing oxygen

for dead patients,

which weren't in their job profiles

to begin with,

all being fed a giant bottom,

private cum public,

heads up,

lips moist,

smiles wide;

...

fuck that,

there were better days

when great many cricket matches

were played amidst cousins and crowd

in the sutaal of our homes

without any agenda in mind,

                                                    (ancient India designed their homes to have

                                                     an open space inside the four rows of build,

                                                     and sutaal is the Assamese word for it)

when having fun

was not forgotten

whilst competing,

and gura-khaanda,

which means really

cooked rice flour with some tea,

was brought to our farmer elders

in their fields as a sign of affection

by their shying, sometimes aging,

wives who didn't know

how to show love publicly

but meant every bit of it;

and there will be better days

when we start throwing our

phones and televisions out and

planting our first marijuana tree,

alongside lemongrass and tulsi,

being fully blessed by mothers,

who will know deeply that

laws on paper are simply

not worth following;

...

control over narratives,

young boys and girls,

is the only

game in town,

always has been,

and it's best to learn

how to sniff it at

an early age;

...