Achche Din …

The hungry, poor and ailing 
can have bytes for meals,
Virus scans to stay healthy 
and the Cloud to Save
in Digital India. 

The craving and hunger for
More bandwidth, more speed—
Does it really matter for
Millions with mouths to feed?

As dollars come in,
With pats on our backs, 
And lynching become fashionable 
No questions asked, fiction or fact
Holy cow! Animals—we are becoming
Cheering on as a pack.

Our image soars with every passing day, they say.
A cropped image, omitting failed crops and chopped lives 
It’s the tyranny and triumph of one colour, they say.
One hopes Truth and tricolour too 
will have their day.

I wrote this sometime in 2015/16 after Akhlaq’s lynching in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh. The direction and mood of the nation had taken a turn—some declaring a resurgence of India as an economic powerhouse buoyed by IT, and others calling it a case of two Indias, marked by a worrying trend of widening inequalities and communal polarisation.

I think I shared this on Facebook at the time.