Face of Surat '94

FACE,
you filthy city
translated by God's wish
in your malignantly ironic
national language
without sympathy.

You go polishing diamonds
to assuage your hungry stomach
while those that have long owned you,
made millions and f*****d off
living you to your crumbs and pity!

O Filthy City,
little did you know
that fate was sealed
like diamonds
that you helped to shine
for only those that can afford
to buy and sell
while you put on your smile
in a living hell.

Fate,
mercilessly betrayed the source
of all that glitzy and shimmies
that your satellite television beams
day in and day out,
night after night
into my bedroom
in one endless mocking dream!

You are in the big league BABY :
the biggest democracy
in the
biggest 'sub-continent'
with
big breasted women,
swinging
their beefy buttocks
in your grotesque ZEE TV.
Not to forget,
the big sized idiots
entertaining millions
with their pompous
insipid life sized ruckus!

Is there an alphabet after ZEE ?
If I where you,
I would call this ITV
or maybe
MY-TV?

Your bigger than thou attitude,
We your tiny neighbors
have long withstood
with serendipity,
comically different
that you may imagine
or dish out
regularly
from your big time
Bollywood shows?

Your pornography of a good life
shock even the most 'westernized'
your pre-emptive notion
of servile poverty
distorts unwillingly,
with visions
of HALF DEAD RODENTS!

Your fighting men in arms
from the tundra's
to the mighty Himalayas
to the jungles in Assam
clamping curfew in strife torn cities
your self propellant rockets
your nuclear capability,
your greatest sculpture
architecture
or 'ancient culture'
your burgeoning consumerism
your world class diplomacy...

Nothing,
could save your embarrassment
and loss of credibility
so unnecessary.

You are in the big league BABY :
In this game
you dont get a chance to say
there is a rat in my kitchen
or a roach in my loo!

When you play in the big league BABY:
you need a spanking clean edifice
shining
all
the
way
down
to
the
excrement
Pit,
and please, please
don't forget your
garbage can?

Surat,
you are the face of ninety four
where
filth and wealth
may not walk
hand in hand.

Face, are you India '94

After the devastating plague in Surat, India, September 1994