Dear Daisy

Jyoti Manzil
Amber Khana,
Sylhet,
Bangladesh
7th of January 1996

Dear Daisy,
I found it completely unnecessary, to have to read in all our national dailies
'on behalf of your husband', your farcical apology, and I thought when you said,
'I beg your pardon for his wrong doings, IF ANY during his Presidentship',
that you have lapsed into temporary amnesia, and unable
to recall, if your husband had committed any crime at all?
Excuse me Daisy,
Just to refresh your senile memory,
you see in this country's history, there has never been another,
greater usurper, another conniver, religious joker -
who could dream the Mosque of his Friday prayers, just a night earlier,
yet the DGFI and NSI, the country's greatest pride,
and the 'world's premier intelligence gathering apparatus',
could fortunately access those 'secret dreams' a week earlier,
and thereby put into motion, all necessary arrangements
for Presidential Security?
A poet friend of mine your husband,
no regret not getting to know him while he was in power,
I'm told he employed sidekick academicians, writing out
his next dream : A Poem?
Shamsur Rahman bit the dust in disgust!
I like the poet have only minor vices, and one substance altered night,
I recall an idiot telling me, that the poet too was a traitor, and that
He tried rebellious Bengalee officers of 'the then Pakistan Army'
In the land of holy sanctity,-( didn't he swear by the Koran?)
In Piara Bhais, Piara Pakistan!

Dear Daisy,
You could have well forgiven Mary, for dear God alone has given you
the magnanimity, and allowed you to accept your husbands infidelity,
as he cheated on YOU, me and history - and this country,
thanks to his insane megalomania, translated to read schizophrenia,
as he proceeded to make a national institution, out of ADULTERY?

Dear Daisy,
Here is a reminder from history: so obsessed was the poet with religion,
that secular Bangladesh was subject to a political circumcision,
in its eighteenth year of existence, when he declared Islam a state religion.
Forgive me Daisy,
A little bit about me,
Being an agnostic with NO religious connection,
and as people usually respect what they do not have
like money, fame or fortune, I have discarded religion,
as religions does not benefit much from likes of me,
and I'd like to do something worthwhile to this world,
and hence Respect all of God's religion.
Nonetheless Daisy,
Let me not sound like a Hizbollah mullah, when I say that if you believe in Allah,
You surely know too well : Islam has one punishment fort adultery……
The DEATH PENALTY.
I'm really sorry Daisy,
But you accepted sexual anarchy, as the first 'First Lady' of this great country,
do bear in mind that good old Hillary has not quite forgiven Bill Clinton,
for the Genniflower incident - and even if she did - do bear in mind, that the day
Bill's PRESIDENTSHIP officially ends, he too awaits charges of sexual harassment,
and he too may be charged and end up as Dear Piara Bhai did,
in some American 'correctionery'.
And you of all people dare the Americans, the world's champions of litigation,
the providers of our food when we go hungry, straight from Heaven,
by what you think is as simple as I BEG YOUR PARDON?
God is and American? God Lives in America Daisy…don't you ever forget that!
Dear Daisy,
The good thing about us poets you see, is we are not as brave as we pretend to be,
for we still believe in the family system, the love of God, men, women and children,
who we are educating belatedly and reluctantly, in this changed world of satellite
television, HIV, Condoms, sperm banks and adoption, about straight, gays and lesbians,
a benign race that takes life in stride with what Moslems call Iman on their side..
that does not cheat on God,
which horrifically,
disgustingly,
wickedly
and tragically
YOU DID:
By aiding and abetting
and much before your gynae could arrive
and take care of your FIRST LADY needs,
You dared hoax the birth of this nations,
first FIRST SON?
(Remember Bangladesh Daisy? Birthday 16th December 1971, 3 million dead, hundreds of thousand raped, millions ORPHANED)
I beg your pardon Daisy,
For the pardon you begged this time was not for yours to ask for, and not ours to give.
Fall on your feet and ask for forgiveness from this nation of braves and ask someone to
Draft out something soothing like
' I beg your pardon for my absolute wrong doings during my ex- First Ladyship'.
In the meantime Daisy,
Please sort out some of your most common problems:
You are the wife of a retired, , surviving Lieutenant General -
how many Begums like you have we?
Our boys in the barracks are now serving in Europe, Africa and Haiti -
They must understand the Kakul culture - if not Dehra Dun,
and lets forget Sandhurst for the time being!
Avoid situations like the time Zeenat the wife of the shameless Mosharraf
appeared quite unashamedly, recently in many national dailies, with a group
of shady ladies, members allegedly of the Jatiyo Mahila Party,
hands raised in divine prayer, seeking 'divine intervention'
for the release of your husband, suffering from hepatitis infection-
I imagined Daisy,
that you were hiding next door,
Wife and Mistress of Bangladesh's ex President,
in common prayer, common denominator!
Dear Daisy,
If this poem is any parameter, you will not fail to decipher
That we have failed to regain even the semblance of decency,
Thanks to your husband Presidency - lost our heritage and culture,
Who with a Bismillahay Rahmanir Rahim,
built monuments and Army Stadiums, mobile phones and condominiums,
BEXIMCO and the Pacific Group, business people who aspire to be President,
cheats, thugs, conmen, dealers in Phensydyl and Heroin ,
of gold smugglers and racketeers, of Japanese bridges built feet's smaller
than specifications, of cuts and commisions, active collaborations,
Aziz Mohammad Bhai's incarceration.
The POET wanted no Playboy Competition!
A fast paced, fast buck culture which
the Poet would not allow other 'poets' to play,
other than his friends in the trucking and trading Mafia,
renegade majors in Garments industries and soft drink bottle franchises,
ATP and F28 planes, of DC10's and AK47's,
Not to forget our mean, mean folks
from the 'progressive theater' movement,
sucking up to 'His Majesties' balls!!
Oops Daisy there is more,
K.Z Islam and his Nirman contractors, big ugly road and Islamic arches and dividers,
the embankment of Metropolitan Dhaka, to save the city from floods,
expensive suits and spectacles
and then Maudud screws it
stating 'he chauffeured Hashu apa in his Pajero'
the poets enticement to the election or erection hoax -
and our Putul apa, the nations most
celebrated widow and war heroine,
sitting pretty pretty at the Dhaka Cantonment
The Poet thought his romance with power will never end?
Sorry Daisy,
Today you are no longer a Begum Sahiba, today you and me are at par,
again common denominator, but here we are and the whole world is watching you!
Its time to recover and lots of love to bad, bad Shaad!
With coldest regards Daisy,
I am Mac,
The Poet of impropriety.

Posted to Raushad Ershad (Daisy) former First lady of Bangladesh on 11 April 1996 - no acknowledgement recieved!