Skip to main content

The Bagpipe Music of a Scarecrow


It’s no go the Yogi-Man, it’s no go Blavatsky,1
All I want is a pack of cigars, and a pint of whiskey
When the evening is spread out against the sky2
Like a penitent bereft of his heavenly pie.

Sorry, Descartes, I think, but I do not exist;
Sorry, Bergson, I exist, but I do not change.
Standing at the crossroads of life’s mid-way
I look like a scarecrow scared of crows,
Baffled by the tumbling turns of the tide,
The flaming sword of Eden’s cherub onward
To the battles and wars men fought with men:
His own God’s own men, in the widening gyre.3

It’s no go the bodhisattva, it’s no go the Mahatma,
All they want is a bank balance, and a bit of sadhana
On weekends to appease the thirst of the spirit
That’s superannuated on a computer’s digit.

Do not go gentle into that good night, my son,4
Coat your lollipop with iron and your heart with chocolate,
Fold your arms to the white of the priest’s habit,
Shake your hand with the blah-blah of your nation,
Do your job and hang your hat on a bomb,
And wait in patience for the extreme unction.
The hourglass distils sand dunes in a desert
And waits for an avalanche to descend the mount.

It’s no go Lord Jesus, it’s no go the Prophets,
All we’ll do is to nail you on our profits
And fall on our knees, content and worshipful,
And await our heaven and the fattened bull.

Notes
1.      Louis MacNeice,  The Bagpipe Music
2.      T.S.Eliot, ‘The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock
3.      William Butler Yeats, ‘The SecondComing
4.      Dylan Thomas, ‘Do Not Go Gentle IntoThat Good Night


Further Notes
The above is an expurgated version of a poem I wrote about 20 years ago.  A brief conversation that took place today among four persons including me reminded me of this poem.  I had expressed my view that most religious people use religion as a mask for concealing their misdeeds if not crimes.  People who do not believe in God and know why they don't are usually honest in their thoughts and deeds.  It is because they are honest that they find it difficult to believe in God.  Such people tend to do good to others while the religious people tend to exploit others.  More interestingly, such religious people focus on the beauty of the pronunciation in recitation of prayers more than the spirit of the prayer!

If I were to write this poem today it wouldn't be the same, the expurgation notwithstanding.  Twenty years cannot pass without altering one's attitudes in many ways.  But I wished to revisit this poem because the conditions which forged it are very similar to those that I'm experiencing now.  


Comments

  1. Religion if not taken in true spirits always outcome evil and in today's world most of us take religion for exploiting others..
    Very Beautifully put...

    ReplyDelete
  2. its just a shield to benefit with it , behind it .. its a shield .. behind which the worst of human intent is protected.. as you rightly mentioned in the note, sir, they who do not believe the existence of Almighty are rather more clear with thoughts and acts!! Religion everything but the path to get God !! :)
    loved this , Sir !!

    ReplyDelete
  3. As always, sharp and to the point. 20 years: so much change and yet so little change... I can feel the feeling of ur present context esplly in the hypocrisy in ur location now...
    "...to appease the thirst of the spirit
    That’s superannuated on a computer’s digit"
    AWESOME!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Deepesh. Indeed, I had never imagined that the past would reincarnate in the same ghastly way!

      Delete
  4. Replies
    1. Thanks, Ankur. I'm indeed glad to see you return to my blog again and again.

      Delete
  5. I love to read your posts with your somewhat critical views simply put with the kind of intellectual flavour one rarely finds in the posts of the so called prolific bloggers.I seem to feel a sense of piety in your apparent opposition to what is represented by God because of the intensity of your compassion. It is true that wrongs done in the name of God are too many and are prompted by our proclivities but there are many who love to say their prayers simply for the sake of peace and love.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True, Kajal, my atheism is more spiritual than the religion of most believers. Thank you for delving deep enough into my writings to understand that.

      Delete
  6. True true true!!!
    Now I'm probably speechless or rather at a loss of the apt words which could define my experience as I slide down your piece of poetry..
    Loved it!!
    Especially "I look like a scarecrow scared of crows,
    Baffled by the tumbling turns of the tide,"
    and "Fold your arms to the white of the priest’s habit,
    Shake your hand with the blah-blah of your nation,"
    and...more!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. After a long time have come across a blog which makes you enjoy reading and appreciate the depth in the writing. In today's instant-noodle and instant-gratification times the writing mostly dwell on the surface. Glad to read your posts which touches upon the sublime so well. I have noticed in the blog-sphere English is fast being replaced by its colloquial (Indian) form.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm an aging man, Bushra. That could be the reason why I escape the superficiality of today :)

      More seriously, thanks for the appreciation. It does matter a lot especially in my present situation (which is reflected in the latest posts.)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prelude to AtoZ

  From Garden of 5 Senses, Delhi [file pic] Hindsight gives an unearthly charm and order to the past. There can be pain too. A lot of things could have been different, much better, if only we possessed the wisdom of our old age back in those days. As a writer put it, Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear and a lot of those guys must have thought, “I wish I had known this some time ago.” Life is a series of errors with intermittent achievements. The only usefulness of the errors may be the lessons they teach us. Probably, that is their purpose too. We are created to err so that we learn, I dare to put it that way. I turn 64 in a month’s time. It’s not inappropriate to look back at some of the people whom life brought into my life so that I would learn certain lessons. No, I don’t mean to say that life has any such purpose or design or anything. Life is absurd. People come into your life as haphazardly as vehicles ply on your road or birds poop on your head. Some of these people change the chemist

Why I won’t vote

From Deshabhimani , Malayalam weekly Exactly a month from today is the Parliamentary election in my state of Kerala. This time, I’m not going to vote. Bernard Shaw defined democracy , with his characteristic cynicism, as “ a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve .” We elect our government in a democracy. And the government invariably sucks our blood – whichever the party is. The BJP and the Congress are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee though the former makes all sorts of other claims day in and day out. BJP = Congress + the holy cow. The holy cow has turned out to be quite a vampire and that makes a difference, no doubt. In our Prime Minister’s algebra, it is: (a+b) 2 which should be equal to a 2 and b 2 . There is an extra 2ab which is the holy cow. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm , the animals revolt against the human master and set up their own nationalist republic. Soon politics develops in the republic and some pigs become leaders. The porcine

How Arvind Kejriwal can save himself

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have a clear vision. Eliminate all opposition. Decimate them or absorb them. My previous post [link below] showed a few people decimated by them. Today let’s look at the others: those who are saved by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]. 1. Himanta Biswa Sarma  This guy was in Congress and faced serious charges related to the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam. He also faced corruption charges related to drinking water supply in Guwahati. His house was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation [CBI]. Then he switched over to BJP and all his crimes just vanished. It’s as simple as taking a dip in the Ganga and all your sins are forgiven. Today he is the chief minister of Assam. Nothing is heard of all the charges that were levelled against him. 2. Amarinder Singh  This former Captain in the Indian Army was a Congressman until Modi’s Enforcement Directorate [ED] started raiding him, his son and his son-in-law. He put an end to all those raid

The Good Old World

Book Review Title: Dukhi Dadiba and irony of fate Author: Dadi Edulji Taraporewala Translators: Aban Mukherji and Tulsi Vatsal Publisher: Ratna Books, Delhi, 2023 Pages: 314 If you want to return to the good old days of the late 19 th century, this is an ideal novel for you. This was published originally in Gujarati in 1913. It appeared as a serial before that from 1898 onwards in a periodical. The conflict between good and evil is the dominant motif though there is romance, betrayal, disappointment, regret, and pretty much of traditional morality. Reading this novel is quite like watching an old Bollywood movie, 1960s style. Ardeshir Bahadurshah, a wealthy Parsi aristocrat in Surat, dies having obligated his son Jehangir to find out his long-lost brother Rustom. Rustom was Bahadurshah’s son in his first marriage. The mother died when the boy was too small and the nurse who looked after the child vanished with it one day. Ratanmai, Bahadurshah’s present wife, takes her

Kejriwal’s Arrest in Modi’s Kurukshetra

For some mysterious reason, Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest reminded me of Haren Pandya. Maybe, because Pandya’s 21 st death anniversary is approaching (26 March). Have you forgotten Haren Pandya? He was the Home Minister of Gujarat before Narendra Modi assumed dictatorial powers in that state. Modi chose to teach humility to Pandya by making him the Minister of State for revenue. Pandya chose not to learn humility from Modi and resigned from that post in Aug 2002. Remember Gujarat of 2002? You should. A fire engulfed a train on 27 Feb 2002 killing 58 Hindu pilgrims who were returning from Ayodhya where they had gone to discover their god, not very unlike Christopher Columbus undertaking a voyage to discover India and messing it all up. What caused the fire in the train? Lord Ram knows probably. The upshot was that there was a riot in Gujarat by Hindus against Muslims. Haren Pandya is one of the BJP leaders who gave statements in many places indicting Modi for the riots. He asser