Skip to main content

Born Spectator



One infant grows up and becomes a Modi
Another settles down quietly with shaadi

This one the coveted circle hates to enter
That one gets a cabinet rank in the centre

I am just glad as glad can be
That I am not them, and they are not me

With all my heart I do admire
Politicians with their pneumatic tyre

And the flashing bulb on the roof
Also the hooter that’s foolproof

And the way they take each poll in gaudy pomp
And maim each opponent as they romp

My limp and bashful spirit feeds
On other people’s heroic deeds

You’d think my ego it would please
To vote to power one of these

Well, ego it might be pleased enough
But the queue at the booth is rough stuff

I’d rather be a spectator than cast the vote
For people who will only rock my life’s boat



Confession: This is a parody on Ogden Nash’s classical poem, The Confessions of a Born Spectator, inspired by Gujarat’s decision to make voting compulsory for all adult citizens.  

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 11, 2014 at 1:12 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Saru SinghalNovember 11, 2014 at 11:11 PM

    A good one and seriously shocked to learn that even voting right can be forced.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 12, 2014 at 9:27 AM

      That enforcement is an indication of things going to come, Saru. We are going to face a kind of subtle dictatorship.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousNovember 12, 2014 at 12:47 AM

    Nice poem..

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownNovember 12, 2014 at 2:36 AM

    Why those last two lines sir ? They are explicitly and with seriousness expressing what you subtly and sarcastically intimated in rest of the poem.It is like explaining what you intended to say

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 12, 2014 at 9:29 AM

      The poet persona is reiterating that he is a "born spectator"... I appreciate your pointing out the literary demerit of the couplet. But I am more concerned about hammering certain concepts down with ruthless determination.

      Delete
  5. Khoty MathurNovember 12, 2014 at 7:44 AM

    You must write a poem on how best we can prevent the 'rough stuff' at booths.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 12, 2014 at 9:30 AM

      That's a herculean challenge you are throwing at me, KM. :)
      It's so easy to be an "armchair critic" as I have often described myself.

      Delete
  6. Nima DasNovember 12, 2014 at 7:21 PM

    I too am a spectator and happy to be one.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
44 comments
Read more

Remedios the Beauty and Innocence

  Remedios the Beauty is a character in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude . Like most members of her family, she too belongs to solitude. But unlike others, she is very innocent too. Physically she is the most beautiful woman ever seen in Macondo, the place where the story of her family unfolds. Is that beauty a reflection of her innocence? Well, Marquez doesn’t suggest that explicitly. But there is an implication to that effect. Innocence does make people look charming. What else is the charm of children? Remedios’s beauty is dangerous, however. She is warned by her great grandmother, who is losing her eyesight, not to appear before men. The girl’s beauty coupled with her innocence will have disastrous effects on men. But Remedios is unaware of “her irreparable fate as a disturbing woman.” She is too innocent to know such things though she is an adult physically. Every time she appears before outsiders she causes a panic of exasperation. To make...
4 comments
Read more

The Death of Truth and a lot more

Susmesh Chandroth in his kitchen “Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought,” Poet Shelley told us long ago. I was reading an interview with a prominent Malayalam writer, Susmesh Chandroth, this morning when Shelley returned to my memory. Chandroth says he left Kerala because the state had too much of affluence which is not conducive for the production of good art and literature. He chose to live in Kolkata where there is the agony of existence and hence also its ecstasies. He’s right about Kerala’s affluence. The state has eradicated poverty except in some small tribal pockets. Today almost every family in Kerala has at least one person working abroad and sending dollars home making the state’s economy far better than that of most of its counterparts. You will find palatial houses in Kerala with hardly anyone living in them. People who live in some distant foreign land get mansions constructed back home though they may never intend to come and live here. There are ...
10 comments
Read more

The Covenant of Water

Book Review Title: The Covenant of Water Author: Abraham Verghese Publisher: Grove Press UK, 2023 Pages: 724 “What defines a family isn’t blood but the secrets they share.” This massive book explores the intricacies of human relationships with a plot that spans almost a century. The story begins in 1900 with 12-year-old Mariamma being wedded to a 40-year-old widower in whose family runs a curse: death by drowning. The story ends in 1977 with another Mariamma, the granddaughter of Mariamma the First who becomes Big Ammachi [grandmother]. A lot of things happen in the 700+ pages of the novel which has everything that one may expect from a popular novel: suspense, mystery, love, passion, power, vulnerability, and also some social and religious issues. The only setback, if it can be called that at all, is that too many people die in this novel. But then, when death by drowning is a curse in the family, we have to be prepared for many a burial. The Kerala of the pre-Independ...
14 comments
Read more

Koorumala Viewpoint

  Koorumala is at once reticent and coquettish. It is an emerging tourist spot in the Ernakulam district of Kerala. At an altitude of 169 metres from MSL, the viewpoint is about 40 km from Kochi. The final stretch of the road, about 2 km, is very narrow. It passes through lush green forest-looking topography. The drive itself is exhilarating. And finally you arrive at a 'Pay & Park' signboard on a rocky terrain. The land belongs to the CSI St Peter's Church. You park your vehicle there and walk up a concrete path which leads to a tiled walkway which in turn will take you the viewpoint. Below are some pictures of the place.  From the parking lot to the viewpoint The tiled walkway A selfie from near the view tower  A view from the tower Another view The tower and the rest mandap at the back Koorumala viewpoint is a recent addition to Kerala's tourist map. It's a 'cool' place for people of nearby areas to spend some leisure in splendid isolation from the hu...
30 comments
Read more