Skip to main content

Nehru Under Arrest

 


Nehru was arrested on the Prime Minister's order.

"Why the hell do you continue to haunt people's hearts?"

The Prime Minister fulminated. 

We removed you from textbooks and history,

We painted you black in posters,

We removed your names from roads and institutions.

Why the hell don't you vanish yet?


Nehru smiled and said nothing. 

Why do you kick me up from my resting place again and again, 

He wanted to ask.

But he was wise.


The silence exasperated the Prime Minister

More than the smile. 

Silence is treason when you are asked questions,

The Prime Minister thundered. 

It was time for him to groom himself for

Mann ki Baat. 


Arrest him under UAPA,

The Prime Minister ordered

Before going to address children on their day.

One child was fidgety in the audience

In spite of being selected after detailed screening.

The Prime Minister stared at the child

And a black cat commando picked up the child

By the scruff...


Nehru and the child played gilli danda in the prison

While the TV aired the PM's Mann ki Baat.  



Comments

  1. Rajeev MoothedathNovember 15, 2021 at 10:57 AM

    Satire at its best! But then banishing the chacha, a freedom fighter and the first PM from the hearts of Indians,especially on Children's day is next to impossible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 15, 2021 at 5:12 PM

      They'd love to banish Nehru altogether. But the efforts are counterproductive.

      Delete
  2. Manali DesaiNovember 15, 2021 at 4:38 PM

    What satire... loved this sir...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yamini MacLeanNovember 15, 2021 at 7:28 PM

    Hari OM
    Well written! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. जितेन्द्र माथुरNovember 16, 2021 at 10:09 AM

    Great satire indeed. Very well written. Our pseudo-nationalist PM and his Bhakts (or henchmen) are trying their level best to erase Nehru from people's memory (or at least tarnish his image alongwith that of Mahatma Gandhi's). Now one of their (Padmashree honored) warriors has asserted that the freedom in 1947 had been given by the British as a charity in Gandhi's begging bowl. Well, their task is difficult but their perseverance towards that deserves some (satirical) admiration. Nehru was himself was a loving person, just like a trusting innocent child. That's why he wanted his birthday to be commemorated as the Children's Day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 16, 2021 at 9:18 PM

      It's a villainous India that BJP has created.. Nehru's mistakes were far more desirable. And you put it so beautifully.

      Delete
  5. parwatisingariNovember 21, 2021 at 8:17 AM

    As usual, well penned. The sanskari and newage enlightened social media went 'happy children's day' which prompted my post. http://parwatisingari.com/2021/11/14/remembering-chacha-nehru/

    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

Coming-of-Age Poems

Lubna Shibu Book Review Title: Into the Wandering Multiverse Author: Lubna Shibu Publisher: Book Leaf , 2024 Pages: 23 Poetry serves as a profound medium for self-reflection. It offers a canvas where emotions, thoughts, and experiences are distilled into words. Writing poetry is a dive into the depths of one’s consciousness, exploring facets of the poet’s identity and feelings that are often left unspoken. Poets are introverts by nature, I think. Poetry is their way of encountering other people. I was reading Lubna Shibu’s debut anthology of poems while I had a substitution period in a section of grade eleven today at school. One student asked me if she could have a look at the book as I was moving around ensuring discipline while the students were engaged in their regular academic tasks. I gave her the book telling her that the author was a former student in this very classroom just a few years back. I watched the student reading a few poems with some amusement. Then I ask...
8 comments
Read more

How to preach nonviolence

Like most government institutions in India, the Archaeological Survey of India [ASI] has also become a gigantic joke. The national surveyors of India’s famed antiquity go around finding all sorts of Hindu relics in Muslim mosques. Like a Shiv Ling [Lord Shiva’s penis] which may in reality be a rotting piece of a Mughal fountain. One of the recent discoveries of Modi’s national surveyors is that Sambhal in UP is the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of God Vishnu. I haven’t understood yet whether Kalki was born in Sambhal at some time in India’s great antique history or Kalki is going to be born in Sambhal at some time in the imminent future. What I know is that Kalki is the final incarnation of Vishnu that is going to put an end to the present wicked Kali Yuga led by people like Modi Inc. Kalki will begin the next era, Satya Yuga, the Era of Truth. So he is yet to be born. But a year back, in Feb to be precise, Modi laid the foundation stone of a temple dedicated to Kalk...
12 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
15 comments
Read more

The Triumph of Godse

Book Discussion Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi in order to save Hindus from emasculation. Gandhi was making Hindu men effeminate, incapable of retaliation. Revenge and violence are required of brave men, according to Godse. Gandhi stripped the Hindu men of their bravery and transmuted them into “sheep and goats,” Godse wrote in an article titled ‘Non-resisting tendency accomplished easily by animals.’ Gandhi had to die in order to salvage the manliness of the Hindu men. This argument that formed the foundation of Godse’s self-defence after Gandhi’s assassination was later modified by Narendra Modi et al as: “ Hindu khatre mein hai ,” Hindus are in danger. So Godse has reincarnated now.   Godse’s hatred of non-Hindus has now become the driving force of Hindutva in India. It arose primarily because of the hurt that Godse’s love for his religious community was hurt. His Hindu sentiments were hurt, in other words. Gandhi, Godse, and the minority question is the theme of the...
5 comments
Read more