Those who say that one race
is better than another
Or one man has more merit than another
are history's surviving nazis
Good for the world
that from this junkyard of caste skeletons,
from this merit-ridden chaos
Hitler didn't borrow a single page
God
puts more wrinkles into some brains perhaps,
because from a book's cover
or a person's appearance
or from someone's colour
they can judge their worth…
They can sniff
and without sowing a seed
tell you that nothing will grow…
If we turn
the wheel of time back
we'll see who poured lead
into the senses meant to absorb learning
and exploded them like landmines!
From whose head did that wisdom grow!
We can decide everyone's worth…
Whenever we say, reservations
should become a social pact
that acknowledges past crimes,
those who smile on the outside
but in their hearts
want to shoot us down with automatic guns,
chop the country into pieces of merit–
aren't they very meritorious!
Aren't they the doctors
who cut open OBC stomachs for free!?
In their utopian melodrama
aren't even the rats in their homes white!!
They keep singing of merit
but award contracts to the highest bidders
and seats in medical colleges to big money!
Every car owner who gorges on subsidised petrol
showers the choicest abuse
on those who buy rationed kerosene
calling them a burden on the nation…
Like some whites in America
who recommend killing blacks in their wombs
to reduce crime
the IIMs, building obstructive walls of marks,
produce only
expensive coolies
who leave behind a nation milked dry.
Ours is an unequal society
that allows only those who own horses to play polo..
Half-broken skeletons
should be fitted with backbones here!
Between you and me..
When lives are marked by caste
wouldn't there be caste based reservations!!
If you stuff the only available jobs into your pockets
on the grounds of marks,
Shouldn't all the land
be given to those who till it..!!
It is silly..
To think that any race in history that has never worked
ever possessed any merit!
Do they have any history of working as serfs..
Do they have any history of cleaning streets..
Do they have any history of being trampled
under the wheels of discrimination..
Now all asses
think of themselves
as being very smart..
My translation of the Telugu poem 'virigina asthipamjaraalaku vennemukalu' by Thullimalli Wilson Sudhakar (from his collection of poetry 'daLita vyAkaraNam').