The Horror, the Horror / Speaking of Which

Two Poems of Badri Raina

The Horror, the Horror

Did he just have another
Unauthorised thought?
To the House of Correction,
Then, where all thought
But the authorised one
Is quickly forgot. After all,
If the nation is to gallop apace,
Ideological democrats must
Be shown their place.
How are we to scale glory
Number one, if we forever
Carp knowledgeably at our own story?

Speaking of number one,
When thoughts proliferate
They convey a clear and present
Danger to the nationalist state.
And when colours multiply, they
Besmirch the authorised nationalist

Dye. Nor must it be forgot how
Our great sages have defined
Nirvana as that empty condition
Where the mind is without thought.

More practically, however crude
Be the facts on offer, the image
Of the Motherland must never suffer.
Our mothers may well be without
Nutrition, the idea of the Mother
Must remain a sacred one. Just
As we are known by the clothes
We wear, the truth of civilisations
Is to be found in the myths and
Legends we devotedly foreground.
We commit no greater crime than
To let thought meddle with this
Supremely elevating paradigm.

It is seen that too many handlers
Mangle the spice. Salubrious
Home food is best served to
One habituating voice. Our
Abacus must cease with the
Count of One; chaos descends
When it stretches from one to ten.
To this end we must reorient
Our education, as much in books
As in the realm of politics.
Should you fail to see this simple
Point, you have to be a left out critic.
Those that laud the sickle and
Hammer, and insist on argument
Must now be promptly sent
To the salubrious slammer. But
Only after patriotic roughs first
Chastise them with fisticuffs.

Remember what Chanakya said:
“Nothing is in itself bad, you
Must know; only thinking makes it so.”
Think not, obey, O Bharat ki santaan,
Obedience is the surest way
To multiple Nirvana. And remember,
Nothing is ever wrong with
The land in which you are born.
Such expressions of discontent
Place you squarely in the enemy tent.

Thus, relent, relent, be thoughtless,
Nimble, and thou shalt prosper
Under the authorised symbol.
Those that dream have the Preamble.
Think not with the people
who lay claim to the nation;
let the territory constitute
your nationalist passion.
Go there and lay down your
Fervent breath; and the state
Shall reward you in your death.

Speaking of Which

There are times when speaking
Your mind draws thoughtless
Applause, whatever be your cause.
In such circumstance, words
Are not difficult to find.
All that, as we know now, leads
To a deleterious loosening
Of character, undermining
The sacred nation from below.
Deeply, deeply culpable are regimes
That encourage such collective
Laxity. Blessed are we in
A new dispensation that tirelessly
Teaches all but its own how
To hold the tongue in discipline.
After decades of polyvalent fraction,
The realm is on course correction.
Only those may cavil and groan
Who needlessly choose to have
A mind of their own. God did not
Give us the gift of expression
For critical babbling; rather for
Responsible nationalism and
Ennobling tactical repression.
Here is what incorrigible freaks
Need to ponder: how little god,
Who may speak all, actually speaks.