Mainstream Weekly

Pick a Wave | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2022-05-20T22:44:33Z

O citizen, un-besotted by zeal, Un-fathered by the state, Between the heat wave And the hate wave Take your pick; Torched by the two now Smoulders the captive republic.
Neither the all-out sun nor the bellowing Saint knows the pinch Of price rise. Once the Gorgon has spouted, What son of woman May blubber otherwise.
Have you no work, have you no food, No plaster for the broken bone, No cooking oil, nor firewood, No sympathetic microphone That may your throttled syllables To the lord of (…)

- 2022

Agitated Lankans Could Learn From Their Calm Indian Counterparts | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2022-04-15T18:49:07Z

Sri Lankan people are mostly sedate and peace-loving by temperament.
But, now, they are agitated about the grave conditions in their pretty Island home.
Things, they say, have been mismanaged to the worst they could.
So, their agitation is understandable, but, as custodians of order tell us, , agitations are not good.
Agitations bring bad name to duly elected governments.
And, duly elected governments are never wrong. Only those agitations are kosher which (…)

- 2022

When Thoughts Find no Words | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2022-03-11T13:55:28Z

Then there are times When thoughts find no words. Like misbegotten embryos, sans Lips that form, eyes that see, Fingers that point, Their life tosses liquid in a miasma, Unable to shape the days to come.
When that which is said is said often, Remains in effect unsaid, Like rain that falls incessant Far away from sight or hearing. When was the last you heard What I said, insistent in my Peroration? Or if you did, it did not show In how your pupils moved Or your head nodded. Nothing in the (…)

- 2022

The Letting Go | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2022-02-12T06:55:22Z

(February 10, 2022)
o o
Then there are times
when the will to abandon course
overwhelms
the thin stream of reason,
thwarted without let by ever new
sophistries of cul-de sac.
What energies the custodians
of unreason pack.
Yet, what is new about this lament?
I reach back
To that first dour of Urban Naxals
Of ancient Greece—
A mentor of the name of Socrates—
and, askance at the tenacity of argument,
lash body and mind
to further assays of rational intent.
I see that (…)

- 2022

The Food Growers | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2021-11-26T23:31:30Z

November 24, 2021
(For P. Sainath)
Remember how once we thumbed their nose, And dubbed them a “sack of potatoes?” Well, not any more; The food growers knock at the republic's door When those that should have known better Have lost the grit and the skill To unravel the fetter That so imprisons the conglomerate will Of the land now sought to be ruled By an iron hand.
The pulpit looks askance At their knowledge of things That it was thought only the think-tank And the English language (…)

- 2021

Women of Afghanistan | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2021-08-27T16:46:11Z

August 24, 2021
Listening to you,
How my male genius is rebuked
By your brilliance,
Women of Afghanistan;
And how ignorant and frightened
Those that call themselves Taliban.
Can it be God's will that
Such imbeciles have rule
Over your lives?
Have they no regard for the
Excellence of the Prophet's wives?
Finding no other route to dominance,
They use Islam of their distortion;
What life have they without
Women who bore them for son?
How hollow then is their boast
Of being (…)

- 2021

The Winged Horse | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2021-07-23T16:47:34Z

July 22, 2021
Pegasus, the winged horse,
Sprang from Medusa's blood,
When Perseus, the virtuous,
Detached the wicked Gorgon's head.
Next it flew to the firmament,
And became a constellation bright,
Loved of Zeus, the all-mighty,
For spreading sweetness and light.
Think what in our fallen times
Has become of Pegasus;
Turned into a poisoned beep,
He is made to spy on us.

- 2021

Fire | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2021-07-16T07:53:27Z

Fire, fire, everywhere,
As far as the eye can span;
Fire across the continents,
Fire in the mind of man.
The oceans rise, the waters fall,
Yet fire defeats deluge;
Governance is a fireball,
Fire inflames the stooge.
Centuries of progression
From animal to reason
Now burn at the tyrant's stake
As treachery and treason.
Bullets lurk in syllables,
Wrapped in the fire of hate;
New commandments are etched in fire
Of the infernal state.
Fire fears the temperate
As lies fear (…)

- 2021

The Human Race | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2021-04-16T19:03:32Z

April 14, 2021
The human race is a fallen one,
And cannot be improved;
Shades of evil thus inform
Its best, better, and good.
The best are reason-infected,
The better sometimes converse;
The good follow instruction
That most suits their purse.
The best have no religion,
The better have a moral notion;
The good are honest followers
Of godman who promises promotion.
Capitalism is successful because
It addresses the good;
The good know what is best for them,
They see the (…)

- 2021

Eighty | Badri Raina

Badri Raina — 2021-03-05T16:08:51Z

February 28, 2021
They zoomed, friends from everywhere,
Just to make an eighty-year old wanted.
The eighty-year old no longer felt
Hollowed as a house haunted.
Tailoring away for decades
At cut-pieces of sanity and brawl,
Their words of love made my stitching
Worthwhile and whole.
What better abode to rest in finally
Than the memories of friends?
The zoom poured manna into my soul,
And for my failings made amends.
They may not know but they left the meet
With a basketful (…)

- 2021