A Non Patriotic Poem

I don't read the two newspapers I subscribe to

Ostensibly I don't have time

Actually I dread opening the once inviting, ink scented leaves

Because every day they wage an assault on what I believed about my reality

My reality, my neighborhood, my country

The place where I felt safe

The place that was my comfort

The place that was my own

No matter the squalid streets

The lapses in infrastructure

The many inefficiencies that are anathema to modern Life

It was still my place under the sun

It smelt of me, the turmeric scented potato curry

Someone is inevitably making for breakfast

Or the rich aroma of biriyani

That harried Swiggy boys race against time to deliver

It sounded like my own, with music from Khan films

Wafting in the air in Arijit Singh's voice

Or the words of Rabindranath

Melliflously rendered by Rezwana Banya

It was a place where we made fun of Punjabis in front of them

And they retorted with Bong jokes

Leading to hearty laughter over pav bhaji and shingara 

Today the sounds are alien

Shouts of piety most impious

Claims of patriotism born of hate

Neighborhoods split apart by meaningless divides

Can we assign a religion to Zakir Hussain's divine rhythm

Or to Aditi Mangaldas' Kathak magic?

Can we say which one is more Indian, the Biriyani or the Khichdi?

Some of us escape, some of us fight

And some others find an opportunity to come out of the closet

With their religious phobia

Despite their education and notional intelligence

They argue, over large bites of kebab and biriyani

How Muslims are at the root of all our problems

Wilfully ignoring the rapid death of our economy

The only religion that will feed hungry children

Of all religions

We rose above fear and held our heads high

When a foreign power ruled the land

Today we have Swaraj, but the heads are bent, the stomachs are empty

And we spend time and rhetoric on temples and mosques

Both of which feed destitutes of all religions

Wake up my beloved country

For you are too wise to succumb to propaganda

You have endured as a secular nation 

Through many a foreign invasion

Now fight the invasion from within

And claim your rightful place

The highest position in the court of the world

That our Noble Laureate writer of the national anthem

Envisaged in his vision of an independent India