Poetry: Snigdha Agrawal

Snigdha Agrawal

BASTI BETI (Slum Children)

Pinned against the wall

Arms outstretched

Bloodshot eyes

Meeting hers scared

What next?

Rag stuffed mouth

Screams squelched

Bile rising the esophagus

Netted like a fish 

Felt!

Darkened lavatory

Where no one treads

Lifts skirt's hemline

Violates

Piercing pain!

Deep scratches on the face

Body, private parts sacred

Smelling of blood and sweat

Vampire possessed 

Defiles innocence!

Pounding, keeps at it

Muttering obscenities

Drops exhausted

Crawling up 

Lust undrained!

Daily wage earner

Carrying bricks all-day

Living in a Basti

Close to metropolis

Repeatedly raped!

Returns home blood-soaked

Not a word is said

Mother and grandmother

Met with same fate

Voiceless women!

 

No... they would have to listen

Summons courage

Screams and yells

at the unfairness

Confident of help!

Crew and cameras arrive

Svelte ladies with microphones

To record events

Story goes to the press

Demanding arrest!

She points him out

The demon, wresting from 

Pubescent children

labour and the right to molest

His entitlement!

Zilch happens!

Two days news readers debate

Fingers pointing, voices raised

"Child labor must be punishable"

Slogans, posters in bold print

display ‘Castrate’

Rape soon forgotten

News channels engage

reporting war casualties

Imposing sanctions

Justice swept 

Hemlines unsaved!

Blood of the girl child

Rinsed and spin-dried

Allergens released scot-free

Another girl child born of his loins

Incest committed!

Tired she is of these

Genteel pretentions

Born in a Basti

At twelve pregnant

Basti Beti sidestepped

'Bachao Beti'! (Save the Girl Child)

Beti: girl child   Bachao: save

***

BASTI NARI (Slum Woman)

By twenty-five mother of six 

Health workers advice

Get tubes tied

Save yourself from

early demise

'Mard' vehemently protests

Are you insane?

You will be going against

Bhairavi Goddess

Blessed with fertility

Others break heads

Rent wombs 

to become parents

Unfazed she remains

wilfully disobeys

Makes womb unavailable

For unwanted visitors again

More mouths to feed

out of already limited ration

Mard is kept in darkness

She's done with appeasing

Gods and Goddesses

Brazen to deal 

with the consequences

If that’s what's written

If that’s what fate

has ordained

So, be it!

Atychar bandh Karo (Stop the torture)

Mard = Man.

Bhairavi = Goddess of fertility

***

BASTI SANSAR (Slum World)

No toilet stalls

Out in the open 

along railway tracks

Lota of water in hand

suffice to wash bums

No social graces to disguise

Men, women, children 

expelling dinner 

of Vada Pau

Some enjoy 

this alone time

Each one focused 

on getting the job done

Wind caressing 

exposed parts

Stench overpowering

Never mind

Some break into a hum

Rude noises drowned

by trains 

whistling past

In the one-room shanty

Everything tightly packed

Ceiling to the floor 

with wooden racks. 

Tins standing shoulder to shoulder

Like soldiers

Labeled Tea, sugar, rice, wheat, dals

Kerosene filled jerry cans

Subsidies from ration shops

Charpai propped upright

A wooden broad platform

nailed to the wall

halfway down the ceiling

Usage- multi-purpose

Tucked in a corner

hand-pumped stove

blue flame bright

Cooking vessels 

black bottomed

Drums half-filled

Water supply killed

Poor, middle class 

even rich Mr. Shah 

the diamond merchant

here lives, for many reasons

Home for generations

Drunken brawls 

break out amidst

harmonious living 

No discrimination

Unpretentious living!

Charpai = a bedstead of woven webbing stretched on a wooden frame on four legs.

Lota = Brass or copper container for water, round in shape

***

KOTHIWALLAS (Apartment Owners)

They live right across 

Another side of railway lines

In high rise apartments 

with fancy names

like 'Victorian Heights'

Gated community

Owners and tenants 

Carrying swipe cards 

to gain access

locked by boom bars

From the guard room 

greeted with 'salams'.

Uniformed Housekeeping staff

Uniformed gardeners.

Dependent on Basti manpower

Life’s paradox!

Fights/arguments 

Commonality 

with Bastis

albeit with a difference

On 'Adda' platform 

flexing intellectual muscles  

Tickets are raised

Squabbles commence

till truce is called 

with the MC 

stepping in to resolve 

conflicts on issues 

stupid, hilarious

like pet owners demanding 

a community dog park

versus non-pet owners

Daily verbal brickbats

Digital dramas

Some amused stay out

Some get involved

Some join to show off

vocabulary skills

Throwing word punches 

Shashi Tharoor style thesaurus

Basti Bais unionized 

Dictate rates. 

Non-negotiable.

Basti Mards in demand

Given space in 

Basement garage

Ironing clothes 

of the nouveau rich

Sahebs/Memsahibs

and their Babas

Some wash cars

Some employed 

as security guards

Some still required 

for doing odd jobs

At the asking price.

Bara Sahebs/Memsahibs

Don't mess 

with Basti gangsters.

Bara = Big as alluded to the rich

Salams = salute

Sahibs/Memsahibs = polite title for a man/woman

Babas = affectionate term for children

***

YEAR MARCH 2020

Lockdown.

Life stalled.

Basti Bais lose jobs

Disallowed entry into

homes of snobs

Made do with

Dishwater 

Robot floor mops

But nowhere compared

to the style

Bai’s on knees perform

Mards lose jobs

Imprisoned in Bastis

Indulge in smoking pot

Lives flit pumped

Old, young, infants

None spared

Bodies cremated 

in open grounds

Ashes and dried feces 

released into the air

Screams of bereaved 

pierces ghostly silence

Death descends 

with vengeance.

There’s an old Sahib

In Victorian Heights 

Flat No. H-555

Caretaker from Basti

Wonders if he’s alive

With no help to wash,

Clean, change diapers.

Hears from gatekeeper

He died

With no one beside

Breaks down

Cries like a child

Trains don’t run

Immigrants from Bihar, UP

Lose jobs 

Stuck

Some attempt to walk back

With bori, bistra,

spilling tin trunks

Weighed down with luggage

Hunger in stomachs

At State Borders 

stopped

Back to Basti

Back to a life 

Gone wrong

Peering from Balconies

Ladies and Gentlemen watch

Packets of food send across

Nail varnish chipped fingers

take out belans 

roll chappatis

cook dry sabzis

A way of 

showing kindness 

to the ‘have nots’

in times hard.

Those who judge

will never understand

and those who understand

will never judge”

How the mind works 

For men, women, children

belonging to different

social castes

Bori Bistra = sack bedding

Belans = rolling pin

Chapatis = Indian bread

Mards = men

Bastis = slums

***

Bio: Snigdha Agrawal (nee Banerjee) is Bengali born, raised, and educated in a cosmopolitan environment, with exposure to the eastern and western cultures, imbibing the best of both worlds.  With more than two decades of experience working in the corporate sector, her outlook on life is balanced, which reflects in her writings.  A versatile writer, she writes all genres of poetry, prose, short stories, travelogues, hotel/restaurant reviews on Tripadvisor, under pen name puchka. A published author of three books, the latest titled “MINDS UNPLUGGED Lockdown Stories and Rhymes for The Six to Sixteen”, is now available worldwide on Amazon.in Amazon.com Flipkart, and other global platforms.  An intrepid traveler, her travel diaries can be accessed in word press blog: randomramblings52.  She lives in Bangalore (Karnataka) India.

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Setu, May 2022