The School At Kathirimalai (Erode District In Tamil Nadu) Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

The kids of the tribes in Kathirihills
had trekked 28 Kms through dense forests
for catching a bus to the Collectorate
and appealing to have teachers to their school.
If the men and women who served as ministers
and officers of the Erode District
couldn't have felt sorry after reading
this news from 'The Times of India',
they are not worthy to be 'a human being'.

The winding roads with hairpin bends
in the Eastern and the Western Ghats
were laid when the English enslaved India.
Once the Britishers left, our robbers took the reins
and found national and regional parties,
religious, secular and castiest outfits
to feel the pulse of the administration
and push their men into positions to loot.

The golden rule of building dams in Tamil Nadu
and starting schools in far-flung hills,
laying roads to interior hamlets
and feeding the learning children with meals
and touching not the sweaty notes of the farmers
for giving jobs to their skilled boys and girls
ended with the saga of the freedom fighters.

When the tribals are devoid of basic facilities,
the politicians live in palatial bungalows.
They shift their abodes and wives as the clime varies.
If they live in simple houses and set their foot
in stinking lanes, they could have felt for the tribes.
Seventy children have no teachers in that school!
But you see two, three teachers in schools around cities
where the strength of the students be in single digits,
singing paeans to officers and the bigwigs
and enjoying all the allowances for the cities.

Lay a road to Kathirimalai and ply the buses.
All the facilities they will have including the nets.
The leader of the tribals, 'Ramasamy'
who led the children to the Collector's office
is the real leader, the Tamils need at present
and not the bogus ones with make-up, who cheat and rob.
Let the officers be freed to roam in all the places
where the people groan for basic things
and do their best service to the poor.