Ban All Banishment Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

Books banned banished not get, nor burnt lie burnt,
Beacons from brain confined scarce be to jail,
Art censored scarce so stays, remains on hunt,
As all inquests condemned are to derail.
Societies left free to function or fail,
At times tense in dissent and friction-prone,
Like ocean caught by turbulence of gale,
It's proof, freedom fairs fair, if left alone.

No art is obscene, books nor paintings drawn,
As does all beauty, obscenity lies
In a beholder's eye; seeds that are sown
And most minds scarce from basal level rise.
It's hard for a bailiff better to see
O than that shown by sheriff's attorney.
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Much of intolerance seen in India and elsewhere seems deliberate. Take the recent ban on Salman Rushdie on attending a Lit Fest in Jaipur. Take the court cases on the well-known painter M F Hussein, who had to stay away from his country of birth till he died in London a few months back; take Taslima Nasreen of Bangladesh being driven out of West Bengal; take banning of books, paintings, and movies, even historical essays. But have they remained banned? What is banned seldom becomes banal. If anything, the book becomes better known, if not a best seller. The way out is indicated in the couplet concluding this Sonnet.
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Sonnets | 05.01.12 |