Be Liberal To The Disabled And The Disturbed Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

I sprained my right foot
by hurdling a kick at the back
of a cycle-thief, sitting in Class Sixth.
Unlocked cycles alarmed at his looks.
Over stuffed syllabus didn't scare him.
Everyweek, a girl would cry for her missing cycle.
He would eat free mid-day meals
only on the days at which boiled-eggs served.
One kick made me feel severe pain
but he ignored it and went out to lunch as usual.

I had been meeting doctors one by one,
losing more than a thousand and odd.
Money is for spending and I was not bothered.
But while limping across the Highways
with my swollen foot, I had to give answers
for hundreds of people concealing the cause of injury.
If I raised my hand to stop the speeding bus,
the drivers seemed careless and stopped a little away.
"My God! How the blind and disabled walk along the road
and cross the rail tracks and go for shopping? "
If some women come behind me, the buses stopped nearby
and I found it easy to board them.
As a lame waiting for the bus,
if there was any sudden communal violence,
how could I run to safety?

A Rotarian ranged to me and told me
to provide a tricycle for me.
Children looked at my foot with mercy.
" Go on medical leave. Don't get injury more",
some senior citizens advised me.
How the handicapped or physically challenged
tolerate comments hurled on them?
If I had sprained my leg
by climbing over the Everest
or by fighting for our nation in the war,
by chasing a tiger in the jungle
or by lifting a boulder over my shoulders
to prove my strong physique,
I could brag about the injury but how could
I tell the shameful tale to everyone who queries.
Since those days, I have been liberal in giving money
to the physically disabled and the mentally disturbed.
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