For Them Whose Sweat Flow For My Comfort Poem by Bharati Nayak

truly said, a good soul truly feels guilty

great tribute to the working class- from me too pay homage

A sense of guilty. Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

Hi Bharati, Revisited this poem today. It is reflective of the noble heart beating in your bosom. All of us live in decent houses- we have reasonably strong and comfortable shelters. But only Bharati thinks who built them. It is not 'built' by the money you spent on it; but but the labourers, carpenters, masons, plumbers, electricians etc. who did it. They may not have learned who is going to live in the house. Why should they a thought to such matters? Their concern is to get the day's wages and feed their children. For which they shed their sweat. I have seen labourers- entire families- from Bihar, Haryana and UP work day and night at the construction sites in Delhi. Right before the eyes of highest seat of power in India. Their children never went to school, but ended up as next generation labourers, and wives sisters and daughters were raped right before their eyes. Their complaints were never heard. There was not police or politicians to support them. Nothing has changed even now. Thank you Bharati for posting this very relevant poetry.

p.s. i just read your response to my first comment. i WOULD NOT have seen your response unless i had returned to this page to add a p.s (unless you also sent your response to me as a message, and i don't believe you did) first, i'll say that perhaps decent living is a relative thing. many of those that have never had the advantages and comforts..........such as higher wages, an education, and easy-access medical care.....may not miss them, OR at least they do ok without them. in india there are still jobs for them, the cost of their food and shelter is probably MUCH less than yours and mine, and they may even be healthier and/or not live so long that they become overly-dependent for decades as some americans do in their old age. perhaps humans come to expect too much in an over-populated and over-aged, in some cases [which helps to lead to overpopulation], society. some of the things you suggest the Government may be able to do to improve the standard of living sound like things the Green Party presidential candidate is suggesting may be done in the U.S. if she were president. she is the head of one of several non-major political parties here and has virtually no chance of being elected. she sounds at times like other politicians who 'promise' great things, but may not be able to 'deliver' on their 'promises'. bri :)

Thank you Bri Edwards for your exhaustive and analytical comment.You have raised many valid points regarding our approach towards the working class who render most essential service for our daily living. About the use of word 'guilty'in place of guilt I may say I used it more for rhyming purpose.As you suggested the word guilty'can be placed inside a qoutation mark. Yes, laborers are required for our daily living.Labor job is available in most numbers and gives employment to majority of the people who are particulaly illiterate and no tecnical skill.If machines replace menial jobs there will be less employment and more people may lose their daily bread. The question is how to improve thei standard of living through different measures.'Goverment may take steps to give wage that is adequate, give free education to their children, free medical treatment, life insurance, improving their skills etc, so that they can have a decent living.

as Stephani points out, some of us think the use of guilty rather than guilt is not what we would expect. but if you put guilty in quotation marks, i would accept it gladly [as though the word being is implied in front of the word guilty. it is a fine point in the usage of English, but you are the poet, so leave it as is if you wish. and i am not an expert! ! ! i really like what you are saying and how you are saying it. but i would perhaps just say to myself: the world is not fair to all. there is and never will be complete equality among humans. and perhaps some are worse off [not so well off] as the laborers you see and hear about. some may have no job and no way to make a living other than growing their own food and trading some of it for other things. hey! they would be called farmers! AND what if those laborers did not exist? now, in the U.S., many jobs which used to be done by 'laborers' are done by machines and machine operators (or computers!) , and maybe because of that, many people do not have jobs. of course some people say jobs are being 'sent overseas', to places like India, where labor is much cheaper. BUT there are still laborer jobs here, though i've heard that MANY of the laborer jobs, especially in agriculture, are filled by Mexicans and others who may have come to this country to earn more money than they could in their country of origin. and they fill jobs which many americans would not fill for one reason or another. each week on our street there still is a refuse/garbage/waste pick-up truck which uses a laborer to empty trash cans into the back of a large truck. there is a driver and a 'laborer' who clings to a perch on the back corner of the truck as it is driven to the next trash can out in front of a house. and there are laborers in other areas, like construction. try to not feel too guilty, but if you do, toss the laborers a few coins, if you dare. or give to a charity organization! and i think Stephani should use sympathy, not empathy in her comment; they mean slightly different things, as i recall. favorite stanza: But when they look at my silk saree And the bag of vanity The smoke and the dust in the air Leave me with a sense of guilty. to MyPoemList. bri ;)