(g - Baba Amte - 1994) The Taming Of The Times Poem by Kannan G

Where tigers prowled for flesh
Where scorpions sprouted
From an abandoned earth
Into such a thick forest of rocks,
Into such a despised desert of humanness
A man came and stamped his foot.

There were wild grasses all around –
With bleeding hands
He began pulling them out by the roots.
The darkness grew and grew
But he knew he had something to do.
When the fingers of his fellowmen
Kept vanishing
When their tongue-tied mouths
Were going parched
He drew water from the Ganges of his heart
And quenched their thirst.

Their mutilated palms
Now tightened their grip
On the untiring sickle and spade.
So from a deserted earth
Sprouts appeared
Grew and flowered.
They had successfully grown their bread.
He carried the vegetables
And the fruits (of their toil)
To the market
Of the outside world.
But that world
Feared in them
Contagium.
And refused any barter.
They were fed on ignorance –
They threw cold water
On these men
Struggling to rise
From the eddies
They were caught in.
But they had a spirit
Out there
To row them
To the shore.
So after the dreary night
Of torrents and thunderbolts
When some light
Appeared on the horizon
The world saw a beautiful garden
Beyond the thick and opaque fence
Which their narrowness had erected.
The outsiders now shamefully caught
A fresh fragrance in the air
And slowly walked in
Through its open gates
Into this marvelous ‘Forest of Bliss’.
There those crippled fingers
Had erected
A tower of learning
For their brethren outside.
There those bleeding hearts
Had created
An oasis of love and peace.