The Dilemma Poem by JAI VARDHAN KUMAR

Since childhood I was taught
Be humane; pity, console,
And soothe the distressed;
I evoked these
From within, learned to laugh with others,
Feel with others...... they taught me,
I learned all these and more sincerely...
All these were within me from birth
I had only to nurse, nourish, cultivate them.

Becoming young, I came into contact
With people of various kinds,
People living in slums of a muddy society:
Muddy they become, muddy in thoughts,
Muddiness they taught me.
They began to oppress me.

Being humane, I bore the pain patiently.
The more I bore, the more they tortured.
They wouldn't let me live like a man,
They pinched me, taunted me always.
But all at once a storm raged in me:
My teeth chattered and I returned
What was many a time done to me.

They taught me how to be inhuman.
Then again in my mind a clash began
Was my birth a big blunder
And am I to blame?

Here is a dire dilemma, which to choose-
One in the blood, the other imposed:
Humanness on Bitterness brutal?