From a Mother

- Anwesha saha

'Digital India' they dream. 

'Mann ki Baat’ they speak. 

But for me, these are faraway tales,

Here, everything is slow- fermented and stale.

Under the shadow of your ignorance,

I live. Under the veil of your vested interests,

I die. A mere burden, my existence,

Crushed and trampled under the weight of your arrogance. 

I have nothing to do with IITs and IIMs.

Nor with AIIMS and its gems. 

I lived from day to day, worried from night to night.

Prayed for a square meal, honestly, my only fright. 

But today I have nothing left to fear, 

Nothing left to lose, nothing I hold dear.

For my little one could breathe only for eleven years,

As hunger gripped her, and took her away from here.

Today, I can’t even  shed tears.