What a Pig! - by Abhishek Dandekar

"What a pig!"

My master screamed at me,

Miss tried telling " It’s nothing big ",

But he simply wouldn’t agree,

I put my head down and left the sty,

Cursing that one day I shall make my master cry,

He kept giving me cold looks as I bid good bye,

Laughing he said, " How are you gonna payback Pig ? Still try",

I threw a last look at my pack,

At Winnie, the cow and Sandra, the hen perched on a stack,

They all were sorry for me,

But couldn’t make their master, their enemy,

Out in the sun blistering in the day,

I weathered the storms as they say,

I dint have shelter and anything to wear,

Other farmers did glare, but why would they care,

I started falling sick and dizzy,

And then came the noisy sneeze,

Before I could pull out my hanky,

It flew away with a breeze,

A few days later the hen called on my phone,

Said the master was missing me, and felt lone,

She mentioned he was unwell,

I thought of her trying to work her spell,

A trick to get her friend back,

To chat as she stayed perched on her stack,

But her voice was sounding unusually serious,

And she wasn’t seeming her usual mischievous,

So I made up my mind,

Got ready and stretched my hind,

As I walked I kept growing worried, losing calm,

Thoughts rioting about master ailing on my farm,

With long strides and leaps I finally reached the destination,

Saw my master laid on the bed under heavy medication,

Couldn’t help tears rolling from my cheeks,

My Master had turned so feeble in only a few weeks,

I kept praying to god to return my curse back,

Soon I noticed his hand reaching for me utterly slack,

He brushed my hair as I noisily wept and cried,

Smiling he said, “What a Pig!” and slowly died.

- Abhishek.Dandekar

One flu from the sty - A poem by Abhishek Dandekar

Oink, Oink, they said,

And they flew from their sty,

Before all could figure how to fly,

The doctors sprayed chemicals, and many had to die,

One managed to escape,

By hiding on a man's nape,

The man rode on his way home without a hint,

Wearing his sunglasses that gleamed with a glint,

Soon disaster struck and the poor guy sneezed and sneezed,

And heavy coughing had his lungs squeezed,

So he ran to the private clinics, all scared and panicky,

Some doctors treated him lightly but one was finicky,

The finicky one studied him thoroughly and diagnosed his disease,

The doctor understood the gravity of it and knew it can’t be treated at ease,

So he made the man rush to a Government hospital in a hurry,

Where the chaos was humongous and everything in a flurry,

The man had started losing his patience and the time was running out of clock,

But the beds were short of numbers and the drugs falling out of stock,

He waited and waited and now his body had started growing weak,

His patience was now dying out and hopes were going bleak,

He collapsed on the floor and that drew him attention,

He was hurried on a stretcher and driven through the commotion,

He was needled and shot with several vaccines on his arm,

It was late by now and the medicines failed to keep him calm,

His heartbeats kept rising and his body was shaking with a slew,

So the doctors called in his family and gave them a clue,

Soon he gave out his last breath and closed his eyes that shone a brilliant blue,

The newspapers flashed headlines the next day “One more death in Mumbai from Swine flu”.

-Abhishek.Dandekar

Terrorism- Security intelligence failure or Administrative failure

Boom another series of blasts to rock the city. Diwali celebrations just dont seem to end. Taken at face value, security failure is one thing that stands prominently in all of this. I mean our sea routes are just so ...easy? Terrorists have entered and are roaming about with guns and hand grenades as if they are in a huge fair. Only that the entertainment thrown open here is vulgar. No I am not talking about the religion of the terrorists; terrorism has no religion. And as for the Muslim terrorists claiming their fame, its so sick. But like I always say "Think deep". Muslims in India have always lived in a thick cloak of fear and have been treated as a burden. India, after 61 years of independence, hasn't been able to meet the promises made to them in 1947. Our Hindu politicians are busy gathering their votebank by splitting the country, time and again. But haven't they gone too far? I'm a Hindu myself but I deeply regret the way my fellow communities and religions are being treated.