Shail weaves news in verse for the week. From Covid-19 to a girl in a gown for exams, Chinese subsidies for babies and lovers hide for 10 years before marrying. An exclusive for Different Truths.
Back to Teeth-Grinding Basics
All those who conveniently thought the Covid-19 pandemic in disguise sought would bring an abrupt end to the climate change advancing bend, they are sadly mistaken! UN research has recently revealed that this temporary pause did not seal the harm done by humankind to Nature - global fossil fuel CO2 emission grind. Now, we seem to be back as in 2019. All the lockdowns no help it seems. So, all you over-positive beings out there – we are back to where we started- pollution, C02 emission all on the increase. Only a miraculous thought process and action for preservation can bring about a possible decrease. Until then, keep your fingers crossed. Nature, climate, universe is still the BIG BOSS!
No Comfort Zone This
Would you ever imagine this of an exam being written in a gown worn by an Assamese sis? No racist slur this. It’s what happened. Something really amiss. All of 19, dressed in comfort wear- a young girl in Tee n’ shorts got ready to sit in her exam chair when the invigilator rapped this Tezpur girl for wanting to write an entrance test in a minimum garment swirl. Mask. Check. Temperature. Check. Sanitizer. Sprayed. Dress. Ah! Ha! Error! The invigilator did not approve of her dressing to the letter. ‘Get a freaking pair of pants’ he said. ‘Or no writing the exam’ filling the girl and her father in dread. By the time the parent was back a lot of precious time lost; an alteration done with a garment frost. The girl was wrapped in a curtain around her waist. What a bitter pill to taste! A traumatic experience for any teenager whose only aim was to write an entrance wager. Now, it’s up to you to decide. Who was wrong and who was right?
Cheap Chinese Subsidies
If Chinese infamous global dominance wasn’t enough tarry a while, there’s reason to huff and puff! Chinese counties now believe their population is going down through a disarming decreasing sieve. One and two kids are not enough. Have a third, they say and we shall give you subsidies and stuff. So, each family having a third kid will now get 5000 Yuan quite an impression Chinese silk yarn! But wait, there is more before you head for the exit door. A year before the third child reaches three subsidies for home purchases and schooling fees free! What more can a Chinese family want with aches, worries, COVID, bats- a lot to globally flaunt! What do you say? Would this incentive really work, or will the Chinese population go berserk?!
Hide n’ Seek: A Lover’s Captive Creek
Ten years in hiding. Their love abiding. They lived together in a tiny room. The family unaware of this cozy living tomb. At eighteen, the girl left her home to live with her lover in his dome. Surprising, they never got caught. A decade time stretched enough without a wedding knot. Remember, it would even make a modern live in couple chuckle! And yet, amidst the despair their love and persistence were all that was there despite the case being filed against the Palakkad man even the Kerala’s State Women’s Commission failed in their plan. Recently, both came out of their hiding approaching the court for their wedding tiding. All’s well that ends well. And so, they have got married. The girl needn’t jump the window now, every night to use Nature’s washroom since love has freed them, brought in light.
Reference
1. https://www.dw.com/en/un-pandemic-did-not-slow-advance-of-climate-change/a-59197095
Visuals by Different Truths
Shail Raghuvanshi is a poet, freelance journalist, copyeditor, voice actor, and artist with 30 years of experience in various media. She has worked as the Cultural Correspondent for India’s first integrated media company, PLUS Channel, and has written course material for Madurai Kamaraj University’s Post Graduate Programme in Advertising and Public Relations. She has also been a coach of Communicative English. She has published poems, short stories, and articles in leading magazines and anthologies.
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