From beating drums, fire signals and cries of the ancient man, we had travelling bards moving from villages to villages, recounting many stories (read news) in India and elsewhere. These were the rich oral traditions. The storytellers were the first newspersons. We celebrate our legacy. Shail recounts top news of the week gone by, in verse, beginning this Sunday. A Different Truths exclusive.
Hurricane Harvey Turns Life Topsy-Turvy
Lashing unforgiving rain
creates a huge hurricane
drowning Houston in Texas, city, roads, houses in its wake.
Thousands stranded, disconnected
from active life’s functioning-
this and a lot more did the devastating storm bring.
People dead, lost, floating, washed away
as drenching downpours
conspired to surly a swarming sustenance!
Gratitude, graciousness poured in plenty though
in the upsurge of human unrest
humanity hovered generously around
coming forward
to push back faith in mankind
amidst Nature’s blinding furious outpour.
Mumbai’s Deluge
It is that time of the year
when the rains are not so very dear;
drains fill fast, overflow,
water-logged roads,
mobility measured.
Mumbai fighting it out once again,
attempting to survive
in a spate of rainfall induced floods.
Local trains stalled,
tracks lying buried in graves of water,
helpless people wading through filthy aqua
hoping to reach home
before they are washed away.
Whom to blame?
Whom to ask for help?
Nature’s unswerving rigidity
supported by unsuitable city planning
leaves a metro grappling
with a deluge
forewarned to no avail
battling it out, as always
preventive measures lost in a trail.
In the Name of the Holy Baba
‘Baba,’
no longer a name for father,
god like figure- 
a mere shameful term now
to press the exploitation trigger.
A godman rapist, a murdering lecher
sporting religious names defacing belief.
Not the first one to do so.
Not the last one too!
Is there anything logical in discussing defunct devotion?
Prostrating before an aam ‘Insan’
whose acts of holiness a mere swaang;
soiling the image of man, land, and nation-
the Dera his sexual play station.
Unholy Baba now behind bars,
an incomplete punishment
for lives sullied and killed,
for beliefs cheated and grilled.
Cannot conveniently only blame the erring Baba-
Until mankind learns to believe the God within
we shall frequently be witness to deras of sin!
Rasputin’s Blue Whale
Blue Whale-
that majestic marine mammal
reduced today
to an infamous life threatening game
that seducingly invites
children to take their lives
without cause or reason,
any time, any season;
A viral phenomenon,
A shady aspect of sadist sensationalism
adding to the already existing weary woes-
50 days to destruct, destroy mind and body pores;
A mystery in itself,
the game unknown yet widespread
originating in Rasputin’s Russia
mysterious like the mystic, deadly in the aura.
Let’s be wary guys. Let’s keep our children away
from the Blue Whale!
©Shail Raghuvanshi
Photos from the Internet
#NewsInVerse #News #Poems #WhatIsHappening #DifferentTruths
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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