Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu, two PMs, bond over kite-flying at Sabarmati Ashram and they paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi. The App WeCroak is born of Bhutanese folklore saying that to be happy, one ought to contemplate death five times a day. A police station in Kerala serves as a clinic for children too. A pair of mice snuck into an ATM in the Kazakh capital Astana, hiding from a snowstorm. These two ruined currency notes. These are some of the news in the last week that Shail presents here, exclusively for Different Truths.

Political Kite Flying

The Israeli connect –

flying kites in Sabarmati Ashram

exchanging Jai Bharat–Jai Israel affirmations.

Will it work, asks the public

Or, is it going to be another gimmick

while citizens struggle with daily hustle-bustle.

Know not-want not

watching kites of survival, of corruption

corrode the atmosphere.

Unanswered queries still rent the air

from people who attempt to dare.

So, while Netanyahu tries to twirl

the traditional Indian chakra,

questioning threads of doubt, of faith

weave garments of newfound friendship.

App Looking at the Big Picture

Have you wondered about death?

Not your neigbour’s but yours?

You do? When?

When nobody watches?

Or maybe, sometimes in the loo

as toxins scurry out of you

making you realise that life would leave one day too?

Now, an app (WeCroak) just for you

that constantly reminds of impending death.

Not a sadistic use of technology, it proclaims

but a philosophical use of Bhutanese folklore

that prompts you to remember that death lurks

around, waiting, so better look at the bigger picture.

Forget that you are invincible;

Forget that time is always at your service.

Think of living the best, living the moment

Or else, you might regret as life gives you a miss!

Child-Friendly Police Station

Amidst all turmoil and stress

there is something that works best.

A police station in Kerala’s Kannur

operates a child-friendly unit on Sundays

keeping disease, hurt, tension at bay.

Paediatricians attend to children

offering services free of cost.

What better way to keep away the illness frost.

Lockups, grim-faced khaki-clad policemen

substituted by school ambiance, colourful walls;

an excellent example of society’s way of giving back.

Let’s all do something like this.

Best wishes to this cop initiated way

of disease-stress dismiss!

Mice Have a Field Day

And you thought ATMs were safe

from rats at least?

Human robbers expected

but rats and mice stealing your currency notes?

What did you think?

If humans can do hanky-panky

can these little creatures stay far behind?

In an ATM in Kazakhstan,

hiding from a snowstorm

mice pick on an ATM, warm themselves

taking bites of currency lying around.

In a fast converting cryptocurrency age

ignorant mice put back in a cage

leaving humans vulnerable, to say the least-

valuable paper in steel boxes unsafe, to others a feast.

©Shail Raghuvanshi

Photos from the Internet

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Shail Raghuvanshi

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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