All posts tagged: Philosophy

Children

Published by Saswat Pattanayak

You who surrender your children to the gods Have you wondered about the repercussions? Those that grow with heads bent to authorities How will they conceive of unfettered revolutions?   When will the children question your scriptures Of dangerous myths and needless sanctities? When would they combat your unfounded claims How to break the cycles of plutocratic doctrines?   You who gift your children to miseducation system Have you wondered about lifelong consequences? Those that shape up worldview with falsified histories How will they challenge their status quo semblances?   When will the children demand empowering knowledge Schools where seeds of resistance grow with purpose If parents forbid the young to teach world new values – Of godless society, where folks unite for communistic goals.   Send them to the churches, temples, synagogues or mosques Or feed them to schools, colleges and university halls Wearing uniforms, attending prayers and consuming TV news Yet another cohort of obedient fools abiding by neo-Nazi rules   You who dream for better tomorrows for future generations And yet inculcate …

Fellow Decent Human Beings… (Translated)

Published by Saswat Pattanayak

Following is my translation of a poem by Sahir Ludhianvi: “Ae Sharif Insaanoen” I find the poem to be deeply relevant to our times. Just when the majority of us are blaming the minority among us for criminal acts of terror caused by the militarists and suddenly believing in the words of “our” national politicians to caste doubts upon innocent people of another country, at a time when we Indians have become mute witnesses to cultural bans on Pakistan and artists from Pakistan even as racist communal elements in Bollywood such as Aadesh Srivastava or Abhijeet are gaining grounds, at a time when artists such as respected Ghulam Ali are being banned from entering the land of a country – India- whose people love him immensely, simply because suddenly some communal Hindu supremacist leaders are opposing any possible cultural exchanges with our neighboring nation, at a time when we are allowing a bunch of proven thugs – the politicians who we all know to be corrupt to the core every passing day, the politicians who …

Hiroshima!

Published by Saswat Pattanayak

Apologist for collective indifference Bereft of long term amnesic stance Capitulated dissidence   Decades of glaring carcasses Emphasize countless tragedies Frantically reassess the losses   Grim prospects for peaceniks Hectored loftily by regimes Invidious despair from mavericks   Joyous wait for impending peace Kingdom of utopian bliss Ludicrous beliefs never cease   Misread pages of war histories Normalize causes of thy miseries Oppressive narrations of human follies   Peace comes not by bombing lands Quest for justice needs friendly hands Revolutionaries above mere firebrands   Solidarity in these times of wars Towards lasting peace and raising bars Unionize to defeat the militarist czars   Victory to boundless internationalists Workers of the world who unite to fight Xenophobes, reactionary nationalists   Yardsticks of progress are years of peace Zenith of harmony shall be rare to miss   – Saswat Pattanayak, Peoples’ Poet

Lebanon Kills

Published by Saswat Pattanayak

It kills our conscience every single day, as we carry on with our mundane plans to further petty bourgeois career paths as usual.   Lebanon kills our ability to reason with truth, as we carry on with our CNN and BBC and New York Times. Lebanon kills our faith in human good, as we rationalize that it is human nature to sustain warfare. Lebanon kills our trusts in our own potential to rise up, look into our comfortable shining mirrors on the walls, and discover how unabashedly wretched we must look if we smile to ourselves today.   Lebanon kills all that is beautiful, all that is innocent, all that is glorious, all that is humane, all that is kind, all that is generous, all that we mean by understanding for social good.   Yes, Lebanon kills, when it bleeds.   Lebanon kills our sense of empathy when children of Beirut are massacred in name of democracy. Lebanon kills our feelings of cooperation when we indifferently watch hapless humans murdered in name of freedom. Lebanon …

Raindrops

Published by Saswat Pattanayak

Are these the April raindrops, Or my lingering heartbeats?   My naked windows glasses- Alive with transpirations Mired with perspirations Reflecting back, almost in derision Calling back, in much anticipation Halting path, amidst many a assumption   These sounds of cascading water On my swarded Astorian apartment Catch me off guard-this very moment   Immerse in me, in life– Even as I dwell in apprehension Succumb to intoxication Of increasing aspiration Drain in imagination Of the ongoing revolution   Will the rain just vanish all too soon Lambent lightning will too swoon   Life is measured in moments — not years Its prizes are not won in competition Nor in forms of pricey acquisition As I hear the raindrops in reverberation   Memories of Similipal, ere a score of monsoons Wise father, tall trees, and proud mountains   The source of wisdom– my admiration To repose faith in my fascination And give way to my adulation Sans preaching or imposition   Raindrops don’t just recline on my windows Nor merely thump on my bare chest …