I am glad you banned my books,
you made me a hero overnight –
till last year no one knew my name
today my name is being taken in
the same breath as Rushdie, Nasreen.
Publishers are a bit upset though,
the ban has actually done them in –
pumped good money into the printing,
but one feels happy for photo-copiers,
they also have a right to living.
Ah, you removed my poems from the school textbooks
they won’t be reading them in classrooms anymore;
but yesterday while walking behind the dumping grounds
I think I heard those naked kids recite a few lines
from my banned poems – where did they pick up the lines?
from neighbourhood gossips? from the local fish market
or from local trains’ chatter as they crossed the lines?
Nah, I was not happy when you first banned my books.
Now I don’t mind at all, rather I am quietly grateful
for the little bit of fame you brought me overnight –
You don’t mind a bit of fame, do you, if it comes free?
I know you will soon ban my pens, my shoes
my glasses, my pajamas, my little funny tools
with which I plied my trade, made my living.
Soon you will also ban them from doing
anything that I did – not to walk like me
talk like me, sing like me, whisper like me –
for my whispers are of the most suspicious kind
the kind of thing that fuels disturbances
earthquakes, hurricanes, blizzards, tsunamis.
It’ll be a good thing if you also banned the sun,
the moon, the sky, the sea, the caged bird
and the free bird also of whom I have sung
for that will make people take more notice
of the sun, moon, the caged bird and free bird
of which world has become a bit forgetful lately.
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