The earth is tired
Of rotating around the sun
For so many years
For so many decades
And for so many centuries.
`Give me a break’, she cried
`I am tired of this routine
Going on serving others
Like a selfless house wife
No more will I withstand
your marital rape
You are not my husbands
You are only my children
You have destroyed my fertility
And many of my children.
Many have vanished from my body
From the times pests like you
Who invaded my fertile body.
So, tell me a reason
Why should I serve you?
The burden of the humans
Have even affected
My reproductive capacities
At a time when you hail
Your reproduction as your identity.
No doctor from your side can cure me
So let me halt for a while!’
Thus spoke the angry earth
And she stopped rotating
Around the sun.
The humans were in distress
One side of the earth became bright
And the other side became dark.
The Americans started living in darkness
The White House had no light
They burnt toilet papers for the light
To discuss in a seminar with CIA, Defense
And the experts of the scientific community.
In the darkness they touched each other
To find out who is who
And the Guinness Book closed its shop.
The Indians could not sleep
The rivers became dry
And ocean stopped moving
Dams and nuclear plants did not work
The roads were empty
The metros did not run
Offices and shops were vacant
Water became vapour or ice
Food became a dream
And hunger a nightmare.
The Sanghis started killing each other
`it is not a question of our nation
It is a question of a borderless human
Mother earth cannot be killed
So we will kill anybody who questions her’.
Citizens of many nations burnt
Their flags of nations and parties
The cows ran wild in search of food
And ate saffron clothes for a change.
`It is all due to capitalism’ said the Marxists
`Only class struggle can make the earth move’.
The indigenous people prayed and prayed
`Oh Great Mother of All Mothers
You are aware that It is not our fault
You have created these lunatics
Now, please save us from this disaster
We are your children and we will remain so
But please instill wisdom on the lunatics’.
The Great Mother did not move.
But the God of Development looked down
`Oh my God, what have I done,’ he exclaimed.
`Perhaps the learned experts
In the Indian Institute of Science
Or those in ISRO and IITs can solve the problem
Even if MIT does not know the answer.’
The scientists thought and thought
`If Mother earth is against us,
We must send a virus to deal with her,’ said one.
`Rubbish, it won’t make her rotate’, said another
“Then we must rotate among ourselves’, said another
And for the first time, they started holding hands
And started singing and dancing with the Adivasis
The burnt out Earth opened her eyes
With the tune of the song
`It is a song that I know,’ she smiled
`And I feel like moving’!
To surprise the heaven
She moved with the pace
Of the rotating Adivasis
Around the sun .
And the God of Development
Hid Himself behind the clouds.
K.P Sasi is a film maker, writer, activist and cartoonist. He can be reached at [email protected]
