The Other Side Of New Year's

THE OTHER SIDE OF NEW YEAR’S.


Strange legs and hands they all did have

Half-eaten fingers and some only two toes

With their bodies half-clad.

Life gave them but one meal at times

To endure; leaving them to the throes of the rich

Their mockery, fear and discrimination.



They shared their smiles and never their woes

But their scabied bodies with love did glow

I sipped my tea with a gulp of guilt

I feared they would laugh

At my wholesome self

For I had nothing to give.



Eight hours I lived in their world so fine

Exchanging views of a different kind

Their little bundles of joy

Held close to them

A symbol of a faith they chose

Leaving me numb on a warm, sunny day.



We parted ways on that fateful day

The whole world was in celebration

These ignorant souls mired in the clutches of poverty

Unstirred by a strange destiny

Some endured with hope

Some nurtured hate



A twist of Life weaving its web

Cursing some with its vicious caress.


Canta Dadlaney.


The poem is my personal experience of having interacted for eight hours with persons suffering from leprosy and tuberculosis. This happened at ‘Sakwar’, a rural district in Thane (Bombay) on the first day of the New Year. The village has been adopted by the Ramakrishna Mission at Khar, Bombay. Many donations given my anonymous and noble people helped the mission to set up a hospital on the premises where doctors and volunteers go every Wednesday and Sunday to be of some assistance to the authorities there. A must see for us all who take LIFE for granted and are never satisfied with what we have.