Dead Kings & Discount Democracies

Today

an unemployed able-bodied man flexed his Maratha pride

while sipping beer brewed in Bangalore,

served by humble Kannadigas,

spending money he doesn't earn,

snacking on the nostalgia of a king

who's been dead for three and a half centuries now.

Pride in regional superiority,

in a region with its own forgotten kings,

toppled dynasties, and scattered bloodlines —

to busk in

Apparently, it’s a thing in India

A country of 28 states and 8 union territories,

hundreds of kingdoms and dynasties —

a hundred million jobless,

a hundred million more sleepwalking through life

History here is re-written every year,

depending on who's in charge of the democracy

But the pride in existences

gone long before Hindu turned Hindutva

and Islam turned jihad

somehow stays

You question it,

and you are the problem

You point out the triviality of it all,

and suddenly —

you’re a Hinduphobe, an anti-national,

a piece of shit

No matter what your passport says,

or your surname,

your identity is limited

to what men with no identity to call their own

decide it is

You question the government

and they start threatening you —

because they're best friends with hooligans

that people in power keep in their pockets

like lighters:

cheap, dangerous, and disposable

Power has never befriended hooliganism —

only ever flirted with it,

an acquaintance with benefits,

at best

But people without opinions —

without spines of their own —

need noise.

Need fists

Need someone to scream for them

because they don't know how to read,

let alone understand or think

In a war of words and worlds,

you need awareness.

You need education —

Education that isn't limited

to social media forwards and 

government-approved pimps whoring out democracy in the name of journalism

Education that teaches you

questioning is the basis of every faith,

every religion,

every government

Education that teaches you —

if there are more questions

than you have answers for,

you might be standing

on the wrong side of the tracks

But then again —

if governments and religions had anything to do with progress,

democracies and gods

wouldn’t be on

off-season sales,

every season