From beating drums, fire signals and cries of the ancient man, we had travelling bards moving from villages to villages, recounting many stories (read news) in India and elsewhere. These were the rich oral traditions. The storytellers were the first newspersons. We celebrate our legacy. Shail recounts top news of the week gone by, in verse, beginning this Sunday. A Different Truths exclusive.  

Hurricane Harvey Turns Life Topsy-Turvy

Lashing unforgiving rain

creates a huge hurricane

drowning Houston in Texas, city, roads, houses in its wake.

Thousands stranded, disconnected

from active life’s functioning-

this and a lot more did the devastating storm bring.

People dead, lost, floating, washed away

as drenching downpours

conspired to surly a swarming sustenance!

Gratitude, graciousness poured in plenty though

in the upsurge of human unrest

humanity hovered generously around

coming forward

to push back faith in mankind

amidst Nature’s blinding furious outpour.

Mumbai’s Deluge            

It is that time of the year

when the rains are not so very dear;

drains fill fast, overflow,

water-logged roads,

mobility measured.

Mumbai fighting it out once again,

attempting to survive

in a spate of rainfall induced floods.

Local trains stalled,

tracks lying buried in graves of water,

helpless people wading through filthy aqua

hoping to reach home

before they are washed away.

Whom to blame?

Whom to ask for help?

Nature’s unswerving rigidity

supported by unsuitable city planning

leaves a metro grappling

with a deluge

forewarned to no avail

battling it out, as always

preventive measures lost in a trail.

In the Name of the Holy Baba

‘Baba,’

no longer a name for father,

god like figure-     

a mere shameful term now

to press the exploitation trigger.

A godman rapist, a murdering lecher

sporting religious names defacing belief.

Not the first one to do so.

Not the last one too!

Is there anything logical in discussing defunct devotion?

Prostrating before an aam ‘Insan’

whose acts of holiness a mere swaang;

soiling the image of man, land, and nation-

the Dera his sexual play station.

Unholy Baba now behind bars,

an incomplete punishment

for lives sullied and killed,

for beliefs cheated and grilled.

Cannot conveniently only blame the erring Baba-

Until mankind learns to believe the God within

we shall frequently be witness to deras of sin!

Rasputin’s Blue Whale

Blue Whale-

that majestic marine mammal

reduced today

to an infamous life threatening game

that seducingly invites

children to take their lives

without cause or reason,

any time, any season;

A viral phenomenon,

A shady aspect of sadist sensationalism

adding to the already existing weary woes-

50 days to destruct, destroy mind and body pores;

A mystery in itself,

the game unknown yet widespread

originating in Rasputin’s Russia

mysterious like the mystic, deadly in the aura.

Let’s be wary guys. Let’s keep our children away

from the Blue Whale!

©Shail Raghuvanshi

Photos from the Internet

#NewsInVerse #News #Poems #WhatIsHappening #DifferentTruths

Shail Raghuvanshi

Shail Raghuvanshi is a poet, freelance journalist, copyeditor, voice actor, and artist with 30 years of experience in various media. She has worked as the Cultural Correspondent for India's first integrated media company, PLUS Channel, and has written course material for Madurai Kamaraj University's Post Graduate Programme in Advertising and Public Relations. She has also been a coach of Communicative English. She has published poems, short stories, and articles in leading magazines and anthologies.

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