EQUATION

// 1 //

From Blood To Tears

Kalahandi asks :

Have you seen my little child

with running nose, my only child -

for forty rupees I had sold him off

ten years ago at the time of drought -

how tall and strong he would be now :

Have you seen him Babu

in the Raipur Market ?

Kalahandi asks :

Have you seen my woman

with the copper bracelet -

Five years ago she went

to the Sukinda Mines alone

to feed her stomach, never returned

Have you seen her Babu

on the Cuttack Road ?

Tears are dear, blood is cheap :

How will Kalahandi ever understand

the tricky game of tears and blood ?

With his blood and tears are made

Cuttack's sky-scrapers

Raipur's smart streets

For a sack of rice, and forty rupees

He has already drained his entire blood.

So cheap !

For so cheap who will return to him

His only woman, his only child -

the child with the running nose ?

// 2 //

From Tears to Blood

Kalahandi today weeps no more

like an obstinate child - boo-hoo-wo-wow

The dicey game of tears and blood

Kalahandi has now well understood

Blood is dear, tears are cheap -

And today in Kalahandi's own courtyard

business roars on flesh and blood.

Kalahandi with her own knife

chops off flesh from her own thighs

and cooks and serves it hot and fresh

to businessmen and city guests.

Kalahandi's blood today stinks of money

from Cuttack to Delhi, in veins of Raipur

there flows today costly Kalahandi blood :

She sells her blood in return for tear-drops :

Rich man's sweet drops, gold drops, silver drops

rain down today on Kalahandi's laps.

// 3 //

Tears in Blood

Today in Kalahandi's blue blood streams

all kinds of deadly virus abound

spreading from village to village

city to city, town to town

sowing seeds of mass destruction -

From Cuttack to Delhi, Andhra to Assam

spreading like AIDS, sparing no one

leaving death trails along high-roads

making holy city-men shriek in fear :

Soon Death will spread all over the land

Then alone will the living dead understand

whether blood is dear or tears are dear -

Recovering Principal with ten-fold interest :

Kalahandi will then take her

revenge against her Betrayer.