Happy new year!

Every change of the digit we wish “Happy new year!”

And celebrate it with joy and lots of cheer

But take time to see what happened in yesteryear

Some good, some bad and some sour

The stork made some stopover

Some fell sick some left us forever

Victories came and also failure

That brought us delight and also some jeer

Twists and turns, ups and downs was the year

The political angle:

Better days are to come we hear

Necessities have become so dear

Better for whom, it is quite queer

Government is again changing its political gear

Beef, inter-caste marriage, mention is a mere,

Fringe elements with bars, spades or spear

Crack skulls and bones, their blows are severe

Whims of them you have to adhere

Movies they won’t allow to premiere

Journalists and whistleblowers disappear

Are we safe, no, there is a fear

We still walk with an eye at the rear

Travelling by train or bus is so dear

With life you might have to pay, we despair

Trolls don’t differentiate between writer or a cricketer

Or any sportsperson who even brought home a souvenir

Our foremost leader as a balladeer

To listen to whom people flock from far and near

Who speaks sometimes as if he is an auctioneer

To farmers and poor no one lends an ear

With none to help he turns to the local financier

Hungry? We need your aadhaar, dear

After elections, the politicians, they become insincere

With national heroes and personal laws, they interfere

Putting innocents in jail or causing them to disappear

Some released after years, look like ghosts when they reappear

Achhe din, it is for the unscrupulous and black marketer

Like the liquor baron who is now at peace, in hand is his Belvedere

Bullet trains whose speed will make you dizzier

Its but a promise of an electioneer

Exorbitant price you’ll pay, sooner and very near

Be you a labourer, businessman, scientist or engineer

The holy-men whom all revere

And think that they are our saviour

How many of them are sincere?

Women-folk and money this is what they eye and they leer

Global:

Right wing becoming strong in both halves of the hemisphere

More and more countries becoming bombardier

Pollution is increasing in the atmosphere

Climate changes, ozone and rising temperature

Towards betterment if only the world they could steer

Instead of hatred, enmity and sneer

What to do:

Still we have to persevere

Let’s change our India, lets reengineer

And produce a great many, not just one pioneer

Make India proud, boxer, shooter or mountaineer

Let’s pray the monsoon this year is good and rainier

Let’s educate the masses to differentiate a leader from a racketeer

Each one of us should volunteer

So that children instead of being a child labour, can dream of rainbows and a sky so clear

Lets recreate an India

Where the mind is without fear

Lets clear the slate, 2017 is yesteryear

And pray for a future that is happier