Namaste India...

 Namaste India......

When we bath twice daily,
When we wash our rear,
When we clean hands now and then,
When we sponge our legs,
When we cleanse before food,
World used to laugh at us,saying
We are backward,
We are snake charmers..........
We have obsessive disorder....
We have compulsive disease,so on.....

We neither shook hands nor,
We embraced needlessly,
We kissed only when appropriate,
We greeted with folded hands..Namaste....
We touched the feet of elders.....
We welcomed with turmeric and sandal,
We again stamped as discourteous ....,yes,
We have had some ugly customs.....
We don’t endorse them anymore.....
Who didn’t have that in Mother Earth ?
When we cremated mortal remains,
When we used charcoal for brushing teeth,
When we added salt to it,
We were branded as barbarians.......

Now no one is shaking hands....
No hugging or kisses....
Just folded hands........
Not a moment without handwash....
Now and then bathing....
Washing,cleaning,burning.....
Sitting cross legged at dawn,
Doing what we did ages before....
Adding charcoal and salt to toothpaste...
We have nothing to say.....but,
Namaste India.....


284th Weekly Poetry Contest

Comments

Clarice Hare's picture
This needs some proofreading but writing in a non-native language is such an achievement I don’t want to be too critical. The view of cultural differences, bigotry, and how that’s affected by the current pandemic is really interesting, and the sequence of acts and images really gives you a feel for place.

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