IT JUST DOESN’T MATTER
(A
Reflection on the anniversary of Gandhi’s Dandi March)
-Fr. Cedric Prakash sj*
It just doesn’t matter
If a six year old girl is raped
Inhuman and brutal in a most horrendous
deed
After all she is not my daughter
So why should I bother?
It just doesn’t matter
If that man on the street is about to
die
One burden less to affect a sore eye
Besides, he is just a non entity
My help is more needed for some
celebrity
It just doesn’t matter
If Rupa Mody waits in pain and in
desperation
To encounter Azhar in a real apparition
He is her only son who disappeared one
day
“But he is not mine” I glibly say
It just doesn’t matter
That ‘Citizens’ Nagar’ is by the side
of a garbage dump
Where polluted water vomits from an
only pump
After all they are folk who just need
not be here
As for me, I belong to a very different
sphere
It just doesn’t matter
If the Land Acquisition law favours
power and might
And callously tramples on the common
man’s right
‘Development’ after all is the name of
the game
Why would I deny my claim to fame?
It just doesn’t matter
If the poor farmer has committed
suicide
There is so much more in which one can
take pride
That miserable guy’s yield was really
bad
Is there reason then for me to feel
sad?
Yes, it just doesn’t matter
It just doesn’t matter
As long as there is ‘ME’ ‘MYSELF’ and
‘MINE’ forever
12th
March, 2015
(The Dandi March took place on 12th
March 1930)
(* Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is the Director of PRASHANT, the Ahmedabad-based Jesuit
Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace.)
Address: ‘PRASHANT’,
Hill Nagar, Near Saffron Hotel, Drive-in Road, Ahmedabad - 380052
Phone:
(079) 27455913, 66522333 Fax: (079) 27489018
Email: sjprashant@gmail.com www.humanrightsindia.in
Email: sjprashant@gmail.com www.humanrightsindia.in
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