by Amitabh Vikram
Amitabh Vikram writes a poem on the people who live in the hills, forgotten most of the time, and remembered only during the time of elections.
Those people over the hill,
Living a desolate life,
In their own isolation,
Residing in their small match box-type homes
Away and apart from the rest of the world.
A life, filled with misery and suffering,
Where sun governs the clock
Where darkness prevails in lives
And where there is not much difference between living and dying.
Only their moving bodies indicate their presence.
No one knows their whereabouts; they are actually living dead.
They are not considered humans.
But as every dog has its day,
Today is election; and they are also remembered.
Who cares whether they know –
The name of their country, leaders, and ideologies?
Because what matters is their votes, and not their heads.
Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi is university faculty and assistant professor of linguistics at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, India; and author of two books on lesser known Indian languages: A Grammar of Hadoti and A Grammar of Bhadarwahi. As a poet, he has published around 50 poems in different anthologies, journals, and magazines worldwide. Until recently, his poem “Mother” was included as a prologue to Motherhood and War: International Perspectives (Eds.), Palgrave Macmillan Press. 2014.
