a few numbers

gdp - a - 5- to - falling,
unemployment still rising,
factories downing shutters,
and as the economy stutters,
all the scowler has to say,
wait for the mega shopping day.

5 and a dozen zeroes,
just like bottles of snake oil,
someday a movie called Patra’s 12,
may run to many a packed hall,
yet the crowds still in thrall,
the media waits at the 69th birthday ball.

meanwhile in a land we still call our own,
43 days ago, captivity was sown,
43 days since we last felt free,
they now arrest a man of age 83,
didn’t the home minister, get up and say,
no bandook on kanpatti.

them butterflies got liberated,
luckier than Cohen’s holy dove,
hope some make it to our beautiful land,
and some to a dam filled to the brim,
we could do with some colour,
in places being destroyed for one man’s whim.