INDIA UPDATE
Many physicists today postulate the existence of multiple universes, even when sober. We used to live in a world of infinite possibilities. Now we live in an infinite number of worlds. India shines. Democracy thrives. The economy booms. A hundred flyovers bloom. This is not that India. If you see your picture here one day, don’t worry. That’s not you.
POME OF THE DAY
Uncle’s Invention
(translated from the Sukumar Roy)
Chandidas’s uncle made a really weird machine
The local people cheered, it was the best they’d ever seen.
When he was very small, perhaps a year, if that at all.
His baby cry of ‘Goonga!’ would echo through the hall.
While babbling ‘Mama Gaga’ is the baby drivel norm.
Uncle going ‘Goonga’ raised quite a local storm.
“This boy will surely shine,” is what everybody said.
“If indeed he lives, he’ll turn the world upon its head.”
Now, today, we see it, the product of his brain.
Five-hour trips in under two, with very little strain.
I went and had a look, and I understood it fine.
Five hours of fiddling, and it’s secrets could be mine.
How can I explain to you, how strangely it’s designed?
It fits you on your shoulders, and it grips you in its bind.
The food hangs in front. You can choose yourself a treat.
A cutlet, or a chop. A loochi, or a sweet.
Your mind will think “Yummy!” Your mouth will move to feed.
Food and mouth will scurry, at a solid rate of speed.
Pulled along by greediness, staring at the food.
Delirious with happiness, you’ll run as if pursued.
Cheerfully and easily, you’ll cover many miles.
Smelling all the goodies, and drooling all the while.
History will thank him. So will we, of every age.
For Chandidas’s uncle, has written a new page.
