Work [Archives:2003/671/Education]
Prof. N. Ramachandran Nair,
Dept. of English,
Faculty of Education, Amran,
Sana'a University
Work is worship, work is prayer,
The talisman to progress is sheer labour.
Rarely is a genius born, geniuses indeed are made
Leave never a stone unturned, be never in the shade.
The 'haves' and 'have nots' never dreamt our creator,
The greed for wealth and power reared the divider.
'Oh! the white wealthy West, the black poor East',
'Wise men' of the West bugled so, the East with all its 'higher wisdom' slept fast.
Effect … colonialism spread, Europe turned the rulers, and the rest the ruled,
Centuries passed, Asia, Africa and South America awoke and revolted.
The empire of the West, where the sun never set,
Did become dark due to Mahatmas' might and right.
The old order crumbled, a new one is yet to be born
The politicians and the nascent nations thus believed
But the geo-centers alone shifted, 'the other' never got relieved,
Neo MNCs controlled economic colonialism is being fast born.
'Hurry up please! It's time'. 'Awake, arise and act'
Can't the doomed ones work to change the center to react?
Rage, rage against poverty, hunger and disease
Educate, enlighten, bridle the boons of science
To transform the man-wrought fate of millions.
Eritrea, Congo, Liberia, Bangladesh and many more are in famine's grips
AIDS, cancer, SARS and the like need to be banished
Orphans, helpless women and poor children are to be saved.
There is no time to stand and stare
The developed, the developing and the underdeveloped nations
Should strive to share and rear a better fair
Where 'equality, liberty and fraternity' become man's rich possessions.
'Remembrance of things past' may be sweet and bitter,
But never again slip into slumber, G8s, EU and USA are agile, remember.
The Middle East, China, Russia, India and the like could count,
But the path to reckoning is only through judicious effort.
Be not slaves of depression, defeat and dejection
Let a new world order of peace and plenty be your creation.
'The flowers of good'; children of 'the other world', vow to rewrite history.
Do not sleep, work and work to weave a new story.
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