When I Was A Schoolboy

When I was a schoolboy and when I used to walk over for my school To the other fringe of the town, A little bit away from all humdrum and din and bustle Of the developing hilly town, I used to see them and come across on the ways leading to. Cutting along the main way, the side raw road used to diversify And go towards the school way, Cutting on the midway like a loop line And adjoining the main way in the middle of the far off end. The red soiled, raw road, made from plateau region rough soil Used to cross over a garbage heap, Where the municipality used to throw off, dislodge it all And there from a part of the way used to turn to the garbage heap, I used to come across many a thing happening therein. I used to mark the scavenger women pushing the carts Ay, the wheelbarrows With the tin loads of human excreta Being taken to, dragged and pulled over. Under the hot summer days, under the hot and perspiring summer suns, I used to see them, mark them, The scavenger women, the newly wed and the middle-aged and the widows, Pulling the cartloads and taking away slowly. The flies buzzing around, the dark green cholera flies And it would smell very foul, very foul, And what to say to you, How to share with you? During those days, the sanitary latrines had not been in a plenty, Just the pits people used to be with And they used to clean the rotting excreta often At intervals, coming for a routine check and taking away to dispose off, The rotting and foul excreta. Sometimes keeping at bay, they used to rest under the cool shade of the tree, All those women and used to chew betel To pass on to dispose and dispense it all that, Ay, the scavenger women throwing off excreta.