Banned Artist

I am glad you banned my books, you made me a hero overnight - till last year no one knew my name today my name is being taken in the same breath as Rushdie, Nasreen. Publishers are a bit upset though, the ban has actually done them in - pumped good money into the printing, but one feels happy for photo-copiers, they also have a right to living. Ah, you removed my poems from the school textbooks they won't be reading them in classrooms anymore; but yesterday while walking behind the dumping grounds I think I heard those naked kids recite a few lines from my banned poems - where did they pick up the lines? from neighbourhood gossips? from the local fish market or from local trains' chatter as they crossed the lines? Nah, I was not happy when you first banned my books. Now I don't mind at all, rather I am quietly grateful for the little bit of fame you brought me overnight - You don't mind a bit of fame, do you, if it comes free? I know you will soon ban my pens, my shoes my glasses, my pajamas, my little funny tools with which I plied my trade, made my living. Soon you will also ban them from doing anything that I did - not to walk like me talk like me, sing like me, whisper like me - for my whispers are of the most suspicious kind the kind of thing that fuels disturbances earthquakes, hurricanes, blizzards, tsunamis. It'll be a good thing if you also banned the sun, the moon, the sky, the sea, the caged bird and the free bird also of whom I have sung for that will make people take more notice of the sun, moon, the caged bird and free bird of which world has become a bit forgetful lately. *******