Justice is . . .

(For Indians only. . .) The first lesson we are taught about life has something to do with dharma and karma. "Dharma". "Karma" two good appetizing and rhyming words they may come in handy for classic poets. Dharma they say is indefinable, it is all encompassing and yet untranslatable. Dharma they say means Justice, Integrity, Veracity, Righteousness and Legitimacy. Almost enough meaning for a word. And you carry it on with yourself. Dharma makes a versatile lucky-charm. All your life, you blame things you don't understand on the word no one has ever understood. Sometimes highly frustrated with the cruelty and apathy of everything, you even resort to blaming karma and you begin to trace past lives, ancestry you bother about the enormity of trivialities you start worrying about the petty lineage of everything you happen to come across. this insanity deludes you as you fret and fume over descent—pedigree—wretched caste—and above all proper marriages and the legitimate sons and then it all comes to you the truth, the truth about all this **** the truth about Dharma You remember the man, the man Dharma, for—the medium is the message. You realize he is a bastard, an illegitimate son. Justice is Dharma. Dharma is a bastard. So you know Justice is. . . Well, whatever. But still, blotted. Blemished. And with Scandal for a middle name. Perhaps all your hopes die and you stop all your expectations. Or, perhaps you suddenly throw back you head and laugh and laugh. . . Whatever you chose to do the truth hits you when she whispers ‘Legitimacy is Illegitimate.'