In UP last year,
93,000 people applied
for 62 government jobs—
jobs that required
a Class 5 education
and bicycle riding skills;
of the applicants, 3,700
held PhD’s, and 20,000
held post graduate degrees.
You have read many stories
like this and on some level
you understand it’s likely
the current system
is running into limitations
that education and growth
will be unable to overcome.
Western environmentalists
call it a climate crisis
and offer a Green New Deal;
new communists call it
a secular crisis of capitalism
and say it is hopeless to try
to see beyond the horizon
of a system that conditions
even the way we make love.
We’re all looking for a way
through: you, me,
the Chief Minister of UP,
and the crores who may
or may not have documents,
but who nonetheless haul
our trash, sweep our roads
and build our tall towers each day.
Some choose suicide or struggle,
some put their faith in fascism;
and some keep their heads
down and patiently wait
for some kind of a new
day to dawn.