Wake Up

By Varenya Shekhar

Wake up. 

Wake up to a reality where five letters define a child, 

Where actual life skills are out of the question for schools, 

Being chained to a table and chair, being forced to memorize endless books of information God knows when will be useful, 

Break our backs over competitive exams we never wanted to give, but have to in the face of society.

Be looted by the coaching centers for the same, who allot different batches to students who paid the same amount, 

And then study for a different test to increase the batch, 

Where the burden of these textbooks crushes our actual selves is fair. 

Where victims are solely remembered with candle marches, 

Convicts are left roaming scot-free to commit worse crimes, 

And the victims are at fault for a skirt that was one inch above their knees, 

Where everyone has lost faith in society, 

In themselves.

After all, there is not much left to be faithful to. 

We’ve turned racist comments into jokes, we’ve turned potential into ash,

The potential of not a state or a country, but a world to evolve into better possibilities.

Wake up to reality where we have no options but to run like dogs after the misleading promises, not left with any other option, 

Where our only choices for a better India are religion-torn parties that speak to make it a world power but fail to address the root causes, the lives of their citizens.

We possess some of the most crowded metropolitan cities, flooded with new AI and technology, 

Whereas those responsible for our survival, who ensure proper food is brought to our table are stuck with over a thousand years’ old practices.

Wake up to reality where in the capital itself, amidst the wealthy live those in slums, who are glorified and put on tour sites, and we wonder why our nation is nothing but a handful of slums to outsiders

On the outskirts of out capital lies a district with housing conditions we suffer just by glancing at, and living conditions beyond despair.

Wake up to reality where this is what we have to face, 

And are labeled as ‘lazy’ and ‘incompetent’ for wanting a day’s rest from this faulty world by those who do not even try to understand what we are going through.

By Varenya Shekhar