Just a poem on Khaddar

GANDHI, KHADDAR (COTTON) AND ME


I purchased two meters of Khaddar,
Hand-spun and hand- woven cotton,
Day before yesterday…
It’s rough, bit costly… don’t care…

Many voices follow me
From the very moment I wore it…
Some ancient voices:
An old weaver, whose thumb was
Chopped by the British, desperately tries to sell
Products of Manchester Cotton mills… (1870)
A group of British Army leaders decide to
Make a memento with those chopped thumbs,
Dreaming: the Queen would congratulate!
‘Every Empire is an embodiment of greed’…
An old farmer, stares at the
Dried up cotton fields with dead eyes,
Zoom of the whip falls in his ‘slave’ ears…
Gandhi, fully clad in three piece suit, contempt
Himself while walking through the poor folk,
Not even properly clad with rags…
The panic of the British industrialists,
When Indians boycotted the extradite clothes
Listening to the call of Gandhi…
The boom of gunshots, shrieks, grunts…
The hymns while rotating the Charka...
'He Ram'... Gandhi writhe in pain,
‘The assassin is a Hindu, not a Muslim’:
Mountbatten shouts to the violent mob…
The yarns of Congress party leaders
Commemorating Gandhi on every birthday of
Gandhi in Congress houses across the nation…
Their starched white cotton clothes reverberate
The laughter of Monsanto executes,
Who convert the Cotton fields of India to shambles
With their genetically modified seeds…
The heart-rumble from a farmer who committed suicide…
The silent dream of an old man and family
Who weaved my shirt...
Our sweat join here…
Sweat recognizes sweat...

‘Sir, you should wash it before stitching…
You know, it is pure cotton, it will shrink…
Pure Khaddar shrinks,
Those who wear Khaddar become plump! ’
The sales girl told me…

Khaddar, it is a culture…
The most powerful weapon of Gandhi…
Symbol of self reliance and
Non-co-operation, purity and sacrifice…
An atom bomb to plunder globalization…

Sad,
Not even a single Congress man in India
Wear hand-woven Khaddar!
They all prefer the new generation Mill Khaddar…
New generation ‘Gandhi’s are of no exception…
When will the show the candour to tell
Their followers to abstain Mill Khaddar?
When will they save the lives of millions of
Hand loom weavers with such a move?

‘Never’
Gandhi breaks silence!
Kalavati laughs in the darkness...

premji premji