My favourite line was "one glass lassi??"

My first tryst with Nissim Ezekiel came when i was in class 5 when i had decided, after much consideration, that i shall recite a poem by him for the annual 5 vs 6 elocution contest held in school. I realise Now, that i had pronounced his name as Ezekyle (rhyming with bile ) all along, and no one even corrected me.

Anyway, i was just reading Jewish Wedding in Bombay, and thinking what a stud poem it was. One doesn't really expect something like that from the prim and proper life that he seemed to have lived. I mean, he was a poet (How prim and proper can poets be? ) AND he undertook major LSD trips for a period of time in his life, AND he was a Jew (forgive the insensitivity), but there weren't too many quirkier things in his life. He seems like the nice-but-a-little-cranky grandfather kind of a person, who took his job as the most important poet of modern India rather seriously.

But what happened in the middle of all of this was, that i remembered the poem i had recited in class 5. Well, i don't want to say much about it, except that it is a piece of work which has definite potential to Radically change opinions about the man's entire Life.

For your benefit, dear reader,

The Patriot.

-Nissim Ezekiel

I am standing for peace and non-violence.

Why world is fighting fighting
Why all people of world
Are not following Mahatma Gandhi,
I am simply not understanding.
Ancient Indian Wisdom is 100% correct,
I should say even 200% correct,
But modern generation is neglecting -
Too much going for fashion and foreign thing.
Other day I'm reading newspaper
(Every day I'm reading Times of India
To improve my English Language)
How one goonda fellow
Threw stone at Indirabehn.
Must be student unrest fellow, I am thinking.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, I am saying (to myself)
Lend me the ears.
Everything is coming -
Regeneration, Remuneration, Contraception.
Be patiently, brothers and sisters.
You want one glass lassi?
Very good for digestion.
With little salt, lovely drink,
Better than wine;
Not that I am ever tasting the wine.
I'm the total teetotaller, completely total,
But I say
Wine is for the drunkards only.
What you think of prospects of world peace?
Pakistan behaving like this,
China behaving like that,
It is making me really sad, I am telling you.
Really, most harassing me.
All men are brothers, no?
In India also
Gujaratis, Maharashtrians, Hindiwallahs
All brothers -
Though some are having funny habits.
Still, you tolerate me,
I tolerate you,
One day Ram Rajya is surely coming.
You are going?
But you will visit again
Any time, any day,
I am not believing in ceremony
Always I am enjoying your company

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