“Can’t run a money losing business.”
“Won’t suffer daily indignities.”
“I am not ready to meet my real self.”
“It’s impossible to speak the truth because
everything is right and
everything is wrong.”
So saying, the others
have departed your school.
The giddying realities that fox and daze us,
the myriad variants of an intractable virus,
the internecine feuds of all against all
that guarantee almost everyone will fall.
I don’t know what to make of these things I hear and see.
I am possessed by doubts that only you can clear for me.
I sit here alone, looking for thee.
There’s a man, they call him the jesting Pilate.
He has a troubling question that’s turned him irate.
They say he might join me, just might.
Whether he comes or not, I am sitting tight.
As your faithful student from the days of yore,
with my red-rimmed eyes, gaze fixed on the door,
daily I wait unmoving
for your Second Coming,
for your toothless grin,
for the distant scene,
for that merciful one step.
_________________________________________________________________________
Author’s Note: No modern figure is more closely associated with the ideal of truth than Mahatma Gandhi
BIO: G. B. Prabhat is a bilingual writer who writes in English and Tamil. His debut collection of Tamil poems, “Engiruntho Vanthavai” (Of Unknown Origin), was published in October 2020 by Cre-A, a leading Tamil publisher.
Prabhat’s first English novel, “Chains,” was published in 2000 to critical acclaim. “Eimona,” his second novel published in 2006, is a dystopian story set in modern India that has been compared with “Brave New World” and “1984”.
Prabhat’s English short stories have appeared in Asia Literary Review, The Hindu and The Indian Express. Some stories have been translated into Telugu and Hindi.
Prabhat has spent over 30 years in the IT and consulting industry and is widely considered the pioneer of the offshore consulting model. He has been featured by the media worldwide for his literary and professional accomplishments. He has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and a graduate degree in Computer Science.
Prabhat lives with his family in Chennai, India.