The Bottom Line

It’s me and mine

That’s the bottom line

I don’t feel guilty that I’m privileged

The stocks my dad owns are gilt edged.

I had the best education on offer

My dad emptied his coffer

Paid the mandatory “donation”

For the best school in this nation.

Now I queue up for a student visa

For the land that popularized pizza

A foreign degree is all that I need

To continue as the privileged breed.

If I can I’ll settle abroad

In that land where money is god

I’ll send home remittances

Believe I’m mending all the fences.

I don’t need to know about Tagore or Gandhi

Just enough that in conversation they are handy

Or when I feel an identity crisis

Because I still smell of Indian spices.

I’ll help host nations to develop technology

And I don’t owe this country an apology

It did not give me the break I needed

Once there I’ll feel I’ve succeeded.

This country has gone to the dogs

It still smells of unclean “bogs”

And people here like so many lice

Or like vermin and ferreting mice.

I’ll now wear La Coste and Levis

Eat hamburgers and French fries

Propound economic theories and make a name

As an expert in poverty claim my fame.

I’m sorry you can’t make it my friend

I hope our friendship does not end

You’ve chosen to stay behind I guess

Good luck in trying to clear up this mess.

I don’t have much hope for this land I leave

So I have no regrets and I won’t grieve

As soon as I can I’ll also take my family there

But I’ll be back to marry an Indian girl fair.

As time passes I may become nostalgic

Talk of India’s glories with flawless logic

But right now I want to be like Bill Gates

That’s why I’m headed for the United States.

~Siddharth Sanyal~

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