Neither Ram, nor Ganga -

Rough translation of a poem of Nirendranath Chakravarty, a contemporary Bengali poet:

He knows neither Ram, nor Ganga –

Acquainted with neither the soil nor its folks.

To him Constituency is the soil and –

Voters are the folks.

The news of the village of Rampur's -

Lying under seven feet water -

Could not disturb his sleep;

Since Rampur is not included in his Constituency.

But the news of about three kid’s and -

A few age-shaken old folk's washing away in Ganganagar

Forced him take help of sleeping pills.

Nevertheless after getting up,

He felt refreshed.

He knows that -

Kids are not entitled to cast vote and -

The nearest polling booth is -

At least two and half kilometers away from village;

Old folks do not walk to cast votes in general.

Written in 1977-78