Gulzar’s Murari Lal, like Laxman’s Common Man, holds up a mirror to his age and shows us multiple realities. Here are two of Gulzar’s latest short poems in the “Murali Lal” series, translated from the Urdu original by Rakhshanda Jalil.
The Budget has big boots
I keep pulling socks over socks
But the shoes still don’t fit
I stumble when I walk
I am scared of falling when I stop!
The creases don’t quite leave Murari Lal’s forehead!
The creases don’t quite leave Murari Lal’s forehead!
My BP has been rising since the morning
Like the sun climbing the sky
I feel ill at ease when I go to the office
When I open the files
Numbers begin to dance before my eyes
The tiffin goes back uneaten
I have lost my appetite
But as my BP begins to climb down in the evening
I feel like downing a peg or two
Murari Lal’s doctor says:
This is a virus of the middle class
It usually spreads during February and March
It comes every year before the Budget!
