Steer the New Year

The New Year comes and goes each year,/It records every smile, removes all fear,/We seek Ahura’s blessings to wipe out every tear.

When the greetings are over at the end of the day,/We Parsis rush back, our "popular” game to play,/"You are a liar, a fraud — Do you hear what I say?”

Both in private and public, we humdins slug it out,/Not caring about others, we squabble and shout./Then come our "scholars” to further confuse — those already in doubt.

A good man is painted bad, a bad one a saint,/A miser a philanthropist; the corrupt without a taint./Amidst all this chaos — none to heed a genuine complaint.

This goes on unabated, the entire year through,/No one willing to understand the other’s view,/Till the harried, battered, hapless "old” year gives way to the "new”

Then once again its "Sal Mubarak” with a broad smile./Each pretending to be willing to "walk that extra mile”/How hypocrisy and sycophancy are camouflaged in style!

The same sordid phenomenon goes on — no end in sight./Needless to state, it aggravates our community’s plight./Alas! At the end of the tunnel we see no light.

This then dear reader is the reason for our faith’s decline./There is nothing but rust, where first there was shine./We can be saved only by intervention divine.

Ervad KHUSHRU NARIMAN PANTHAKY