A big question

After all that has been said and done/ Though the Punchayet seat he has won/ Is Khojeste a scholar?/ That is now a big question!

Not Thy will but his, it seems to be/ He sends fatwas to a weak and/ frightened community,/ They have no guts to move on/ But keep listening to morons/ These self-styled leaders and guides/ Who only create more divides!

What does it matter if we rot or burn?/ The Punchayet says "Our will be done/ It is the dakhma — no cremation/ No prayers for you, and your relations.”

Who are they to deny us our right/ To prayers when we cross the great divide?/ Is this the future we long to see?/ Bowed down and cowed down/ In hypocrisy?

Isn’t it time for us to rise and be counted?/ Our faith is pure, and does not depend/ On the fatwas of yore, but we have to carry on/ And think for ourselves what is right or wrong./ Orthodoxy which does not move ahead,/ Putrefies and rots like the bodies of the dead.

Now is the time/ So fellow Parsis,/ Rise and shine./ Proclaim to the world our culture/ So pure and serene;/ Untainted by ghosts unseen,/ Who want to stifle and kill/ Our self esteem.

GOOLOO MEHTA

rattan_mehta@hotmail.com