MANUAL SCAVENGER

A barren hand
and a barren mind
both two sides of
the same coin.
A manual scavenger’s
life is
like a vast desert
where not even a
desert flower has
blossomed.
Her mechanical existence
with nobody left to lodge
a complaint.
Wakes up everyday
steps out of her
dilapidated chawl
with her basket.
Visits each house
with a barren, indifferent
face
her duty
collecting human excreta
in a basket
no one left to lift
up the basket
hence with double the force
her emaciated body
with shoulder-skeletons protruding
actually sweats it out
to place it on her head.
With the faeces
leaking into her face
the stench she
experiences not
as
her life itself
immune to stench
or
she herself
a stench in the
society.
Despicable to onlookers
conveniently forgetting
the stench, the excreta
the urine
the cocktail of
all these inherent in
their bodies
which they keep
perfumed throughout.

Courtesy : Mahim Pratap Singh (The Hindu)