Those days have gone

Md. Rezaul Karim, Assistant Professor, Southern University Bangladesh.

My grandpa use to say 1940s were fantastic;

All were cheaper and easy,

Nobody was busy; though the world looks fuzzy.

My father used to say ‘life was better in the 1960s’-

When new products and thinking were pouring,

So cheaper the cost of living.

Best brands were sealed as UK and Germany

Even though disliking-

Neighbors were in harmony-

Spending time Like Ivory and Ebony.

Now time has come –

all become impassable, and difficult-

Competitive, and people changing

‘Life becomes uneasy son’-

Don’t forget what you have done.

We used to say 1980s were better when we could have Leisure time,

Schools were easy to study-

No rush, enjoy music and have fun -

Less population and complexities.

All on a sudden all changing began-

Internet pounding

Winds of change felt at home.

We cannot walk,

Cannot sleep

As the narrow galley

Wheels quack.

We witnessed the Walls falling,

USSR shattered

Once peaceful

Balkans in war

Friends become foes;

Apartheids gone from South Africa

Another started in the West again

Islamophobea.

In the Y2K we are thru’

Everything changes

Ethics gone, morality in the morgue

Lie rules over the truth.

Media becomes the medium of propaganda

Rupert Murdock winning

Wikileaks crying, but Julian Assange is fighting.

People still remain the same

Public is public in the West or East

South or North.

Public tolerates, protest against all the evils

But the interests of corporates

In the name of state and economy

Humanitarian elements faded. 

Yet there are majority -

Who are suppressed by the minority-

Cause of sheer strengths and power

Might become right.

Yet to be changed

Palestinians are still in the camps,

Everybody got homes, hope

But the Palestinians;

Homes become hotels.

Protests for rights

Are unjust

Sometimes call them terrorist,

Become target for collective punishment.