In this shameful, slavish age
find me a man
not given to flattery
Find me poverty
that doesn't hold you up to ransom.
Women will drink and men eat.
They'll all flourish, and all too soon
the day will come, Ramesh,
when no one will have an opinion of his own.
There will be anger but no protest.
There will be danger and a toxin
which the ruler himself will sound, Ramesh

Translated by Girdhar Rathi