Hey brethren, why did nothing change for us?
Why are we always at square one?
Why has the goddess of wealth
Never showered her prosperity towards us?
How is it that though everyone here
Who eat their full due to the toil of our hands
Never ever gives a second thought to our plight?
We are the ones who work with nature
We are the ones who are at her mercy
We are the ones who go hungry
When our harvest fails us
Yet we, the sons of the soil never deter in our task
To take the risk of another harvest
With no money at our disposal
It’s not an easy task, yet we take the risk
By giving ourselves to money lenders
For the pittance they call loans.
Many lives, which reached the brink of nowhere
Decided to take away their lives
When nature played truant with them
And money lenders gave them an ultimatum
On one strong branch of a tree which they tended
The loop of the rope saw their end.
Yet you, my brethren did not give a sigh
You never gave a thought as to why
The sons of the soil ended their lives.
Hey brethren, even we go through depression
It is this depression that makes us see no hope
And take the ultimate step of ending our lives
Yet, we are hardly in news
Is it because we are not Page 3 celebrities?
With painted faces and branded accessories
The mud on our faces is our makeup
And the sweat because of our work, is our perfume
Why does no media take up our case?
Why do no commoners like you all demand
A CBI inquiry into deaths?
Is it because our deaths cannot be used?
For the political benefits and to win elections
Prima facie, our deaths may look like suicides
But in reality, we are murdered
Murdered because of the apathy of the system
A system which never cared for its farmers.
Our dear brethren, with every passing day
As one or the other from us gives away hope
It’s going to be not just our loss
It’s going to be the loss of an entire universe
For we are the sons of the soil
Every single thing that you require
Starts with us, for we are the providers
And without us, everything will die
So be empathetic to our plight
Raise your voices against the atrocities we face
Don’t you think that we too deserve justice?