Shooting Folly

Bread and Circuses

2012-01-31T18:06:00.000+05:30

In 100 AD, poet Juvenal declared

Bread and circuses had Romans ensnared,

With subsidies we're sustained,

Reality shows numb our brains,

We're engrossed in our vanity fairs.

Happy New Jeer

2011-12-31T00:11:00.002+05:30

2011 was not a year of cheer

With inflation life was austere,

Prices continue to be high,

And consumers do cry,

Nothing's changed; Happy New Year.

Wine, Tweet and Song

2011-12-17T00:25:00.000+05:30

I'm in a melancholic funk,

Sip wine, they'll call me drunk,

If I sing a song,

They'll say I'm wrong

I think I'll become a monk.

FDI: Frantic Didi Intervenes

2011-12-04T16:22:00.001+05:30

FDI's been put on hold

Indefinitely, so we're told,

So Mamata said,

Ministers ran and fled,

And the PM's out in the cold.

Free for All

2011-11-09T19:42:00.000+05:30

Mamata set the rioters free

Who were on a destructive spree

"Don't you dare dictate

How I run my state

So please stop harassing me."

Beauty and the Botox

2011-10-06T15:50:00.000+05:30

You love their pouts and their smiles,

Their looks defy age all the while,

That actor's face,

Of wrinkles not a trace,

It's the Botox and the surgeon's guile.

BPL: Babus' Pathetic Lies

2011-09-23T16:20:00.000+05:30

You can live on 32 rupees,

With Planning Commission's expertise,

When mandarins croak,

Such pathetic jokes,

They suffer from deficiency disease.

Behenji's Sandal Park

2011-09-06T16:25:00.000+05:30

The UP memorials are eyesores,

Designer sandals Behenji adores,

In a private jet a pair

Arrived for her to wear

Expect statues of sandals galore.

His Master's Voice

2011-08-27T10:30:00.000+05:30

Anna's corrupt from head to toe,

Said Tiwari, his face all aglow,

His facile regret

Maybe a veiled threat

To abuse on nightly news shows.

Sheila's CAGmire

2011-08-08T15:57:00.000+05:30

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit

Is mired in a scammer's pit

"It's Kalmadi's fault

That the scams did vault

And causing my hysterical fits."

Dementia Redefined

2011-07-26T10:37:00.000+05:30

Is dementia growing by degrees
Spread by CWG expertise?
Now Kalmadi the astute
Says his memory's kaput,
His next ailment is surely heart disease.

The Sleepwalk Shuffle

2011-07-15T18:09:00.000+05:30

The PM shuffled the ministerial dudes,

And inducted a few, all dull-hued,

Critics gave a thumbs down,

To the new set of clowns,

Proclaiming "What a vacuous brood!"

Rich Tea and Sympathy

2011-07-05T15:39:00.002+05:30

Kalmadi, the Tihar detainee,
Drank tea and purred with glee:
"Tihar Jail's the new Ritz,
For snacks and biscuits,"
While he sunbathed for Vitamin D.

Bubblegumgate

2011-06-27T16:06:00.008+05:30

It was Bubblegumgate last week,

Pranab's office was bugged so he shrieked,

Why is he surprised,

When he should surmise

Like a sieve all ministries leak.

The Wizard of Zero

2011-06-11T15:23:00.001+05:30

According to Sibal's zero theories,

At Ramlila there were no injuries,

"We're a corruption free nation,

With no inflation,

And my diet too has zero calories"

The PM's in the Dark

2011-06-02T11:58:00.000+05:30

The PM stands and pensively stares,

He's powerless, but he's unaware,

He hasn't a clue

Why he's in such a stew,

"I'm a world statesman," he declares.

Clueless in Blunderland

2011-05-22T12:44:00.000+05:30

India's youth icon cannot differentiate,

Cow dung, bones or ash phosphate,

Telecom losses are zero,

The Home minister's a hero,

When he cannot terror suspects locate.

Utterly Butterly Amul Babies

2011-05-17T10:41:00.000+05:30

State poll results gave Jaya cheers,

But Amul Babies were in tears,

Most lost elections,

"There'll be a resurrection,"

Said Mani Shankar Aiyer, "in twenty years."

The Statues' Handbags

2011-05-10T15:43:00.000+05:30

When farmer's protests began to drag

Mayawati snarled angrily and bragged:

"Police with firearms

Nab leaders in farms,

And ignore my statues with handbags."

In ISI's Bed

2011-05-03T15:07:00.004+05:30

Osama evoked fear and dread,

The ISI said he was lost or dead,

In the mountains they proclaimed,

He lived with wives and dames,

Till the US found him in ISI's bed.

Rent-a-chappal

2011-04-27T12:55:00.000+05:30

Suresh Kalmadi was not dismayed,

When a chappal* was lobbed his way,

He demanded a pair,

Of the thrower's footwear,

To rent at three thousand a day.
Chappal=slipper

CD Baat or "Seedhi Baat"

2011-04-20T15:03:00.000+05:30

Amar Singh missed the media limelight,

Flashing a CD, he began a fight,

Did he doctor conversations,

Or concoct allegations,

Have his mental faculties taken flight?

Cash Cows

2011-04-12T16:25:00.000+05:30

Amma promised her farmers free cows,

To yield returns better than the Dow,

Sixty thousand bovine

Are hard to assign;

O Jayalalitha, the question is how.

Ambulance Income Delivery System

2011-04-11T11:52:00.000+05:30

You're moaning with pain in your bed,

The hospital you await with dread,

Sirens screech and crash,

An ambulance with cash

Ferries you to an election booth instead.

Marxist Theory of "Relativity"

2011-03-31T13:04:00.000+05:30

Indian politics, it's said, is a cesspool,

Communists say they're honest as a rule,

Will Marxist dialectic

Turn voters apoplectic

Will the polls' Red dynasties make us drool?

After deriding dynastic rule for years,

Have Communists decided to change gears,
Relatives of comrades,
Into elections now wade,
Will West Bengal polls end in tears?