This Above all
I love you, mother
KHUSHWANT SINGH

Kanwar Preet Singh is only 12. His father Barjinder Singh is from the village of my birth, Hadali. The family was among the last of the Hindu and Sikh families to leave Hadali and migrate to India in 1947. Most of them were rehabilitated in and around Ambala in Haryana. Some time later Kanwar Preet migrated to the US. He sent some of his poems to his uncle Iqbal Singh, living in Ambala, who passed them on to me.

I was impressed that one of such tender age could write so well. I picked one entitled Super Mom for the benefit of my readers:


Illustration: Sandeep Joshi

Mom, you’re a wonderful mother;

So gentle, yet so strong;

The many ways you show you care;

Will make me feel I belong;

You’re patient when I’m foolish;

You give guidance when I ask;

It seems you can do almost

anything;

You’re the master of every task;

You are a dependable source of comfort;

You’re my cushion when I fall;

You help in times of trouble;

You’re there whenever I call;

I love you more than you know;

You have my total respect;

If I had my choice of mothers;

You’d be the one I’d select!

The Kashmir imbroglio

Separatists are the true voice of the state;

They have won every election
till date;

So they are the arbiters of Kashmir’s fate;

Noble and full of piety;

The jihadis are truly trustworthy;

Mehbooba Mufti and her PDP;

Are the most patriotic people in the country;

And because of that patriotic fire;

She means no mischief whatever;

The police, the politicians and the bureaucracy;

Most efficient and corruption-free;

Attend to the people’s grievances with alacrity;

Pakistan wants to solve the

problem most sincerely;

So it sends terrorists in our

country;

Some of our own politicians wish to crush the enemy;

So they have sent their sons and daughters in the army; Thus, with so many well-wishers big and small;

Kashmir is no problem at all.

 

(Courtesy: Kuldip Salil, Delhi)

Indian hell

A man dies and goes to hell. There he finds that there is a different hell for each country. He goes to the German hell and asks: "What do they do here?" He was told: "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they put you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day."

The man does not like the sound of that all. So he moves on and checks the US hell, as well as the Russian hell, and the hell of many more countries. He discovers that they are all more or less the same as the German hell.

Then he comes to the Indian hell and finds that there is a long line of people waiting to get in. Amazed he asks: "What do they do here?" He was told: "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they put you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Indian devil comes and beats you for the rest of the day."

"But that is exactly the same as in all the other hells. So why are so many people waiting to get in here?" asked the man. "Because the maintenance is so bad that the electric chair does not work. Someone has stolen all the nails from the bed, and the Indian devil is a former government servant. So he comes in and signs the register and then goes to the canteen!"

(Contributed by Vipin Buckshey, New Delhi)

Heavenly abode

Teacher: "Those of you who want to go to heaven raise your hands." All, except Santa, raise their hands.

Teacher asks Santa: "Don’t you want to go to heaven?" Santa: "My mom told me to come home straight after school."

 

(Contributed by G.S. Narang, Indore)



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