Touch Elder's Feet
Beta, take the tea to the drawing room
First comb your hair and make a respectful smile
Serve the tea and touch their feet
Respect your elders, that is Indian style.
Heard my mother, as I always heed
Did the task, but it was a task indeed.
But a question had got stuck amiss
And it wouldn’t get off, until I wrote this.
Is the respect in the union of our hand and their feet,
Or is it in the sincere, honest and heartfelt greet?
“Youth is spoilt,” elders always complain,
“This isn’t modernity,” I don’t refrain.
Touching elder’s feet does no harm
It has been our culture since the time of Lord Ram.
But what is the meaning of the culture
If there is no respect in the heart,
We need to have the feeling
And not the idol on the cart!
[NOTE :
Though the poem is about an Indian culture, but it has just been taken as a symbol for many other cultures in many other regions and religions which are blindly considered by their followers as being 'good' without reflecting about it. The lack of acceptance of new ideas have also been dealt with.
GLOSSARY -
Beta (Hindi) = son
spoilt = spoiled
Lord Ram = A Hindu God.]
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