This is our own nagar nigam

What in English, we call the Corporation

We pay heavy taxes to ensure we get proper services

Clean streets, regular water supply, clean drinking water

Good pavements and roads to walk upon

Trenches dug and cleaned at least once a month

Rubbish picked up daily from the street and homes

Plant blossoming trees on the wayside

Instead of ruthlessly ‘murdering’ those that have stood for years

Supporting the environment

But

No one seems concerned with deepening social issues

Instead

Like the raging anaconda the more modernization

The more the growing problems

How did the unqualified masons and architects

Of ancient Indus valley civilization

Build their cities so beautifully with underground drainages

And

 Fortified their forts so mysteriously with stones

No cement was available then

Our trained qualified engineers and architects fail so miserably

Our dams collapse,

Our roads built soon convert into potholes

Superficial tarred or scarcely cemented

Where does the problem lie?

How progressive are we

If we cannot supply pure drinking water

If we cannot provide good roads to walk

If we cannot collect garbage from homes

If we cannot build proper drainages in colonies

If we cannot pick up the drained out dirt

 Un hygienically dumped before our homes

Remember Thoreau who retired to Walden

In protest of taxes levied ungraciously

Isf the corporation collects heavy taxes

It is their moral duty to pledge themselves

To constructive improvements of the city

They vow to honor with their services

                                                        ~Shobha Diwakar

                                                           Jabalpur, India