The times are a steaming
With heat, hate, humbug;
Victors of a street fight
Romp with ominous chug chug.

Money spinners mark assent
To muscle brains of the day;
Celebrities do not mind being
Slaves to what golden mouth may say

Of the honest and the innocent,
Or the unsmartly tame;
Lacking the glibness of tongue,
The meek must take the blame.

Never did the devil quote
Scripture so brazenly as now;
The just croak in crevices,
The rogues stride above.


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Badri Raina is a well-known commentator on politics, culture and society. His columns on the Znet have a global following. Raina taught English literature at the University of Delhi for over four decades and is the author of the much acclaimed Dickens and the Dialectic of Growth. He has several collections of poems and translations. His writings have appeared in nearly all major English dailies and journals in India.

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