I LOVE PISSURLEM

Mining has played havoc
With the lives of people
With the agriculture
With the forest cover and its
microbe wealth
With workers
With the wells and water
With the tiger, fox and squirrel
With the nests of Mainah, Sparrow
and Parrot
With the habitat of snakes and
Calothes
With the fish, fishing ponds and
Frog
With the natural springs and its
Coolness
With the trees—big and small.
Mining has pumped dust
Into the lungs of neighborhood
Residents.
Mining has corrupted
Politicians and bureaurocrats
Mining makes joke
Of the democracy of my land.

I can’t remain in peace
And witness houses of Pissurlem in
peril
The mark of muddy flood-waters
Inside the bedroom.
Victimized and rendered useless
Coconut trees stand
Visibly half dead;
Roots unable to suck water from
the ground
High-powered mining pumps
Keep ground water table
Perennially low,
Twenty-four hours a day
Pumps on without a halt.
Educational infrastructure
So thoroughly humiliated
Mining dumps about to enter
classroom.
Tuberculosis, Bronchitis
Are but the routine death of the
living.
Once a fertile land
Today story of tragedy
Fifty years of mining
Is creating ecological refugees.

O my beloved…
Wake up!
Few economic tycoons
Have waged predatory
Onslaught
Against the planet earth.

A call to you
From common ecological
Community
Come,
Let’s together voice
The suppressed words of our
Chests
Let’s methodically tackle our
Mining enemy
Let’s with plan wipe out tears and
Misery
Let’s in courage move ahead
To heal the shattered ecology
Let’s move with precision
To accomplish our mission
Let’s in humility mingle with
People
Let’s preserve in our heart
Values of democracy
Let’s extend our hands
To bridge the gaps of generations
Let’s listen patiently the words of
the studious
Let’s immerse deeply
In the habit of study
Let’s dare to venture out
In to new lands adventurously.
Let’s keep in focus
Pissurlem as case study
Let’s remember always
Love and affection of
Pissurlem People
Food and shelter they
Provided us
Swimming in Mhadei river
Indeed joyful
And exposure to
archeological insights too!
Let’s prepare to respond
In the style of Liberation
Let’s do all at our command
For I love Pissurlem!
It’s suffering People
And natural charm…
Let’s not allow to be
destroyed,
It’s serene calm.

Sebastian Rodrigues
1st April 2002