What can I say about lentils these days,
like god it seems to move in strange ways,
its prices have thrown things off gear,
a lentil less meal is the India’s new fear.

The Indian’s love for the shiny glob of dal,
the rice and roti’s long standing pal,
green, yellow, red and of other colourful hues,
the lentil is now making headlines in the news.

Of course there are matters of graver concern
like dalit children being locked up to burn,
or lynching of a muslim for supposedly eating beef,
but it’s the lentil which is causing unspoken grief.

First the onion, and now the good old lentil,
prices of these tiny goodies refuse to be still,
we watch in awe as they soar and sway,
reducing our proteins and calories a little each day.

Lentils are something what the average Indians want,
while about beef and pork our hindutva loonies rant,
a few chapatis, some dal and the luxury of an onion,
is for a poor Indian a gastronomic luxury, in my opinion.

An ordinary person’s ordinary food on an ordinary day
is threatened by the ineptitude of governance today,
while diet in today’s India has become a four letter word,
will lentils become more expensive than beef? How absurd.