There are a Lot of Monkeys

Amitava Kumar
Apr 30, 1999

In , there are a lot of engineers.

In , more than engineers, there are doctors.

In , there are a whole lot of doctors.

And more than doctors, there are warm corpses.


In , there are a lot of political leaders.

In , more than political leaders, there are political sadhus.


In , there are a lot of voters.

In , there are a lot of political leaders.

More than the leaders

there are the dead who won't be anyone's followers.


In , there are a lot of cows.

In , more than cows, there are monkeys.

In , there are a whole lot of monkeys.

And more than the monkeys, there are broken churches and burnt bodies.


In , there are a lot of men

who dress themselves to look a lot like monkeys.


A pair of saffron shorts and red painted faces can make a man

believe he is a monkey.

Saffron shorts and red painted faces can make a monkey

look even more like a monkey.

In , there are a lot of men fighting

to be monkeys. The fathers and grandfathers

of these monkeys in saffron shorts and red painted faces

had tried to lose that tail which follows each monkey.


In , there are a lot of monkeys.

What makes them monkeys

are their saffron shorts and red painted faces.

What makes them monkeys

are the tails that they are following.

What makes them monkeys

is that Sita is not where they are going

nor in the ruins they have left behind.