Poems about doctors, patients, health, environment,law, children and humor |
THE JOGGER AND THE OX Once a Sindhi businessman, Truly like most of his clan, Went for business abroad, And, back home, new habits brought. Each morning he would get out, And in the park jog about, From one end to the other, Till his breath him did bother. While his muscles did he wield, A farmer in the next field, Noted the unfair contrast, Coaxing his bull to run fast, That the man without errand, Ran from one to other end. He said: “Come, Dear Sir, behold, My bullock is tired and old. Why not give a helping hand? Come and help me till the land. He is so much exhausted. Come, you replace him in stead. Then, running won’t be so drab. And, you, too, will lose your flab. · Written in 7-7 meter · Patterned on a humorous rustic Indian joke, reproduced below, posted on nukkad mailing list by Dr. Holmes: www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/ *** "Many years ago on the b & w television which had just taken hold, there was a skit in which a Sindhi man just returned from England comes to his home town in the rural area on vacation He brings back some of the habits he has picked up there, one being he jogs in the morning in a park alongside agricultural land under cultivation with the cattle drawn tillers. He runs from one end of the park to the other and stops for catching his breath and runs again, solar hat and shorts and parody paunch all. A rustic keeps watching him everyday till one day curiosity gets the best of him and he goes up to him and asks, "Bhau [brother] why do you run so, from one end to the other, without apparent reason, till you seem out of breath?" The Desi-Anglaise says, somewhat down the nostril, "This is called jogging old man. The English do this to keep fit." The rustic muses for a moment and says in repartee somewhat difficult to recreate, "Why not come over to the field and lend a hand? Then you can keep fit and run to a purpose." M C Gupta 13 January 2006 |