Greatness – Prof Badri Raina

Always wondered whether little

People may be called “great”,

Those who live and die

Without ever coming into the public

Eye—noble to the core in

Every sort of menial chore.

Or must greatness of necessity

Involve the conquest of land

And leverage, through sword

Or subterfuge, or cunning

Deployment of the beguiling

Word, leaving behind the claims

Of the yellowed page. Can those

Who simply wish well and remain

Mindful of such whose stories

Few scribes or or eulogists will tell

Ever be designated “great”, except

In a sort of politic flourish

Among the media, where the

Rottenest may allude to the “great

People of India” etcetera Is

It so impossible to marry great

Purpose to a lived ordinariness

And throb of empathy? Perhaps

Not: think of a Kalam or a Gandhi.