By Mohit Saini
I. CHILDHOOD
A boy is born to modest means,
where dreams are weighed in gold
not for him, but for the house,
where bills pile, stories untold.
His father sweats in sunlit streets,
a wallet thin as thread,
each rupee split for bread and books,
while dreams hang by a thread.
The boy, he learns to bite his tongue,
to bury wants too deep
"Can we afford this course?" he thinks,
while others soar, he creeps.
II. LESSONS
No talk of stocks, no wealth, no bonds,
just whispers 'cross the wall,
"Auntie bought a fridge today!"
"How? Who will pay it all?"
They teach him to gossip, not grow,
to judge, but not invest.
He masters how to count flaws,
but not to pursue his own interests.
The classroom hums with bright futures,
while he just counts the cost.
His grades dip low, his focus strays
a lifetime’s chance is lost.
III. ADULTHOOD
Then comes the wife, then comes the war,
the mother’s tear-stained cheek.
He stands there, torn and hollow-eyed,
too weak to speak or seek.
"Choose her or me!" the women scream,
his heart a fractured bone.
He pleads for peace but feeds the fight,
and weeps—yet stands alone.
Promotions pass, his peers ascend,
while he’s knee-deep in strife.
No raise, no risk, no rebel leap—
just middle-class for life.
IV. CYCLIC ECHOES
The cycle spins, his son now stares
at fees he can’t afford.
The boy, like him, will shrink his dreams
to fit the family’s hoard.
Oh, middle-class! Your chains are soft
no tyrant’s whip, no decree,
just love that clips the wings you yearn,
and calls it "family".
Mohit Saini is a poet, writer, and researcher, working as an Assistant Professor at Compucom Institute of Technology & Management, Jaipur. He currently serves as an editor in the Journal of Advances in English, Telugu and Indian Languages (AQIE Publication) and for the International Journal of Language, Linguistics, Literature and Culture.
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