........but for the kick on the buttocks'
It was in colonial Ceylon,
A farmer entered the train,
To sell his tobacco,
In the share-market,
At the city,
He bought a third class,
Ticket and went and sat,
In the first class compartment,
Later a white man entered,
The compartment,
And sat beside the window;
The farmer was chewing betel,
And wanted to spit the debris,
Out, he didn’t see the window glass,
He assumed it was empty space,
He spit on the glass, the spit,
Splashed on the glass and dirtied,
The white man’s face, he took his hanky,
Wiped his face and kept calm,
He waited until they reached the destination,
And as the farmer got out of the train,
The white man gave a mighty kick,
On his back, the farmer fell headlong,
Recovered and went his way;
When the farmer returned home after,
The sale, the wife asked him about the journey,
He said, "Everything was fine, except the kick,
They give as you get out of the train;
It was very, very unbearable and painful’. .
(2005)
The poem tells about the experience of a farmer's journey by train in Colonial Ceylon.
The farmer thought that every passenger was given a kick on the back as they detrain at the destination !!
