THE NATION -BUILDERS

"Teachers tear- gassed ,lathi charged "--

Reads a bold -letter news item. 

One law binds the teacher, not to cane, 

another law 

canes, flogs and batons them. 

With frustration writ large 

they still teach. 

India, only in India,

where teachers demonstrate 

and lie prostrate 

where scientists commit suicide 

where a teacher grows 

bald and blind in hope 

where but to teach 

is to be full of sorrow.