I bought my ticket to witness the farce of your democracy.
Sitting in the theatre,
It is my right now
to hoot, to hurl my rage.
You too gave no discount,
not a single penny,
when handing out the tickets.
And I, too, holding the arm I favor,
will tear the cushions apart
and set the curtain ablaze.
Avtar Singh Sandhu ‘Pash’ (9 September 1950 – 23 March 1988) was a revolutionary Punjabi poet known for radical and anti-establishment poetry. His writings reflected his deep commitment to social justice, equality, and resistance against oppression. Influenced by Marxist ideology, he joined the Naxalite movement in Punjab. Pash’s poetry is the ‘poetry from below’ – people’s concerns, joys, and sorrows are at the centre stage in his poetry. Influenced by Brecht and Neruda, Pash turned poetry into a weapon of political action. He edited literary magazines ‘Rohle Baan’ (Raging Arrows) and ‘Siarh’ (The Plow Line), propagating the idea of armed peasant revolution. Pash was assassinated by Khalistani extremists on 23rd March 1988, the same date as Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom day, 57 years later.
