Laughter in serious times
For most of us, policy comprises boring bureaucratic decisions that affect our lives usually in an oblique manner and are taken by formidable men and women with a profusion of grey hair. Economist Bibek Debroy has more than a few grey locks and is immersed in policy-making as the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. But he somehow manages to balance his commitment to both this world and that of poetry with alarming ease. His latest book, a collection of humorous occasional poems rather unimaginatively titled The Book of Limericks (Penguin Books), is filled with humorous takes on many key events of last year.
Debroy, who in the past has accomplished such mammoth feats as translating the entire Ramayana and Mahabharata into English, uses the limerick form — five anapaestic lines with a strict AABBA rhyming — with great versatility, commenting on such varied subjects as the ailing railways, grounded lawmakers, corporate board battles, the goods and services tax (GST), and the markets. These short poems were published through 2017 in Mint, and have been illustrated by Sayan Mukherjee. In fact, one of the great pleasures of the book is the black-and-white caricatures that accompany each poem, often interpreting it and, in turn, commenting on each incident. Strangely, there is no comment on demonetisation, the effects of which played out throughout 2017.
Some of the limericks are spot- on. For instance, this one on the high rate of the GST on “sin goods”, such as alcohol and tobacco: “If you happen to sin, / Get ready to take it on the chin, / the GST rate will be hefty, / forcing you to be thrifty / and sending your budget into a tailspin.” Or say this one on board battles in the Tata group: “Why is an internal board battle? / Grist for media prattle and tattle? / Is it because a backseat mentor / Remains a perpetual tormentor, / Treating a company like a personal chattel?”
There are some themes that recur — for instance, the railways. Debroy, a permanent member of the NITI Aayog, headed a committee that recommended the corporatisation of the national carrier; he is also the coauthor of Indian Railways: The Weaving of a National Tapestry. There are at least three, reflecting on various aspects of the railways and the many problems that plague it, with which Debroy is acutely familiar. My favourite one on the subject: “Biryani with lizard fry, / Food fit for a pigsty. / A CAG report’s knuckle rap — / With contractors the burlap / Railway catering policy does not mollify.”
Not all the poems in this book are of equal merit, and quite a few can leave the reader disappointed. This happens especially when Debroy takes off the poet’s cap and puts on the policymaker’s, and gets didactic. Take this one: “Frozen desserts and ice cream / May not be what they seem / Milk or vegetable fat — / What has gone into the vat? / The legal decision will reign supreme.” Surely the reader did not need to be told that. Or this one on the proposed national minimum wage: “There a murmurs backstage / Of a national minimum wage. / It is bad economics and law, / There is no need to hem and haw, / This is an idea from which one should disengage.” The fourth line could have done with a few more revisions.
Also, traditionally, limericks — which were popularised by Edward Lear in the 19th century — are supposed to be bawdy, wherein lie their subversive potential. Gershon Legman, the most formidable critic on the subject, calls the clean limerick a “periodic fad” that is mostly mediocre. Debroy does not venture into the lewd — his subjects do not really allow for that. But he flies well above the feared mediocrity by performing what most poets consider to be the challenging task of writing occasional poetry. As those of us beholden to the Muse know, poetry does not flow like water from a tap and writing it like a newspaper editorial is almost impossible. Debroy does this, and has fun doing it. Readers seeking a laugh will have nothing to complain about. The writer’s debut book of poems, Visceral Metropolis, was published in July 2017