Sunil Sharma,4/24/2017

Current Occupation: College Principal
Former Occupation: Vice-principal
Contact Information: Mumbai-based senior academic Sunil Sharma is a widely-published Indian critic, poet, literary interviewer, editor, translator, essayist, freelance journalist and fiction writer. He has already published 14 books: four collections of poetry, two of short fiction, one novel, one a critical study of the novel and co-edited six anthologies on prose, poetry and criticism. His six short stories and the novel Minotaur were earlier prescribed for the undergraduate classes under the Post-colonial Studies, Clayton University, Georgia, USA. He is a recipient of the UK-based Destiny Poets’ inaugural Poet of the Year award—2012. Another milestone is that his poems were published in the prestigious UN project: Happiness: The Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, in the year 2015. Sunil edits the English section of the monthly bilingual journal Setu published from Pittsburgh, USA. For more details, please visit Sharma's blog, http://www.drsunilsharma.blogspot.in/.

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Downsized

At 4.30 pm, in a glass cage in tony south Mumbai,
Mr. Joshi, of 25 years of service, was told over
Weak coffee by a fat bald guy with a sneering smile
Here, your check and goodbye!
The AC was on despite the mild January— a rarity
In the coastal city bursting with migrants and other workers
With Ray Bans and faux leather briefcases with solemn demeanour
Mr. Joshi was torpedoed in that Siberian desert but did not show—
Although the guy with golden specs wanted some tears and crying
But the terminated—a suburban guy with a heart and kids, ailing mother and divorced sister, all living together—did not show anything but a bold smile.
His parting words, however, sent the chill down the fat bastard’s spine: Boss! Today, me.
Tomorrow, you!
We all are just human fodder!