We, the oldies, the senior citizens,
Who have traveled so far in our lives,
Trying to retrospect and critically examine,
Do some self-analysis in this pandemic time.

Oh, the young ones, our Gen had a duty to fulfill,
To make you all great human beings;
Better than our Gen in all respects –
Responsible, creative, calm, and diligent!

To make you real ‘humans’, Oh, young ones,
What we could give you, what we couldn’t,
What have we snatched from you in our ignorance,
That’s what we analyze in these twilight years.

We couldn’t give you blue sky, fresh air,
Cool shade and whatever is serene and pure!
Gave you poisonous fumes of vehicles, foul air,
Polluted environment….. and bottled water!

Snatched your playground, the roof for flying kites,
Rainwater, paper boats, and your real childhood!
Instead, we gifted you easily a mobile,
Video games, play station, TV, and remote!

You didn’t get yummy food prepared by your mother,
You got maggie and junk foods, all packaged ones,
A visit to the mall, cineplex, and restaurants on the weekends,
Otherwise, street foods, Swiggy and Zomato as saviors.

We made business with your education, politics with language,
Slavery in the name of jobs – work 24×7,
Destroyed all the ethics in the new definition of development,
All relationships became fragile, temporary leading to disunion.

All the diseases of our old age –
Diabetic, BP, heart ailment, depression, pain…
We have given you all without any hesitation,
And you all have taken those at a very young age!

All these we have done out of our selfishness,
To fulfill our never-ending desire for more and more;
With our continuous unhappiness and dissatisfaction,
We gave that poisonous attitude to you too!

Oh, my fearless warriors of Gen Next,
Let me make this confession secretly to you,
We, the sr. citizens from the older generation,
Couldn’t fulfill our duty inspite of our best efforts!

You only analyze and say how ‘humans’ you all are!
We are leaving behind a sick and polluted society,
Change this world, make it a beautiful one;
And our request to you, forgive us if you can!!-