Rajesh Joshi

Rajesh Joshi was born in 1946 in Narsinghgarh district of Madhya Pradesh. After completing his education, he started journalism and taught for a few years. Apart from poems, Rajesh Joshi has also written stories, plays, articles, and commentaries. He has also adapted some plays. He has also written screenplays for some short films. He has adapted Bhartrihari’s poems in Bhoomi Ka Kalpataru Yeh Bhi and translated Mayakovsky’s poem as Patloon Pehna Badal. Translations of Rajesh ji’s poems have been published in many Indian languages as well as in English, Russian, and German.

Rajesh Joshi’s major poetry collections are - Ek Din Bolenge Ped, Mitti Ka Chehra, Nepathya Mein Hansi, and Do Panktiyon Ke Beech. He has been honored with the Makhanlal Chaturvedi Award, the Madhya Pradesh Government’s Shikhar Samman, and the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Rajesh Joshi’s poems have deep social implications. They evoke deep faith even in life’s crises. His poems are imbued with local dialect, temperament, and weather. His poetic world has intimacy and rhythm, as well as a constant struggle to preserve humanity. The danger of the world’s destruction appears as strong to Rajesh Joshi as he appears restless to explore the possibilities of life.

The presented poem expresses the pain of childhood being snatched away from children. The poet has pointed towards that socio-economic irony in which some children are deprived of play, education, and the joy of life.

On the fog-covered road, children are going to work Early in the morning Children are going to work This is the most terrible line of our time It is terrible to write it like a description It should be written like a question

Why are children going to work?

Have all the balls fallen into space? Have the termites eaten All the colorful books? Have all the toys been buried under the black mountain? Have all the madrasa buildings Collapsed in some earthquake?

Have all the fields, all the gardens, and the courtyards of homes Suddenly vanished?

Then what is left in this world? How terrible it would have been if this had happened But more terrible than this is that All things are as they were

But passing through thousands of roads of the world Children, very small children Are going to work.

Question-Exercise

1. Write and express the picture that emerges in your mind after reading and thinking about the first two lines of the poem.

2. The poet believes that the terrible fact of children going to work should not be written as a description but should be asked as a question: ‘Why are children going to work?’ In the poet’s view, why should it be asked as a question?

3. Why are children deprived of facilities and means of entertainment?

4. In day-to-day life, everyone sees children going to work, yet no one finds it strange. What could be the reasons for this indifference?

5. When and where have you seen children working in your city?

6. Why is children going to work similar to a great disaster on earth?

Composition and Expression

7. Put yourself in the place of a child going to work and see. Write what you feel.

8. In your opinion, why should children not be sent to work? What opportunities should they get?

Beyond the Text Activity

• Have a conversation with a working child and find out-

(a) How does he/she feel about his/her work?

(b) How does he/she feel when he/she sees children of his/her age going to play/study?

• Organize a debate on the topic: ‘In the present era, all children have equal opportunities for sports and education.’

• Prepare a play on ‘Prevention of Child Labour’ and present it.

• Read Chandrakant Devtale’s poem ‘Thode Se Bachche Aur Baaki Bachche’ (The Hyena is Laughing). What is the similarity between the sentiment of that poem and the sentiments of the presented poem?

Also Know

Article 24 of the Constitution mentions the prohibition of employment of children in factories, etc., according to which ‘No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.’