You made me a Communist

You sent home mid-day meals

to Anganwadi children

during the lockdown and before

So foodgrains didn't rot in godowns

and children didn't go hungry

A little hand goes a long way

Even for people in apparent prosperity

in a land like ours

Where prosperity has largely been that

Apparent.

You welcomed natives with open hands

Covid positive, covid negative  

First from Wuhan, then the Gulf

and then all over

And still keep beds and wards ready

to tend to the sick

and jobless waiting to be home

To be quarantined first.

You play the perfect host

to migrant labour

Clamouring to go home to Bengal

And call them guest labour

Feeding their hunger, their whims

and checking on their health

as they bide time

To return to work lucrative here

or to impoverished villages there

This is their Gulf

While ours slog in the desert heat

of the original Gulf.

You tend to each Covid patient

the young, the old, the middle-aged

like VIPs

Curing them with the potion of 

love and care

While the young and the old die

in the best of worlds

Unsung, unwept.

You do a lot more than I quote

And still more as they unravel

making our little land

A model to emulate world over

You might have the elections

in sight to be so caring,

say rivals and sceptics

Still, you've shown the world

How to go about tackling a virus

that has baffled us all.

You are a gem, Mr Vijayan

and so is our 'teacher'

I bow my head before you,

your vision, your leadership

You have made me a communist.

*Ningalenne communistaki (You made me a communist) was a well-known Malayalam play from the 1950s. 

For someone like me who could not tolerate the communists for a long long time, the Kerala CM has become a source of pride - a leader who has changed with the times and follows the best practices in all fields for the welfare of his State.