On display are 
Fake intimacies
Fraud friendships 
Counterfeit comity and 
Bogus benevolence.
Across the show window 
deception plastered faces with
pink powdered smiles,
sell all this and more.
Trust them when they say
‘On unbelievable discounts’.
They are unbelievable.
Some, at 80 percent.
Others, “Take one get two’.
And yet some others 
touted convincingly as  
‘Authorized imitations’.

Looking at the window-shopper, that is me,
the girl at the counter 
has an unsure expression
‘Sir, would you rather pay 
for an innocent smile 
and a warm hug 
from a total stranger
this Christmas?’

I know she will lose her job
on December twenty-sixth.

Santa sits not too far
in the middle of the expansive,
decorated, glittering lounge. His
red fleece robe is splattered with
fake white cotton snow, which
the city kids have never seen.
Colourful dummy gift boxes 
scattered around Santa’s feet 
are tied to a rope with tassels. 
Golden jingle bells 
make no sound. His stockings 
overflowing with fake candies
don’t entice the child, playing a game
on his mother’s mobile phone.

Two lanky, famished-looking
guards keep an eye on Santa
and his lies. They fold their hands
in reverence as a matted-hair
saffron clad, ​white bearded buff 
crosses me, looking at Santa
in disdain. The child looks up
and laughs. The mother chides 
the child. Pulling the scarf over her head
she fakes a rebuke or 
a prayer under her breath.
The preacher smiles.

In temples to Capitalism 
devotion is also on discount
in Yuletide season. 

– 18 December 2022