A rat done bit my brother Nandi,
(with Desi on the moon),
His face and arms began to swell …
The irony of India’s successful landing on the moon is underscored by its chasmic income inequality which persists despite, or perhaps because of, massive economic growth in recent years. This inequality, combined with India’s ascendant politics of Hindutva, its entrenched indignities of caste, expansive inner-city slums, and yawning rural/ urban divide, brings to mind Gill Scott-Heron’s scathing critique of the American space progamme, made in 1970, soon after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969.
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey’s on the moon)
I can’t pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey’s on the moon)
Ten years from now I’ll be paying still.
(while Whitey’s on the moon)
The Koboi Project 
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