A Poem About the People Cities Forget

“Chala Hu Ek Mujrim Ki Tarah” by Waqaar Hasan from VIT doesn’t hit you immediately with loud emotion or dramatic delivery. It walks in quietly. Almost calmly. And somehow that makes it hit harder.

The opening itself feels painfully familiar. Someone sitting comfortably, casually explaining poverty like it’s a lifestyle choice. And then the poem slowly flips the camera toward the people who actually carry the weight of the country on their backs.

Migrant workers. Men who build cities they’ll never belong to.

And the imagery here is heartbreaking.

A man walking endlessly with his entire life tied up in cloth. Parents pretending to stay strong because breaking down isn’t even an option anymore. 

What really sells this performance though is the restraint.

A lot of rookie spoken word artists try to “perform” sadness so hard that it starts sounding rehearsed. Waqaar doesn’t do that. He lets the words breathe. The pauses do half the work. There’s this simmering anger underneath the calm delivery that keeps building line after line.