Sunday, July 21, 2013

A KALEIDOSCOPE CALLED 'LIFE'

It was just another afternoon. My maid was finishing up her chores.

She is a strong woman, worked all her life,
struggled to make a living, to make ends meet,
2 sons and a daughter, her husband a alchoholic,
Every single morning, with a smile she does greet.


I was going to visit my mother's place. I step out of my house and walk down to catch an auto rickshaw. As always I cross the market, busy as always, to get to the main road.
The place is buzzing with activity, sellers, buyers bargaining, moms dragging kids and their shopping, kids returning from school, cyclists and much more. But one person stands out in all this chaos.

Sitting on a gunny bag, a scrawny old woman,
Selling sad looking lemons, very few I must say,
Munching a little something, trying to sell her wares,
Trying to make a living, braving the sun everyday.


I then get into the auto rickshaw, the regular chap. He chats as we move along.

He is so cheerful, and works very hard,
About cost of educating kids he talks, and petrol prices,
He had two kids, lost one to the tsunami,
We have to get past the past, whatever the crisis.


I stop by at the tailor's shop. It is a small one room shop with 2 people on sewing machines on one side, a table on the other, one sits on the floor stitching buttons. I talk to my tailor who stands by the table, cutting material.

Here is a man, old enough to be my grandfather,
Is compelled to work at this age, not a day of rest,
He has no vision in one eye, the other is a blur,
He smiles at me as I leave, I feel a knot in my chest.


We stop at a signal. A little boy approaches me with some coloring books and begs me to buy a few.

He runs and stops cars, and pleads to sell his wares,
A small little boy, he is no more than ten,
My heart goes out to him, I buy a few from him,
He ought to be in school, not standing in the sun.


As I reach home I see my grandfather sitting in the living room, reading...as always. My grandmother hobbles in and asks me the same question she asks me every single time i visit...what will you eat?

I see my grandfather, he battled cancer at 75,
A surgery he had, chemo and radiation he survived,
he is now 85 and earning, a self employed consultant,
Been married for 62 years, on strength of family he thrived.


My husband calls, to ask if i reached safely.

He works in IT, they dont have office hours,
He is stuck his laptop, it does not matter night or day,
Strives to succeed, to keep his family happy,
he is a self made man, what else do I say.


Life's lessons are numerous. Some we see, some we see through others eyes. I look around and see different people and their lives, like a kaleidoscope the colours are similar but patterns different, everytime it turns around.

I learnt to appreciate what I have,
I learnt not to take things for granted,
I learnt to take life as it comes,
I learnt to thank god for my health and happiness,
I learnt to empathise, to be productive and to spread happiness,
I learnt to live.

I am sharing what 'I Saw and I Learnt' at BlogAdda.com in association with DoRight.in.

This post is the winner of a contest :)

Friday, July 19, 2013

MOM N ME

Mom's are a gift,
on a 24*7 shift,
From the moment I was born,
Her sleep was all gone.

I look at her face,
All lit up and happy,
She is patience personified,
Hardly ever snappy.

She works all day,
And holds me through the night,
Chases me around,
Never lets me out of sight.

She taught me the ABC's,
And loads and loads of rhymes,
School projects and exams,
Those were amazing times.

I then had a little brother,
I thought about me she would'nt care,
But she loved me even more,
And taught me how to share.

She taught me to respect,
And stand up for myself,
To empathise with people,
And to heal thyself.

She always defends me,
Says "you are the best",
Focus on what you do,
Let go of all the rest.

Her time, her effort,
The beat of her heart,
All for me and my brother,
Right from the start.

"I love you mom"...I never said that enough!
Have taken you for granted,
Should have said it every day,
Not wait for mother's day.

Now I am a mother,
I feel what you feel,
You are my greatest inspiration,
Before you I kneel.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

A DICTIONARY OF ALTERNATE MEANINGS

I am a simpleton. A nitwit. A nincompoop.
 
I understand simple language. I understand only one meaning. The meaning the words convey. My mind was preset at birth to believe everything on the face of it. Evidently I am grossly mistaken.  The meaning of the words conveyed depends on the context, intention, tone and tenor with which it is conveyed. It is upto the listener to comprehend the meaning keeping in mind a few "evident" factors like the mood, state of mind, sarcasm quotient, relation with the listener, need to convey the unspeakable, need to ask the un"askable",  the need to be polite and the need not to hurt.  There are ofcourse a little over zillion other things that I could include that I am unable to comprehensively list.
 
A simple "sure, go ahead" with a hesitant note in the voice and no expression, could mean..."go on, do what you want, as if it matters what I say, why ask me when you have already made up your mind, dont come back to me when things go wrong, I dont think you are going to do it anyway, its your choice not mine".
 
But it could also mean, "am sure you thought through it, am glad you made your own decision, am happy for you but still not convinced, what matters is that you do what makes you happy, I am not with you on your decision but whatever happens I got your back".
 
wierd huh?
 
If someone says, "You guys go on ahead without me, I already have other plans",...why cant it mean just that?  Instead it probably means, "you will anyway call me if I am important to you, go on...ask me once more, if you ask me enough times I can still make it, can you actually leave me and go!".  The same person will probably make sure you hear them saying to someone else "I was not invited, how could I go?"
 
Lets say you are in charge of inviting people for something, the list made by someone else who is postponing mentioning certain people, inviting whom are mandatory, by saying stuff like "let me get back to you, just wait a bit, I will call them(and does not)"; probably will say, right in front of the same person, "you did not invite them?".!!!
 
So now who looks like a chicken who walked into a barbeque because it was invited by the cook???
 
And so I learn. And pray.
 
God please...A DICTIONARY OF ALTERNATE MEANINGS would be such a blessing!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

DEATH AT A FUNERAL

I went to a funeral. I saw death.
 
I dont remember how young I was when I attended that funeral.  But I do remember vividly the face of the young widow with two small kids, who, at the moment was faced with the biggest crisis of her life.
 
There are no words to comfort, no means to explain the tragedy, no way to ease the pain.
 
But I see nothing done to make things easy for her. There are visitors by the dozen asking the very same question she is asking herself over and over in her mind...how did this happen?
 
The incident is talked about, dissected, contorted and broadcasted, just like that live news channel that goes on and on about the same bit of news for days together. 
 
In the background is loud wailing and crying, amidst figuring out if it was the girl's past life sins or her horoscope or just her luck that is the cause of the horror she is going through.
 
As her mind is numbed with the pain of the loss of the love of her life, the fear for the future of her children and the comprehension of the strength she is going to need....she is dragged
unwillingly to see the face of her husband one last time.
 
I went to a funeral. I saw death. Death of humanity.