For a new acquaintance

For 33 years and more I've been traveling.
Traveling in a train, kind of journeying.
Every now and then,in this train of mine,
People keep going out and coming in.
At every stop there isn't always a person,-but
Some passengers travel thru' every station.

Awhile ago my train did stop-and
You boarded in as new stock.
Have you come to stay?
Or, will soon go away?
I do not know, I do not care- but
Memories of you, I shall for long bear.

Friends

Some I call my friends- cos,
I've been with them forever.
Some I call my friends- cos,
I love their sense of humour.
Some I call my friends- cos,
Much love for me they harbour.
Some I call my friends- cos,
I see myself in him or her.
and the company of such friends,
I deem a great pleasure.

St.Valentine Weeps

This morning I met St.Valentine
Sad, sullen and in deep pain.
‘Cheer-up man! It is your day today’- I said
‘Gifts, goodies and cards -all in your name made!’


He wailed loudly
‘Puppy love, passionate cards and crazy gifts
Not lasting families, but dressed up dates
No love, no man, no wife, just party mates’


‘Oh tell me, tell me’ –He cried
‘Has reason been lost in my name?
Has love been diluted in my name?
Has purity been put to shame in my name?’


I shook my head and walked away.
How was I to console him anyway?

The Blue Flask and Grandma

During a recent visit to my parents’ house I saw some very old stuff they had taken out of the loft after several years. And after nearly a decade I saw the Blue Flask, the first thermos flask I had ever known. A long, stripped light blue flask with the name Hammer Master written on it. I took the flask in my hands and the cap fell down. I laughed aloud, because the falling of the flask cap brought fresh memories of old times.
More than 25 years ago, my grandmother and I had carried this flask every day for a week to the hospital where my sister was admitted. She was a hardly four and she was hospitalized for an upset stomach. My parents stayed with my sister day and night and I was with my uncles, aunt and grandparents.
At 7 pm my grandmother would make supper and fill the flask with warm water and take them and me in an auto to the hospital. Being with grandma, even today can be embarrassing or amusing depending on the way one looks at the situation. She can bargain endlessly with any human to whom she has to hand out money. If she can do that emphatically now in her eighties imagine her vigour in her sixties. So she scolded and she cursed, she reasoned and she pleaded with the auto-driver to reduce the charges for our hospital trip. I can simply recite from memory the words she used for bargaining with the auto drivers, I chuckled then and I chuckle now. When the bargaining was over and the money actually left her hand (Phew! ), we got down from the auto to start moving towards the hospital. 'Tat-da da tat', there was a noise 'what was that Hannahma?' my grandma asked. 'The flask's cap','it has fallen down' I screamed. Together we crawled all over the auto and under it without letting the poor auto-driver drive away. The auto-driver would panic thinking my grandma would take back some of the money she had just handed him. After five minutes that seemed to last for an hour we found the cap and went into the hospital.
The next day, we would call out for another auto and my grandmother scolded and cursed, reasoned and pleaded for reduction in auto charges. And just when the money left her hands the cap left the flask. I started enjoying this. So I giggled, crawling up and down the auto in search of the flask cap as my grandmother lamented loudly and the auto driver accelearted his throttle impatiently. Then when we were back home I enacted the whole drama to my uncles and laughed so much. Grandma is a good sport so she laughed too but she ensured that the cap never fell off from the flask again.

Having relived those funny moments, I bent down, took the cap and screwed it back tight on the flask.

In a couple of weeks, the then four-year old sister will be walking down the aisle in church in bridal garments. Grumbling grandma will be gleaming grandma at her favourite grand daughter's wedding. Thanks to the many cars her sons own, some fortunate auto-driver will have a peaceful evening that day.

Ah!! Those Gadgets

People around me are obsessed with gadgets. Cell phones, iphones, iPods, mp3, video games… the list is endless. Gone are the days when people would build a conversation with fellow passengers during a train or bus journey. Now anyone who begins a conversation is considered a nuisance. We have let our love for gadgets kill the goodness of the human spirit. When two people talk continuously during a bus journey, the other passengers start getting their earphones to shut themselves out. They don’t realize that the bacteria earphones can bring into their ears, are far more harmful that the cacophony of fellow humans. It’s pathetic to watch the children of this era. It used to be common to find children in a super market or circus holding hands and giggling, despite inability to understand each other’s language. These days when a child stretches out his hand to another, I see parents pull him away and entertain him using games on their iPod. Can the sounds and visuals on the iPod ever replace the warmth of a human smile and touch?


Also gadgets have made us an impatient generation. Everything at the touch of a button, that’s the rule of the thumb. But most things are best relished when received after a wait. Nature offers nothing instantly, neither rain nor food, nor flowers nor off-springs. The waiting doubles the joy of receiving. But look at us, if you dial the number of a dear one and the recorded voice says ‘The number you have dialed is not reachable’, panic strikes us. If we forget our mobile phones at home, we feel like fish out of water and those that dial our number think we have been kidnapped! If you are introduced to a new person in the office one day, the very next day he wants to be your friend on FaceBook. We go ahead and accept the friend’s request and never drop a line to him for the rest of our lives. Friendships that last a life time most often take a life time to build. STOP AND THINK. We are becoming a rude, discourteous, in-different and impatient generation by clinging on to our gadgets.

Mark a day of the week as ‘No sms’ day, Mark a day of the week as ‘No iPod day’, Deliberately leave your earphones at home one day of the week. Mark a day of the week as ‘Two-minute phone conversations only’ day. Mark a day of the week as ‘No TV’ day. Sit down and write your dear friend a letter, not an email or sms, but a real hand written letter. For when he receives it, he will first sit down, and read it, and then re-read it and then preserve it.

The reality of the reality shows

My granddad at four must have run around the house and played with mud and twigs and goats all day long. My father at four must have been busy eating groundnuts, looking at older boys spin tops and fly kites all day long. At four I went to LKG in the morning and played with my neighbours in the evening. My son is four, he goes to LKG in the morning, does home work in the afternoon and watches TV in the evening. And what does he watch on TV. Four year-olds dressed in designer wear sponsored by a textile giant, singing the latest movie numbers on a show sponsored by a communications giant. In the audience are their parents flinching at their every mistake and rejoicing at their every accomplishment.

What is the motivation? Money and fame! The two most notorious culprits that have dirtied every human endeavor. When money became the motivation for the medical profession, doctors became swindlers. When money became the motivation for educational institutions, teachers became commodities and students money wending machines. When fame became the motivation for news channels, News became dramatic and ‘exclusive reports’ became unbearably common. When money and fame became the motivation for the cinema industry, cinema ceased to be a vehicle of social reform.

May be these parents should stop and think. Its time these children got their childhood back. Many a student has skipped one whole academic year of education just to rehearse and participate in these reality shows. One year away from their friends, one year away from the comic books, one year away from the fun in class, and one year robbed off their childhood. Is that a justified trade-off? All the parents who send their children to these reality shows just want to realize their dreams through the child. So what if they spot talent? A wise parent only nurtures talent, never insists exhibition of the talent in a public forum. That is for the child to decide. This I think is the only way parents can let their children live a whole life. A life lived as execution of parents’ instructions is void and meaningless. I strongly recommend that all parents read about the damage Michael Jackson’s dad did to him by thrusting stardom on him. Especially those that have great singers and dancers for children, and intend to make them super singers or start singers and dancers.

If you want a house or a car or an LCD TV, or an i-Pod or a cell phone save up money and buy it. If you want your children to be stars just facilitate and let them live their lives. Actually each child is a star just like the numerous stars in the sky; each of them is unique and full of energy. Never try to use the reality shows to do either of these. As for the companies that sponsor, why not set an SMS chain in motion for the purpose of charity. I mean ask users to send multiple SMSs at the cost of the SMSs sent for voting purposes on reality shows. The revenue thus generated can go towards charity. The world will be a better place I am sure.

Elegy for my Grandfather

Two years have gone since I last saw your face.

Tears stream down as I think of the bygone days.

When I was but a child, you respected me as an adult.

And spoke to me at length of many a fear and guilt.

I loved to stay around you; your stories never bored me.

They never failed to move, thrill and inspire me.

How I had hoped your dementia would go away-soon.

And that you would talk sense to me someday –soon.

‘When I die, I need none of you by my side’- you often said.

You died with no one by your side just as you said you would.

I am glad you died alone,infact your most preferred way

But I tell my self 'he should've stayed on'- on many a day.

Especially today, your eighty seventh birthday.