Let me...

Walk in the rain…

Smell the damp earth…

Smile at the sky…

Sing my song…

Hold your hand…

Live the moment…

Down the memory lane...

One of my favorites...learnt it several years ago...English, Kerala State Board:)

Palanquin Bearers

Lightly, O lightly we bear her along,

She sways like a flower in the wind of our song;

She skims like a bird on the foam of a stream,

She floats like a laugh from the lips of a dream.

Gaily, O gaily we glide and we sing,

We bear her along like a pearl on a string.

Softly, O softly we bear her along,

She hangs like a star in the dew of our song;

She springs like a beam on the brow of the tide,

She falls like a tear from the eyes of a bride.

Lightly, O lightly we glide and we sing,

We bear her along like a pearl on a string.

- Nightingale of India (Sarojini Naidu)

Don't give up!!

Have you had a day when Murphy’s Law took its toll so badly that you would finally believe in it?

Today was one of such days in my life- Everything possible went wrong almost simultaneously…I was hurt…left to bleed, and pick myself up when I was upto it!

You want to talk…you don’t trust that anyone would be willing to listen!

You are part of a set of friends almost as close as family…yet, you feel lonely in the crowd!

You try calling up an old friend…she doesn’t pick the call!

You find another friend online…in minutes after you ping him, he’s offline!

You suddenly seem to realize that it’s too late to call anyone up…and even worse, you begin to wonder if you have any one at all, who wouldn’t mind attending your call in the middle of the night, when they are cozy under the blanket and are fast asleep!

And, there’s this annoying voice at the back of your mind enlightening you on how worthless, useless, insignificant and undeserving a person you are…you slowly succumb to a “nobody loves me” syndrome!!!

I’m sure you’ve faced this some time in your life…now, I’m gonna share with you a secret on how to get back to normalcy- it’s tried and tested and proved to be successful (at least by me!). The secret would run into a few points (Now you know that I’m an MBA!)

1...Life is a mix of good and bad days- one of the bad days showed up today- Look it in the face- you are no coward!

2…Your belief in God is not a passport to a carefree life- God’s there to take care of you through your life’s cares- send an SOS to heaven (read as ‘pray’), if need be!

3…Your identity is not on how a day went, or how the people around you treated you- You are worth the breath of life that was blown into you by the Creator- nothing less!

4…Count your blessings- If it disgusts you to count the blessings that came in today, it’ll be worthwhile to think about how worse the things gone wrong could have been! (I guarantee a sigh of relief following this!)

5…Stop the thought process around I, Me, Myself!- What could you do to bring a smile on someone’s face? How good a listener have you been today? Were you willing to go an extra mile to help someone out?

Well, once you calm your heart and get yourself thinking in these lines, you’d realize that life isn’t that bad, after all!

The Second Toast!

It was our wedding that day,
The day much yearned for,
The wait was long and tough,
Trust me, moments would grow into eons!
But it was sweetness beyond compare
As the longing was mutual!

Finally, came the day worth our wait,
When our lives would be knotted together!
Relatives and friends thronged our house,
There was jubilee in the air!
Some special friends came too,
And one was Jesus, the Nazarene!

My eyes scanned the vicinity,
To steal a glimpse of my man,
That’s when I caught a streak of panic,
On my father’s pensive face…
And, in a loud whisper, someone alarmed,
“Oh! We ran out of the wine!!!”

Soon, there was chaos unprecedented…
Servants rushed in fretful desperation…
My brother struggled to humor the guests,
As his lips quivered in a nervous smile…
I noticed Mary running to her son,
“How would he help?” I mused in bleakness.

They were filling the jars with water,
I awaited the shame that was yet to strike,
“Are we serving water for wine?”
My heart cried out in silent anguish…
‘Serve it here’ and ‘There too’- distant voices clamored,
Unaware of the empty jars, once full with fine wine!

The jars of water were ready,
And Jesus ordered them to be served,
I shut my eyes refusing to witness,
The disgrace that shadowed my Big Day!
Then, I heard the clatter of a second toast,
“You spared the finest for the last!”

This is the tale of my wedding,
I tell my children and grandchildren,
And oft my li’l ones wonder,
“What did Jesus do to the water?”
“Well, when the Creator looked, the water blushed,
And turned into wine!” I’d remark with a smile.

That was just the beginning of the legend
Of the Miracle Man, who turned my shame to fame!
They killed him, but His miracle sustained,
He rose again on the Third day!
I pressed against the crowd to see Him rise to Heaven;
He looked…and I blushed…“Rabbi, I’d turn into what You want me to be!”

I'm just thinking aloud...

It is the age of reality shows. While the debate on how real these shows are continues, they seem to rule the leading channels, entertaining a huge chunk of the ‘aam janta’ who find pleasure in eavesdropping into the iron curtained territories of the likes of Big Boss and Big Brother.

Shilpa being at the receiving end of a ‘racist’ becomes as hot a topic as Saddam’s execution! Governments react, Leaders clarify, Nations empathize, Minorities roar, Apaches and Rushdies retort…AND, alongside, TRPs soar, Participants rise to fame, and Shilpa, epitomizing the ‘victimized Indian on English land’ becomes a small- time desi star- turned- international celebrity worth millions, overnight!

I did not think she deserved the attention she received. My otherwise patriotic self didn’t experience goose bumps on witnessing the Indian beauty bag the prize outsmarting her ‘white- skinned counterparts’ (Apologies in advance for sounding racist!). But I felt relieved that it was not as silly as the news that ran into pages, through weeks, about the Indian descent of Sunita Williams! It was amusing to note that the intellectual strata of the Indian society which dismissed Shilpa, as a cunning li’l Bollywood belle, who manipulated the show to her own gain, strained to trace the Indian roots of Ms. Williams to feel proud of the country! She doesn’t qualify to make India proud just because she carried samosas to space. She’s indebted to America for what she is today and since India has not done her any good, we Indians could spare the rhapsodies of praise for her.

Are some of us bitter towards Shilpa because she ‘abused’ her Indianness? Are we tending to be hypocritical because Big Brother is one of those cooked up reality shows that’s too mean for a ‘thinking Indian’ to waste time on? Well, isn’t it equally demeaning to glorify the estranged Indian roots of a successful woman and to unrightfully partake of her fame?