Of Life and Death

…..Of Life and Death

In a world of advancement, education, technology, and competition, it is tragic to see the worth of everything being assessed in time and money. The fact that is appalling is that we humans –Gods so called Greatest Creations have started to include life and death in this genre.
Gone are the days when a birth was celebrated with happiness and the beginning of new life cherished by all or when the loss of someone set holocaust of sadness and trauma over all. Its’ money and probably power that speaks today. Well if you are rich and powerful and have got those thick crispy notes at your disposal, hallelujahs! Coz you don’t need to worry about your life –it’ll stick to you, but if you barely survive on some scrums of food that’s just too bad for you ….or shall we say that fate favors the rich and the powerful too!
And why not? After all who would want to see gruesome reality in its complete nakedness of downtrodden, hunger and poverty bitten helpless people when you have the fancies and the glitters of your riches?
Is this what we term as a “Progressing World?” I surely hope not! Coz no nation can claim its progress where the poor become poorer and the rich richer. In India where our present political leaders have foreign doctors and medical facilities at their disposal, we don’t even have proper and basic health and hygiene amenities for the poor.
Where the poor have an obscure significance of their mere existence and are only given attention around the election time of the year by our political leaders who are nothing more than a bunch of necromancies feeding on the masses. Do we still consider ourselves to be progressing towards a better future and a better tomorrow? If yes! Well then I and many few like me need to update our vocabulary on this new meaning of progress, but if not so, then, the question that remains still unanswered is: how many lives more would it take to satisfy ‘their’ hunger pangs? Can ‘WE’ stop it before it’s too late?

-Sakshi
23rd September 2006

लकीरे

आज बैठे बैठे यू ही नज़र हाथो की आड़ी टेडी रखो पर पड़ी तो मन में एक ख्याल सा उठा की ....... कितनी आश्चर्य की बात है की यह छोटी - छोटी रेखाये भी कितना कुछ कहती है ।
जहाँ हाथो पे खीची रेखाये किसी की तकदीर की कहानी बयां करती है , तो कही यही लक्कीरे अगर चेहरे पर उत्पन होती है तो कभी शोख भाव तो कभी उल्लास की झुर्रिया छोड़ जाती है । तो कभी ढलती उम्र के निशान।
हम में से शायद ही किसी ने सोचा होगा की कुछ आड़ी टेडी लकीरों में ज़िंदगी का इतना भारी महात्व होगा । मुस्कान की एक लकीर कितनी ही दूरियों को मिटा देती है , वही दो मुल्को के बीज खीची एक लकीर दिलो में कितनी दरारे पैदा कर देती है।
जब विद्यालय में गणित के सवालो का जवाब कुछ लकीरों को खीच के ढूनते थे या दोस्तो के साथ ब्लैक - बोर्ड पर चाक से लाइन खीचा किया करते थे तब शायद ही हम में से किसी के ज़हन में ये बात आई होगी की यह 'मामूली' सी पतली रेखाये ज़िंदगी का समावेश बन जाएगी ।

End of college life

I still remember the first time I came to this new city, all alone in this alien land. I stepped inside the college gates, all by myself. Standing there all alone. Searching…searching for someone known. Someone I could call my own, trust more than I would trust myself. I searched for someone who would hold my hands and say, ‘I’d be there for you, friend’ , and then I saw you in that crowd and I knew somewhere deep within my heart , that my search ends here.
I knew that I had found the friend I was looking for in you. And now when I stand on this threshold of graduation and look back at time, I feel proud of myself for taking that one decision to make you an integral part of my life.
As we come to the end of this final year, I have with me a treasure full of memories that are mine and only mine. Memories of the lectures we attended together, sitting on the last bench discussing the latest novels or any other area of our interests. Or whether it was messaging each other, even though we sat besides each other, passing notes written on a chit, trying hard to run out of the college gates, sleeping under the teachers nose, and many more of such precious moments that I will take back with me.
I thank you all my friends, for making these three years the most memorable ones in my life.
I really wish from the bottom of my heart that we could make time stop right now for eternity, but life does not stop and needs us to move on with it, but am glad to have come across all of you. I would now move on in life with the special memories that each one of you have given me. I would relish this treasure of my life till the final moment of my passing fleeting life.
Thanks guys!!! Gonna miss each one of you . Keep in touch

(written on 1st march 2006)

Tear drop

I made a garland of thousand tears of life , that i shed in joy and pain. I take them from the treasures of my memories and wear them day and night. every drop of them, like a feature floats over my body. Shines like thousands o f pearls under a single ray of sunlight.
They share with me my joys of life. travel with me on a ride of failures and success. We waled a mile,we ran a yard.Together we travelled a thousands seas. On lonely nights i went to bed with my tears. They lay besides me on sleepless nights. Soothing me every moment.

My true companion have they been . They share my deepest secrets, they hold my darkest fears.
A tear drop of my eyes just trickles down again today , in memories of the past or of the present I do not know. I take it again with gentle care and place it on a feather to fly , high forever...in the memories of my life

Life of a Street Child

The streets of this city are nothing more than a path of mud and gravel filled with dirt for many of you, but for me it's been everything. My home , my family, my playground. I don't know how I came here, or who brought me here, all I remember is that when I opened my eyes I found myself on the corner of this street. Since then , it has been my best companion in my joy and sorrows.
Like this street that does know of its age, I also do not know how old am I or when was I born? People say am about ten years old, well , they must be right or... I don't know. I actually don't know much. I didn't even know my name off recent, till a young lady walking past this street called out to me by the name of 'Chotu' and since then everyone calls me that.

In this case I sometimes consider this street to be luckier than me. It has a name of its own and everyone seems to know it also!
I want to grow up and be a big man so that everyone knows my name like this streets'
But Bhola kaka; ( he sells chanas to the passerby on the street) he says one needs to go to school to be a big man . They teach everything there, he says.
I do not know what a school is like ; or where is it? who are these people in the school and what do they teach? Whom do they teach? Will they teach me if I meet them?
I ask kaka - why don't I go to a school? He says that one needs money to pay for the fee of the school. Just like you have to give money to from the street, you also have to pay money to study. That's why they take fees.
Well now I need to go, have to sell these papers to get some money . I will save it fro my 'school fees' from now . Bye! meet you at the school next time. Do come to see me there.

-Sakshi

The devine

Through a small cistern in the dirty white sheet of clouds spread over the sky he looked down at me. The light of his eyes peered through the sky , making it blush all over as it gently touched me. I looked up to him and acknowledged his touch.
He held me rooted to my feet down here and my gaze fixed up to him as he stared me down in my eyes. The glare so blinding , so charasmatic, so striking, yet so compassionate, so tender.
I felt like a ten year old standing in front of my principal's office. The feeling gave me goosebumps all over and I had buterflies rising up in my stomach.
I cleared my throat and opened my mouth to talk to him.. but words just failed to come. the power of words in which i had so strongly believed had just failed me ....
Was it that words actually fall short sometimes or was it just the devine , in front of whom everything seemed trivial????
He gently moved my hair as the breeze kissed my cheeks. Tears filled my eyes and I surrendered my soul to him. He took it gently and placed it close , so close to him , that i could feel his breath.
And then through the universe so vast roared his words of love and care . Showered down on me , drenching me , soaking me in them . I felt guilty and foolish for not acknowledging him in my life. Tears rolled down my eyes , soaking my already wet face. I opened my mouth once agin to speak and this time too words failed me.
I grew desperate now, because i wanted to speak
I wanted to tell him, let him know that I was sorry. That i would always need him in my life.

And again he spoke to me .....This time the voice came from within me , and I instantly started a conversation with my lord.

Abandoned Thoughts

The silence of death and the solitude of ones thought go often unheard in this hustle bustle of life .It happened last night as I went to my room to resign for the day , I heard a weeping sound in my balcony. A little anxious I stepped towards the balcony only to discover my own thoughts sitting and crying in a dark corner . Yes , yes you did read it right and neither are you eyes playing any trick on you ..... so there is no need for you to go back and re-read that sentence again. Sat there in corner drowned in a pool of tears were my very own thoughts.Bewildered by this sight i took a few minutes to gather myself and then slowly asked them what troubled them so much?What I heard next had me paralyzed for almost five minutes.In between those heavy sobs , a feeble little voice spoke to me the strongest of words.It said , " You have been to busy recently, you really don't have any time for me and i cannot handle it."I do not have time for you ??? I thought to myself. Do i really don't have any time for my thoughts these days??? Is everything that i do very mechanical, predetermined and not at all thought provoking ???Well , I really didn't have to wait long for an answer . I small voice within my mind confirmed the feelings of my thought.It felt like a cheated affair. I had vowed to be with them and to keep them with me for eternity and i had failed miserably in doing so. I had been rightly proved guilty and it was time to face my trial.It was then , that i slowly sat down besides my own thoughts and gently took their hand in mine and looked into those tear filled eyes . It was as if my touch had cast a charm again and just like the break of the morning dawn a smile broke on their face, creating a few curved wrinkles. Sorry, I shall never let you part from me , was all I could say and it was all they longed to hear.We then sat back in the silence of the night, and watched it creep in solitude, away into the dawn.