It took 30 years to understand a contestant.....

A glamorous trophy was shining in a bookcase in a living room and a father’s sparkling eyes were fixed on it out of sheer appreciation. It was his daughter’s first success. His daughter, a spring of clear water, has now turned into a cascading river that keeps the world alive. Truly, his daughter was now his life. And he felt proud to be a daughter’s father and not a son’s.

Mr. Shankar  was that day the most contented father. He inwardly thanked his wife for giving him such a smiling beautiful flower who calls and orders, “DADY, I want this. And I won’t talk if…….”

Thinking about his daughter, who now studies in a distant land, he looked out of the window and saw the golden rays of the afternoon sun. He imagined a sun-shine-like bright future for his daughter. And he prayed all the happiness of world for her. And felt that perhaps a father’s heart was most tender…..

Now, he remembered an incident which dated 30 years back………

He was a student in a college. He had all the natural qualities of a leader but he loved to stay aloof from student-politics. But one incident changed his college-life. A girl, who was well-to-do and was from an English Medium School background, eclipsed all boy-students. The existence of boys dimmed before her charisma and that day he had thought that he should accept the challenge as a boy. Soon it was found that the girl was contesting for the post of General Secretary with him……..

The election-battle saw the fiercest ever campaign and the toughest ever competition. And a feather was added to his cap. The girl lost the battle. After the declaration of election result he had offered some sweets to that girl but she did not take the sweets with the words, “You won in the election for that I have no pains but I won’t take sweets from you because my defeat has given a lot of pain to my father. And all this shit happened because of you.” That day, he had thought that because of the hang-over of defeat that girl was babbling the name of his father.

But…..but…..but…..

Today he understood what a daughter means to a father and a father to a daughter. It took 30 years to understand the reason why that girl had not taken sweets that day.

SWEET PAST, JUST A SHADOW

I was on my way…..

Through a beautiful forest called LOVE

Where happy birds of HOPE sang soothingly  

And the enchanting sky glimmered above.

Then a turn….. And you appeared

You appeared with the most terrific smile

Lovingly You held my arms

And we crossed the river called FRIENDSHIP

.

But then I moved hurriedly

Leaving you behind

Risking all the beauty & magic

That life had gifted me.

And see! Most unkindly,

The last 5 years have dubbed me LOSER

And the sweet PAST is now a memory

Nothing but just a shadow……..

An Over-draft Issue at GOD's Bank

It is mid-night. The world sleeps. But the strong coffee in the evening has kept me awake. After the day-long appointments, now I think of God. Tonight he seems just like my elder brother. And asks me the day’s account and I explain I have run up an overdraft……..

With a stern and serious look He wanted to know the REASONS. I detailed…..

“All daylong I spent love unconditionally. I shed and lost tears profusely for the underprivileged. I put more life in my job although I was paid less. I laughed with friends more than my allotted quota.  I dreamt higher than my height. And I ventured to draw more out of life.”

GOD listened calmly. A soothing serenity was prevailing everywhere. The moon and the stars were witnessing our conversation. Now I became silent and stood still for the day’s sentence. God was serious. In his supreme authority he announced the verdict, “You man, I hang you in the same OVER-DRAFT for the rest of your life. And this is my system of BANKING. “I cried and begged his pardon. Now most unfeelingly HE uttered, “Being GOD I cannot (will not) stop a man when is so close to become GOD.I care not such over-drafts. They say I STAY OVER THE SKY because I am such an over-draft master.”

 

Morale of the story: DRAW MOST OUT OF YOUR LIFE AND BE GOD. Is mahatma not God for us? Let us be so.

 

we need hunger-strike for the hungry

Vivekananda could read book by book.
The teenager got inspired
Opened book and attempted that concentration
But failed……..failed miserably
The mobile buzzed with a Bollywood tune.
He is no Vivekanand- youth, let his country slumber.

Pranab, sorry His Excellency,
Heralded crusade against Hunger
The whole nation listened
And some now sit at Jantar Mantar in Hunger-strike
The hungry, the hunger-strike and the hunger for power,
Now all dance with mismatched rhythms.

Coal, mines and industries
All Nation’s properties turn coal-black
In tax-havens
But TV is tuned to watch how Rajesh sings
Mere Sapno ki rani kab ayegi tu….
And Hikaka waits shining India behind high-walls.

Students and teachers now do not face books
They FACEBOOK and upload /share
The emptiness of their VISION and MISSION
And the photo of bed-ridden nurses
Who could not stand against the system.
And Now PTC (Performance Tracking Cell) will see to it.

Hail India, you shine with above elements
Where we need hunger-strike for the hungry……

She was Love and Pain

In the stealth of night the earth was in dead sleep. But I was wide awake and waited for that voice and that tune on the violin. It struck 1 am and now I heard that painful tune on the violin, once again. It was being played at a short distance somewhere hidden in the thickness of the dark. I had never seen the musician-singer. But it was a lady with a broken and exhausted heart. I had never seen her. But every night she would come with her poignant songs and her songs would disappear when the greedy jackals would start howling from the nearby forest. Sometimes I had heard her crying too. Every night that unseen lady’s voice and the heart-rending tune of her violin would make me cry.

A smoke of mystery had covered her thickly because she loved to stay and sing only in the DARK.

The voice inexplicably and mysteriously pained my heart day by day……..I loved that voice and that aggrieved lady………

She used to sing beautifully playing the violin herself. And I knew she is a fountain of LOVE and PAIN.I loved her sad voice, I loved her heart-breaking tune on the violin and I also loved her miserably coughing in the intervening periods. I knew not what was there but I simply loved her. The dark nights, the foggy atmosphere and her painful voice were my soul’s solace. I knew she did not know me but she understood me…..

That night also the clock struck 1 am. And the tune was today excruciatingly mournful. The sea of pain was in high tide……when I listened her I was lost in the labyrinth of my unhappy past and the decade-long loneliness that I was in……

Abruptly, I heard a terrible spasm of smoker’s cough! And I heard the music stop and the song too. The lady could not sing further. I heard her violently coughing. The night was cold and dark. And I pined for the lady singing again. In my mind the song lingered, also the painful tune on the violin……..But she did not sing again nor the tune of the violin filled the air……..

I knew not how I moved in the direction of the singer-musician. But I neared her. I neared her more than I was nearer to my SOUL. Now I found her to be half-asleep on a cold cement bench because of her life-long exertion. She had peacefully leaned on the cement bench after spitting blood out of her ever smoking lungs. She had already smoked a lot and the hard and burning smell of tobacco was the only sign of her presence in the mid-night ……. I felt she was one whom I knew from the last MILLENNIUM. And I love her so much. I raised her with my trembling hands and held her sleepy motionless body in my arms and pressed my cheek in hers and saw tear drops from my eyes rolling down and touching her silent lips those smoked and sang so much…….. THE NIGHT WAS DARK AND DEEP BUT I LOVED TO STAY IN THE DARK FOREVER, WITH HER. I simply loved her because SHE WAS LOVE AND PAIN……