Sounds of Life

The impatient tapping of the hands
while one waits and stands
The melancholy humming as one awaits
the opening of the theatre gates
Are the sounds of life

The pulsating heart and worn feet
the sweating brow under the harsh heat
the rapid breathing and adrenaline rush
eyes all alert and the cheeks flush
Are the sounds of life

The muffled crying and the tears
the boisterous enjoying and the cheers
the aching pains from stretched muscles
the tingling wounds for childish tussles
Are the sounds of life

The breezy wind at the mountaintop
The fiery bargaining at a Turkish shop
The screeching breaks as a train stops
the loud shattering as a glass drops
Are the sounds of life

there is a difference between living and being alive
all that matters is our own thirst and to strive
to wake up every morning and hear
the awesome sounds of life...

Promise Me This

A promise said is a promise made
With time it doesn't fade
To keep a promise one had to
do what they said they would do.

Breaking a promise is more than just
stop doing what you must
Making a promise is easy to do
Find me a person who keeps it too

Now and then and time again
Something in the heart of men
Does not keep the words it made
The bond of trust and friendship made

To make a promise or not to make
Is a decision we need to take
With heart and mind and soul too
Make a promise and keep it too

The Cyclops Syndrome

Have you ever heard the story of Cyclops, the one eyed Giant? If not, its a worthy reading and extremely fascinating, not because of the mythological characters but because of the insight it provides to human nature.

It was only recently that I was impinged with this idea of how many of us are like Cyclops, with a single eye right in the middle of our minds/heads which looks at only one thing at a time, like a horse on a race track.

But then had that been the reason of our existence, why do we have 2 of them?

I am well aware that , scientifically, we need 2 of them to make a proper 3D picture, with depth and stuff, but it can also be argued that having 2 of them gives us a broader field of vision than with just one of them.

When we have been endowed with such a broad viewpoint, why do some of us narrow it down so much that even the tip of a pin doesn't fit into the eyesight , people who refuse point blank to even hear the other's vision and those who see nothing as an alternative. Its either black or its black....

Some retort that its called "being focussed" but if you ask a photographer, he would always say that the actually breadth of the landscape is more beautiful than when it taken from the lens of a camera. Being focussed is an activity, not a way of life, which I believe is the point I am trying to make in this post. This "Cyclops Syndrome" affecting many of us. 

Some of us are so focussed, we literally abhor anything that does not fit into that razor-sharp edged focus frame , so its either fully in or fully out, but no dangling in the middle.

But then a man is only as worldly as he knows about the world... not only his own, but of others as well. 

A monocle is a tool, which when used always will only show you the smaller things in life, but never the true bigger picture. In the same way, focus is a tool, meant to achieve certain purposes in life, but that does not mean we eliminate the free flow of ideas and views from our eyesights itself.

I am not sure if I focussed on an idea in this post or not, but then, look at the bigger picture and enjoy it :)

Till later....

Happy Teacher's Day

The hand that hold a candle of knowledge
The spark that ignite the fire in us
The mind that has taken the sacred pledge
To share the joys of teaching with us

Today we celebrate those
The souls who chose
to hold a light to enlight
making our future shining bright

A person who wears many hats
Who scolds you and also pats
your back when you achieve greatness

This is a tribute to them I pay
Happy Teacher's Day

Sons of the Motherland

A soldier at the warfront
searching an enemy to confront
His mother praying for his wellbeing
without his hands to hold or him seeing

A wife awaiting his arrival
with a baby yet to come
Him at the warfront
fighting for survival

The television blaring out the news
about the countries in a fray
the public merrily celebrating
the Independence Day

Do we realise the costs they pay
with their own sweat and blood
Courage and pride their only might
Against bullets and bombs in the night

I write this poem as a tribute
for the true patriots of the land
I salute the flag of our nation as a symbol
of my obeisance to the sons of my Motherland

The Elemental Truth

SIBM Bangalore Toastmasters Club

CC Project 9

The Elemental Truth

It was 7.00 am in the morning; the air was filled with the chirping of birds, the ringing sound of the milkman’s cart and the call of the newspaper guy. At 7 , usually the sun is out shining but I did not even bother to go the window and look outside, because I knew that at that time, the air is filled with pollution which makes visibility almost zero. It was preferred to buy bottled water because the pollution made the metro water unfit for drinking. Oh , as well as I didn’t have power for the last 2 days.

Toastmasters, do you know that the Rs 18/water bottle[wave it to the crowd] which we pay is not because of water scarcity but because of water wastage, the recent grid failures ,not once but twice are not because of power scarcity but because of unchecked exploitation of natural resources,  every time you use the axe deo[wave the spray], I am not sure if angels are falling,, but  the pollution level is surely rising.

Had Newton been alive today, he would never have discovered the Law of Gravity, because there are no trees nowadays from which an apple can fall.

The capital of Iran was forced to declare 2 days of extra holidays because the pollution level reached beyond permissible limits.

And that, friends, is the Elemental Truth.

Toastmasters...

Imagine a world with no power, plunged into darkness, a place where the moonlight is hidden by polluted air and the sunlight is too harsh to stand. A planet where even a spark of light

Is a welcome feeling, the warmth of the fire is a luxury, the sight [switch on the lights] of a fellow being a blessing.

A planet where you cannot distinguish water from a drink [show 2 bottles, one full of black coloured water and another a real coke bottle] .

[Forcefully, asking some individual toastmasters] Do you want such a planet? Would you live in such a home?  Which bottle would you drink from?

 [Pause....]

But where there are shadows, there is always a light somewhere. And the good thing is that the light is shining bright, far off, but still shining. While some people are ignoring the environment, 300,000 trees are being planted every day. The change is has already begun. And we need to be a part of it. We should be.

Research has shown that the coolness of the shade given by a full grown tree is equal to 10 room sized air conditioners running 20 hours a day.

In winter, trees help to keep the area warm and the heating cost can be reduced by 25%.

100 trees can help stop the soil from getting washed away by water equal to 400,000 litres of water.

1 tree can store 20 kgs of toxic carbon dioxide in a year and give out oxygen for 2 human beings.

I am sure you would be asking “How? What to do? I love clean air, clean water and a clean life but I am not sure how I can pitch in."

All you need to do is just PLOT.

PLOT stands for Plant Lots of Trees

Every one of us can help our planet by making PLOT the keyword in our daily activities.

Can we not plant a sapling in our own backyards and neighbourhood, wherever possible? Can we not nurture this sampling using our daily kitchen wastage?

We can ask the kids of the neighbourhood to plant a tree, nurture it and have a competition on whose tree grows the fastest.

For every happy occasion in life we can resolve to plant a sapling.

When we are booking tickets online, be it for travelling or a movie, there is an option to donate a small amount for planting a sapling.

There are NGO’s like The Sapling Project which have exclusive drives in neighbourhoods for planting trees.

By way of PLOTting , will can ensure a future which is bright as the sunshine, clear as river water, free as the air and solid as the earth.

We would then be leaving a legacy for our successors, because,

“We have not inherited this world from our ancestors, but have borrowed it from our successors”

Toastmasters, I’m pledging to PLOT to share this wonderful gift called Earth. Will you also do the same?

The Trail Goes On

I think of her every now and then
I remember her and I pick up a pen
To write my thoughts before they fade
To express my feelings truly made

Time heals all wounds or so I thought
It pains and It weeps, filled with wrought
Reliving, not the sad moments of the years
But nostalgia about the happy tears

You pick up the pieces and walk ahead
only to find another piece you shed
A piece of the heart that broke
With one syllable she spoke

You walk ahead and then look back
the trail you made on the beaten track
you look ahead and the trail goes on
meandering and whimsy, forever on.