Category: Alive

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A celebration called life

(A slightly different take)

 

From the day you are born

Till six days later when all your hair is shorn

Life is bliss

Then things begin to go amiss

Relatives keep dropping in to sign in their remark

Most of the women are worried that you are dark

Indians at heart we start wondering about marriage

Marrying a dark-skinned person requires courage

Some snigger at your helplessness some relish in it

Going to visit an infant has a peculiar fetish in it

Down the months as your eyes begin to focus

It dawns upon you group obligations are hocus-pocus

Your social smiles are greeted with delight

But you are not tolerable if you cry in the night

After year one you are no longer enigmatic

Every emotion you display is considered dramatic

Welcome to childhood

You’d avoid it if you could

Ice cream flavors to cool haircuts every decision is major

Suddenly before you blink you have become teenager

Now you are not welcome anywhere

Too young for adults too old for kids to care

Cute little dimples are replaced with life threatening pimples

Math science late nights or girlfriend nothing is no longer simple

Times flies

Optimism dies

Full grown creatures breathing skepticism

Look at the biosphere from a prejudiced prism

Oh we adults adore our complications

A Pandora’s box we open with a smile and invitation

Life’s cycle is a thingamajig we can ill afford

And we have cheek to create our own God

 

Homes to build friends to make status symbols to erect

People to please wars to wage right network to select

Decisions. Big and small

The head and a nice wall

Adulthood is fun.

Keeps you on the run

Fulfil promises fulfil obligations fulfill everything under the sun

End of the day you can bet you are still not done

Save the money and time slips away

Make time for things and wage dips away

What made you think you can have it all

Are you Cinderella at the Queens’s Ball

At the tick of 12 the party ends

At which side of the timepiece are you it depends

You have come a long way from being born

Today you have no hair left to be shorn

So take a deep breath

Before you reach death

Make every breath count

Make every action amount

To awesome.

And then some

 

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Care approved

Care cuts deep it seeps into the soul

you can never again become one whole

a part of you is given away unwittingly

you can watch yourself agonize consciously

 

When grief is revealed only by the eyes

when the smile on the face so often belies

the feeling within the spirit keeps on trying

to face truth in the face while continually lying

 

When the care bestowed remains unrequited

the heart still does not feel hurt or slighted

it slices across veneers of physical proximity

like the presence of divinity in a Sufi’s propinquity

 

Not one person perceives it so silently it bleeds

not one emotion out of place so dutifully it heeds

just one look one word one effort of reciprocation

can revive dead life-force without resuscitation

 

 

 

 

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Unlimited bounty

Every morning when I open my eyes

Hope. Trepidation. New dreams to comprise

One more day has been added to my platter

Each breath filled with gratefulness is all that should matter

 

When I look about at the misery around me

Some visible scars, some hidden hurt surrounds me

One less welt makes my burden lighter

My shoulders are frail I am no fighter

 

Presently I realize I have little to complain

So much of my complaining is in vain

One moment of happiness is worth its weight in gold

An amazing journey so far, just envisage what will unfold

 

His giving is limitless it’s my brashness that binds me

His ways are soft and silent yet His abundances find me

One wrong step I take in any direction

He smiles and forgives and prepares my resurrection

 

Whether I say yes or no, whether or not I deserve

What is destined for me is always kept in reserve

One small speck on the little blue dot is looked after

Now if I don’t return the favor, I could not be dafter

 

So every morning when I open my eyes and see

The profusion of all that I have been given I agree

One word of gratitude for the life I have inherited

How does one ever recompense blessings unmerited?

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Wishful

I threw some wishes up in the sky

Some came down in the form of dew

I wished some old habits goodbye

Each day then became as good as new

 

I stopped turning back again and again

To see the road I was leaving behind

Some memories felt betrayed and vain

Past tenses can play tricks on the mind

 

Autumn leaves continued to fall and rust

The tree stood strong awaiting spring

The sheer tenacity the absolute trust

Showed off miracles a future can bring

 

I embraced my imperfections and moved on

Some stars were laughing from above

I only had to learn, not live from what’s done

I did not need disapproval I only needed love

 

I gathered the flowers the dew was garden-fresh

Even as desires crumbled in my fist

I kept just one thing – gratitude – to refresh

I had grasped the art of living in a gist

 

Thank you

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Forever traits

Be kind. Be generous. Not once or twice

But perpetually

Kindness deep seated in the heart

Will give the universe a chance. A head start

 

Be gentle. Be graceful. Amidst rudeness

It is not easy

It takes tenderness to smoothen creases in relations

It takes grace to remain kind in cruel situations

 

Be brave. Be dependable. Be there for others

Conquer vulnerability

Strength of the mind reflects nobility of the soul

Courage is no acquired trait. It’s an encompassing whole

 

Be inimitable. Be rare. Echo who you are

You are unique

There is strength in kindness and gentleness too

It takes courage to live righteously. Very few do

 

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Being alive is a gift

To awaken every morning and feel the dew

Was never promised or verily your due

If it happens be happy. Say thank you

And pass on a winning smile to a few

 

That you should never die

Even as you watch funerals pass by

Is as obscene as your reason to cry

Take life gracefully in your stride

 

This obsession to overpower nature

This grandiose illusion to predict future

Don’t you think sounds a trifle amateur

What, if not death, does it take to mature?

 

As our knowledge and advancement increases

We research new cures. We fight old diseases

So far so good. Wherein suffering decreases

It’s our need for immortality that never ceases

 

We came from nature. We will go back one day

We must make the most of this in between stay

What we profit from living we must give away

And clear our dues. There are debts to repay

 

Being alive is beautiful. Ask the sick man

Being able is commendable. Do what you can

Being skilled to think introspect design and plan

Is a freedom and privilege given to man

 

Let us use it well and not retract

Let us enrich nature and not detract

Let us learn to handle life with tact

‘Forever’ is misreading death is a fact

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Brilliance

The canvas of the universe is dark black

Not because of lesser stars or the lack

Of light. Or shining. But merely by being

Itself. It’s very character defies seeing

Or believing

 

When a single ray of the sun breaks

Through a dusky dawn and wakes

Up half a world. A glow silently moves

Conquering space, seeping in the groove

Opening a treasure trove

 

Another soundless dominance called wind

Canters alongside breezily. Gentle. Kind

It carries life within itself and yet

Do we even realize its presence set

In each breath

 

Time begins. A giant cyclical wheel rolling

The avalanche of life gets going, snowballing

Into another day. Is there a way

Of knowing purpose or holding sway

On mud and clay

 

The boundless seamless vastness there is

Speaks of a freedom given on lease

Was I accident? Was I willed

An empty canvas? A mind filled

Or a soul healed

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Life

Part of the fray, rushing past a busy subway

I happened to meet life one day

I wanted to be friends

It said this is where it ends

You simply cannot bind

Me amidst your daily grind

 

“I can’t reside within the crinkles of a clock

Or follow routines and rituals of the flock”

Life said, “I come with some caveat

You must learn from the very start

To have patience and compassion

To understand me and my passion”

 

“I love cheery sunshine and winds in my face

I make each moment count with wit and grace

You will find me only if you love and you laugh

If you can’t value my presence, I lessen by half

You are born, you breed and then you grow old

Yet my being in your breath may never unfold”

 

I realized I had to put aside some time

To apprehend life and its nuances sublime

Living and breathing can be two different things

To discover how to fly I must first procure wings

My subway trajectory slowed down amid the haste

Why was I letting this priceless present go waste?

 

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One more chance

Every day when you open your eyes

Earth beneath your feet overcast skies

Remember you been given one more chance

To be alive and make it matter. Perchance

You will not get it tomorrow

There is no time for sorrow

 

Every time some hand outstretched

Reaches out to you don’t think wretched

Of that person. You have been chosen by chance

To be facilitator but only. Perchance

You will not get it tomorrow

Good deeds you cannot borrow

 

Every instance you make some mistake

Recover. Refocus and learn in its wake

Repetition is true folly. Once is actually a chance

To reinforce and endorse right or wrong. Perchance

You will not get it tomorrow

Persevere and success will follow

 

Every time by act or tongue if you hurt someone

In your heart, you know right away its not done

Exclude ego and say your sorry. Grasp the chance

To be forgiven and live in peace. Perchance

You will not get it tomorrow

Anguish can be a concluding blow

 

Every once in a while, when choices are to be made

Go slow choose wise don’t suffer brain fade

Ultimately you are responsible for them. Your chance

To own your life is staring at your face. Perchance

You will never get it tomorrow

Excuses always sound so hollow

 

 

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The Reaper

Dressed in a dapper black and black

The Reaper cuts an ominous figure

He comes to you at designated instance

Your onward journey to trigger

 

Expect him at all times or any

You never can predict his arrival

Ignore him at your own risk

Don’t deem his being as drivel

 

Preparedness is always of help

Make sure your backpack is light

Keep it handy and by your side

Extra baggage makes leg space tight

 

The Reaper is a handsome confidante

Handling a job not many relish

A deal with the dead maybe his style

Fatefully. Yet endurance is his fetish

 

So live life well and to the full

Right intentions backed by action

The Reaper is not designed to forgive

Lifespans snuff off in a fraction