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April 30 YOU FEEL BEAUTIFUL!I looked at you for a moment,
A decade ago, but
the memory still afresh.
I saw a treasure locked up in a chest,
rusty, muddy, chained
Shrouded in grass, wild and untamed.
I bravely set on,
with selfish zeal,
to break the shackles off,
to find my gold.
I trimmed the grass,
and flowers grew.
I washed the mud,
the chest shone anew.
Then the hardest...
I spent years polishing it to brilliance,
But the rust was old.
With perseverance,
I went on bold.
Scrubbing, cleaning,
Lo and behold!
Shining, gleaming!
Though the chains took time to break,
A breath of fresh air 'scaped
when the long forgotten chest
unlocked, waiting to be opened. With trembling hands,
I undid the lock.
What if all my efforts were in vain.
What did I gain?
If this chest were empty,
What is it I have to call my own?
Ten years of toil
A fistful of soil?
Ah! The devil go back to sleep!
I know the wait has been worth the pain.
I smelled the flowers from grass,
I shone it to gold from brass,
I broke away at my chains,
I realised the treasures that lay in me,
Slumbering till I had to call them to relieve me pain.
I knew how strong I was,
Not only my sinewy and tired hands,
But also my mind that never gave up!
"Open it now", a voice in my head!
The moment I had waited,
Selfishly embarked,
Selflessly lived,
As I stood and beheld.........
A beauty unseen,
A passion so intense,
An angel divine,
A gift from God...
words fail me for the sight
that lay staring at me with a smile.
Golden, diamond, platinum in worth...
You lifted your hands to me,
and said, "I feel beautiful!". April 20 EAGLE PEAK!I stood atop the Eagle Peak,
Embracing your words,
Vowing to fulfill your dream
Of a world where people are wise
and responsible,
loving and compassionate.
I stood atop the Eagle Peak,
Imprinting your words,
and my pledge in my soul,
Knowing that this day would come.
When I would stand atop
Eagle Peak again!
This time Im not alone,
As little hands join me,
In our search for peace.
From one to many,
I declare,love,peace and joy.
I stand atop the Eagle Peak,
Fearless and strong,
To bind people,those who have faith
in peace,compassion and dialogue.
Praying with you,
a sonorous chorus.
I stood atop the Eagle Peak,
Fulfilling my vows in this future moment.
With your blessings,
Prayers that cry out to the Universe!! April 19 SPEECHLESS!When words fly
Ashen and dead,
My heart reminds me
My soul lives,
Beyond words,
Beyond love,
Beyond life!
So, let me not speak anymore!!!! April 14 ABSOLUTE IMMINENT DANGERS!!!In my parents' generation the big killer was Cancer.In my generation it is HIV/AIDS!
When I saw on TV today, a working class man talking about how he is still human and normal and has the basic human rights, even though he has AIDS, which is like any other disease, I was impressed firstly to see how far India has matured in its adverts. Especially one with such a sensitive message. Then the hard facts hit me home. It also meant that the problem in India had crossed beyond dealing with the disease technically to a deeper sociological and human level. To a level of social taboo, social rejection and ostracisation and thus indicative of the high population of people suffering from it!
What hit me hardest, finally, was how many of us really are sensitive to the disease and the way it is ferociously spreading across the world?
Being educated and a teacher I feel very strongly about it! My parents never spoke to me about safe sex ! I was a cautious boy and hence, was/am safe! But in today's day and age, if we as adults remain irresponsibly quiet, pretending that babies did descend from heaven, or worse still propagating ideas of immaculate conception, are we being fair to our children? Our children who are bombarded with tantalising images of semiclad girls on non-late-hour-TV, children who have free access to the web, children who know and experience far beyond their ages?
Is it that we are embarrased of talking to our kids about sexuality and sex, keeping it shrouded in mystery, so much so that what children figure for themselves is often half baked information? Or is it that we dont know how to talk about it? In my perception, the problem is the latter; the problem for the generation of adults who were never spoken to about sex or safe sex, is that they donot know how to broach the subject with kids.The sooner we realise that we need to talk, as adults to children, whether it be at home,schools or camps, about the disease, the earlier we will be able to control the spread of AIDS. Can we really expect our children to not have sex till they are 22 in this day and age???I personally dont think so. And if your answer is yes, I would doubt how closely you understand your children and the pressures they face! They are very different from the ones you or I faced!
Instead, we need to project the safest ways to have sex and harp on avoiding or experimenting with drugs and needles. We need to teach them the importance of protection, especially by using condoms, and through safe contact and by staying away from drugs or needles. They need to be taught at appropriate ages, how HIV can transmit and spread, who are the people vulnerable to it and the real dangers of the disease! Instead of socially outcasting patients, we need to bring them in to talk to adults as well as children.
Last but not least, both adults and children need to be sensitised to people who have AIDS! I am sure we do not coil up with distaste and fear of infection when we hear our neighbour is suffering from cancer! So why the same with AIDS? AIDS is not SARS!! Especially when in 2003, there were 5,100,000 people living with AIDS in India and of which 120,000 were children! Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and the North East being the homes to largest population of AIDS patients. How can we be ignorant and uneducatedly treat infected people like lepers?? Have we transgressed in time or understanding? HIV can knock on your door any time if you are not cautious enough with yourselves and with your teenage children who are probably experimenting with needles or unsafe casual sex! Will you wait for that hard moment to realise its gravity?
Let us all instead work together to get this deadly virus off our planet! The disease is bad enough, let us not make it worse by denying its existence in our lives till it invades our inner private circles. AIDS is now a reality! For you and me, as much as we cant turn a blind eye to a sexual revolution happening in all aspects in India ! So lets be mature and save our children!
P.S. Reference from www.avert.org
P.P.S. I must thank crazy humour for talking about Buladidi in his blog and to NDTV for the advert. They provoked me to be vocal!
EMPTYEmptiness, fills the vessel of my mind,
Fulfillment, empties my heart,
Floating in an ethereal sea
of oblivious compassion,
yet so aware! April 09 DISCIPLE TO MENTOR!!Daisaku Ikeda is one of the world's greatest, noblest and most well known peace activist. He is the President of the organisation Soka Gakkai International (literally meaning Value Creation Society)and a practicioner of Nichiren's Buddhism. He was mentored by a great educationist of his times, Josei Toda who was a firebrand teacher and leader, and a proponent of nuclear non proliferation, at any cost. Daisaku Ikeda worded the following poem as a tribute to his great mentor, Josei Toda, seeing his stand alone spirit that moved millions of youth in Japan post World War II.
Live a shining, vigorous life! Make good friends among the brave Bodhisattvas of the Earth! In the end, triumph over all and lift the cup of victory with your comrades! Do not chase dark shadows! Do not make friends with those who espouse shallow thoughts and philosophies! Find true comrades with whom you can rejoice in the realm of the heart! Make friends who will respond to your call and your heart! Make friends whom you can praise with all your heart! Abandon painful pledges! Abandon sorrowful pledges! Live your youth with passion and joy! Greet the new century with majestic dignity! Live! You must live! Live, live, and live on, until you have expended your last ounce of strength. Never forget that there you will find your victorious self, wreathed with fragrant flowers. April 07 GRADUATIONSolemn evening marking your passage
From carefree days to adulthood.
Pink, purple, jubilant smiles,
as certificates in hand, the youth,
you celebrate your passage to freedom.
Blessings from those who love you,
Tucked under your arms,
Proceed into the world so hard,
March with your head held high
With confidence and dignity.
Be jubilant and victorious.
Above all, Think, Play,Work, and
LIVE!
Another batch of 12th graders pass out of school, bringing back memories of nostalgia and what a long journey life has been since that evening when I finally felt free and grownup. You got me a lil wrong crazy humour and I do agree with you. Hence, adding this perspective. |
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