Hope....

Sitting alone at the side,
I thought for a while,
That I am perplexed,
With nothing that is so complex.

That though life isn't very easy,
It is not so difficult either,
That it has roses in equal number,
Which we ought to discover.

That just as the sun shines,
And we have a great day,
So the moon shines too,
To bring an end to our dismay.

For after every dawn,
The suns shines bright,
And after every dusk,
There is a moonlit night. 

Are We Actually Developing...?

Not everyone’s life is a bed of roses. Even today, when there are numerous claims that the world is progressing at an immense pace and that India is one of the leading developing nations of the world, the question as to whether this statement holds true is yet to be answered. This thought had been in my subconscious mind since a long time.

In the past many years when the thought of globalization influenced a large number of people all around the world, many businesses sprang up and many multinational companies developed and reached great heights. But amidst all this, it must also be seen that those who were poor became poorer while the rich became even richer, thereby widening the gap that would take much more time and labour to be filled up. It leaves a doubt for us to answer whether such a gap would ever get filled.

On one hand where some people are able to afford good education by paying a lot of money as school and college fees, while some brilliant ones are able to manage a scholarship or stipend for the same, there are many others who are not able to afford even the bare minimum amount of money required to meet the daily needs – school and college fees is a far bigger expectation. Governing bodies and the non-governmental organizations have been doing their level best in improving this scenario, but with the ever increasing cost of living, this problem is far from being solved even in the near decade. Moreover, with the access to drinking water also becoming difficult, thanks to the Rain God and to the increasing cost of packaged drinking water and mismanagement of water contained in the reservoirs, the poor and the needy are not able to afford drinking water in areas where the supply of water is scant. 

All these conditions persuade us to think and try to answer the question whether we are actually developing as a nation. We must understand that development is not just satellites, missiles and engineering and medical milestones, or fashion and media. It is to be able to provide in an honest manner, those requirements to the citizens of the nation that would enable them to lead a decent life, with food, clothing, shelter and basic education to their children.

Importance of Language

Language has an undeniable importance in communication, in putting forth ones' ideas before the world. Since times immemorial, authors have inked their ideas in an effective manner using the tool of language and created new horizons of thought for the rest of the world. Whether it is science and technology, literature or history, it is language that has helped people to express their ideas, claim their thoughts or disclaim the thought of their opponents or contemporaries. It is ironical that those who prefer to read books with good language often ignore language reading while in their grammar schools. What we all prefer is to read books that have unambiguous language with no grammatical errors, since coherent language of the books makes it worthy of being read. 

Despite the fact that language is an important tool of expression and communication, if it begins to lose its importance in the modern world, we need to dive into the depth and understand why such a thing happens and how one can contribute in its revival. Let us analyze one of the prime reasons why people are tending to lose their grip on language: In the modern scenario, people usually prefer to use a language that is easily understandable in their colloquial tongue and is as short as possible. Therefore, they tend to give up the attempt to even learn good language and use it. This makes them use more of symbolic and short form words to express themselves and probably even forget the spellings of the words that might be the most simple or be used most. An instance is: using the number ‘4’ for the word ‘for’ and ‘f9’ for ‘fine’. 

It is the requirement of time and that we try to revive language, whether it is written or spoken and use proper words to express our thoughts, for effective expression has its own beauty. Language is beautiful. If it dies out, there will be nothing left for people to communicate in. And then, imagine the ways in which our future generations will express their ideas!

World is Still the Same

I was seeing a reality show yesterday night, 

In which little children acted,

To remain in the fight,

And not get distracted,

But prove their might.

I saw the children dance to the rhythm,

Of the songs of war and peace,

One wondered how they could act as though

They were old people, who in their young age,

Never, ever, sat with ease. 

Generations have changed,

And so have peoples' thoughts,

It gets difficult to accept,

What one without efforts has got.

For the world is still the same,

But the people have changed,

Problems have remained the same, 

But ways to tackle them did change.

I do feel that One Changes...

I do feel that one changes, for one is a part of this Nature, 

Where the pits and holes get filled with time,

And the wounds are healed, 

Where the sun rises and sets and the rain falls,

While Mother Earth burns with scorching heat.

Where we get tears in the eyes,

When we seem to part,

And show ourselves to be happy at times,

Despite a broken heart.

Where the child plays and clings to mother,
For he has no reasons to bother,
And the mother embraces her child,
As a bird saves her eggs under her feather.

I  do feel that one changes
For changes are inevitable,
Whether one likes or not, 
Nature's changes have to be accepted.

Societal Imputations

I saw a young lady selling flowers near the temple. She had a small baby in hand, the baby clinging to her, feeling the warmth and affection that no one else but mother can provide. Remembered my mother, who wasn’t with me at that instant, for she was cooking for me at home, with the same tenderness and care as always.  

I took some time to come back to normal after seeing this lady, and understood her conditions that were adverse enough to persuade her to work and earn bread and butter for her child. While the customers who were buying petty things from her did not bother to realize about her conditions and continued to bargain, every word that she spoke to take a penny from them were depicting the imputations of the rising cost of living – an imputation of the political system of governance on the society. This makes them parsimonious, no wonder and they spend their entire lives saving money for the bread and butter of the day, for they know not whether they would be alive till the break of dawn the next day and be healthy enough to work for their living of that day. 

As Oscar Wilde has rightly said in his short story "The Young King":

 'Our master!' cried the weaver, bitterly. 'He is a man like myself. Indeed, 'there is but this difference between us that he wears fine clothes while I go in rags, and that while I am weak from hunger he suffers not a little from overfeeding.' 

These lines show the condition of the poor in our country. While the number of those who starve is increasing day and night, those who are overeating are not less. But the irony is that these "over eaters" do not wish to share some part of their bread with the starving. 

I bought flowers from her, gave her the money that they were worth of and were demanded by the lady, and went away without speaking a word further.

Guaging human sentiments ...

(Self-reflection and thoughts are personified in this article. 
Reflection is speaking about what happiness is all about...)

I am experiencing and extraordinary happiness today, a bliss that is beyond expression and beyond my strength to ink it on paper. Yet, I gather courage today to write the same.

Till now I felt that my life was full of challenges and that I could overcome them with great difficulty. But today when I saw the ladies working in the garden with the aim to earn a living for their families, and not deterring from their work despite the scorching heat of the sun, I felt that I am being selfish by calling myself one who has faced challenges.

I guess I could understand myself this day, when I felt that I should learn not only from my mistakes but also from the challenges that people around me face. Despite odds, they still remain determined to work and achieve their goals. No matter how much situations try to stop them from achieving their ventures, they remain determined to carry them out and fulfill their motives.

It is now, when I experience eternal bliss beyond expression that not only makes me closer to the Creator but also closer to myself. Satisfaction with my work, thereby gaining strength to work in future despite all difficulties that come my way, are the little secrets of happiness. This pious feeling makes one closer to his own self. Such expressions are abstract, they can only be felt. Dictionary would be too small a repository to describe them...

I am the reflection of the sentiments of a human being who was created by God and is the after effect of many days of ultimate imagination of the Creator. I consider myself to be the ultimate happiness of mankind - that happiness which he would get only when he feels that he has contributed enough in his eyes in all walks of life. I am the one who can be found in the eyes of a flower picker, a poor farmer working in the fields despite the scorching heat of the sun or the freezing winters and in a woman who has been a good homemaker, spending her life in serving her family. I am satisfaction. 

I can be felt by those alone who feel eternal bliss and who are far away from the greed or even hunger for posts and money – for when people find me in their lives, they become closer to my sister – happiness. One does not have to remain austere to find both of us. Rather, service to mankind by serving the downtrodden helps a person to find us.

It is indeed bad to exaggerate the feelings of oneself and demonstrate, and those who tend to do such things become awfully infamous, if not at once, then after a prolonged period of time. So, by being able to understand their bent of mind and way of thinking and working, I would tend to be more to the point than beating about the bush to express my feelings in my writings.

The Machiavelli to which a man is subjected has become a daily affair for many such people who tend not to get affected by the impoverished conditions of their kinsmen, for these whom I am calling their kinsmen are not their relatives or born in the same family. They are rather their kinsmen, for they were born and are being borne by the same mother earth who is bearing each one of us with the same patience and tenderness that rather be felt than expressed.

It was rightly said by William Wordsworth, the great English poet that it is disheartening to see and realize what one human being has made of the other. In the words of Wordsworth:

“To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran;

And much it grieved my heart to think

What Man has made of Man”

The poet’s emotions and melancholy have been effectively depicted in the lines that tell that somewhere in the depth of his heart, he feels that man has been inhumane to the boon that has been bestowed upon him by Nature. Also, to the fellow human beings who breathe the same air and lead the same life as his own self, he has not allowed life of dignity every time it has been asked for. Lament is not a part of life, but has emerged as a part of life because people have denied happiness to their own selves or their fellowmen in a continuous fashion, thereby having persuaded them to lament.

Lamenting and becoming mendacious has made man go far away from me in this world filled with people cherishing materialistic thoughts. This makes them far away from coming closer to me in the true sense.

I strongly believe that once there is satisfaction, there would be happiness and no lamenting. This would lead one to spend a better life if not the best. 

It is time to think and understand that the world should be made a better place to live in than be converted into a disaster, persuading God to think why he made men to live in this world as a part of his creations of Nature.....