समय और दोस्ती

समय बीत जाएगा, गम भूल जाएगा,
क्रोध नहीं, दोस्ती का हाथ बढ़ा।

मीठी यादों को ताज़ा किये ,
गलतियों को माफ़ कर,

यह ज़िन्दगी छोटी सी है और दुनिया भी
कब सामना हो जाये, दोस्ती का हाथ बढ़ा।

Woman- Translation by Ayodhya Prasad Gaur

Art inspires art. Mr Baijnath's painting inspired me to write something about it and the chain continues as Mr Ayodhya Prasad Gaur from Vedanta Limited, novelist, theatre artist, motivational speaker wished to translate my work of art. 

I am honoured, blessed and humbled to get recognition from an author himself. Here is the original piece and the translation. 

 

Sounds of Nature

The wind chime's sweet sound plays in my soul 

The noise of the traffic, the cawing of the crow

are soothed by the melody of the trinkets which show

The tall trees and their boughs, the cricket sounds and the bumblebees brown

Buzz all their way along with the butterflies

 which brush away my cheeks and make me glow

The spray of water on the plants, the smell of the drenched earth after a shower

make me forget all the worries 

and I join them in the reverie.

Woman

Woman

Like the magnetic force

her eyes pulled me closer 

She is an artist's creation

and a living woman.

 The frown and dishevelled hair

distressing worries in her eyes.

Then I  looked at her lips

there was no trace of a smile.

The bindi is not her own

all bought by the husband.

She's not even hers anymore.

She wants to talk but 
who is her own?

Her eyes speak volumes

A tornado of upsetting thoughts 

She stays with me tonight 

in my dreams, memories 

and the artist's world now.

P.S - These lines are inspired by Mr Baijnath's creation of a painting of a distressed Indian married woman. Mr Baijnath is an experienced and exceptional artist based in Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh. I visited his 'Rangakriti Art Gallery today (16/2/2017) and these are my afterthoughts.

The Kingfisher

Yesterday I saw a grey cat jumping with joy in my green garden relishing a piece of meal which seemed it has received after eons. It seemed that the feline was enjoying its best meal. As soon as the cat finished its food, it took a comfortable position and quite eponymous to its name, it took a cat's nap.  The cool blades of grass which were lately showered with water by the gardener, Govind became her bed. The breathtaking smell of the wet mud, the continuous cackle of the tiny birds and a playful cat were a sight to be enjoyed by an avid Nature admirer like myself. 
I chuckled with overwhelming joy,my gardener and I had a quick chat about the relaxed life of this feline. In the evening, when I stepped out into my garden, I happened to glimpse at something turquoise and bluish in colour resting on the plains of the lawn. 
Quite ironical to my morning's joy, my broad ear to ear smile turned into sadness. I was flabbergasted as I realised that the  creature lying motionless on the ground is the cat's full meal. It was a kingfisher. Still, beautiful, cut from the centre; I kept on gazing. 
Oh! I exclaimed as the rare bird to this surrounding had now gone forever. I was dejected but soon said to myself that this is the food cycle. When I shared this experience with my Dad, he told me "Dear, this is happening today. The big and the powerful are trying all their ways to eat the small."

Fruit of our labour

My happiness took an another level when I received the fruit of my labour. Today two of my students sat for the Class 12 English board exam.

 Soon after the exam, one of the boys gave me a call at 12:30 pm to share his extreme happiness of completing the exam successfully. He said "Ma'am, I have attempted all the questions and will definitely score good marks."

I would like to share that when this boy came to me requesting that I may teach him for the English exam, I was really sceptical. This boy hails from a village and is living in the city to get proper coaching facilities to clear his 12 boards. Moreover, he was a Hindi medium student till class 10 and switched over English medium in the next year. 

When I first met him, he seemed to be a very nervous, shy boy who couldn't even say his name confidently. This persona of his came as a challenge to me which I took up and said yes to him; I could see a spark in this boy. I tell him every now and then that his decision to switch over English medium was really a bold one. I used to ask him often "Will you be able to manage?" He always gave his answer in affirmation. He always had confidence in himself which he displayed through his confident voice and firm answers as the days rolled by. 

"Days passed,

both these boys enjoyed poetry,

understood poetic devices, 

phonetics, foot and metre."

The second boy is a passionate dancer, has represented the city in the Dance India Dance auditions and other reality shows at the national level. He had flunked in the class 12 last year due to some personal reasons. I had already taught this sincere, down to earth, humble and a very hard working boy in the summers of 2015 working on his communication skills.

 He came to meet me in the evening today and we solved the question paper. He gave all the answers correctly barring 2 questions. He said "Ma'am, I will easily score 90/100 and my happiness is beyond expression"

On hearing his words, I took a sigh of relief and said to myself "I am able to bring a smile on someone's face." 

I'm inclined to write this note as these students loved English whenever we sat to study and understood the nuances of the language with utmost sincerity. They understood the concepts for life, read the stories and poems keeping in mind their message and applicability on our daily life. These students didn't study not only to get good marks but enjoyed each session and gave their heart and soul to the language at the time when their classmates and friends made fun of them saying who attends English coaching classes for 3 hours a day. Their friends used to boast by saying, "We will study just two/three days before the exam as English is easy and unimportant." 

Through my (four and a half years) of teaching experience in Khandwa I have realised that what is important for most of the students here is to score good marks in PCM or Accounts. English takes a backseat and it only remains the reason for the low aggregate which they realise and regret later on getting their result card or CGPA.

Review of Ahilya Fort Maheshwar

Butterfly

A rambling I wrote at the sight of a butterfly in my garden.

Vibrant and pretty

Swaying and fluttering

Hopping abruptly

Alert and agile

Delicate and tender

Brings a smile.

Say I am awesome

Taxing, tiring are the words I hear on weekdays,

Relaxing, retiring on the weekends.

"I am awesome" 

I say each time when asked

How are you Or how's life?

Coz everything is in the mind.

As Milton rightly said years back,

"The mind is its own place, 

And in itself can make a heaven of hell,

A hell of heaven."

I totally believe in this maxim.

So switch your mind from hell to heaven

Remain busy, happy and honest

Coz these three mantras are awesome.

Let me go on..

Thoughts are wandering
Words are dancing
My boat is dwindling
Are you listening?

My soul is wailing
Coz life's never satiating
I am unburdening
Are you listening?

I hear a 'yes'
So, here you are!
Please sit down 
let me go on..

Connect to me,
not physically
Listen to my soul's song
let me go on..

Bitter experiences: Blessings in Disguise

I am happy to experience the bitter,mundane and anxious moments in my life along with the joyful ones because these times have given me the lone time to know myself and others in the real light. 

I am sad not to feel sad as I suffer from alexithymia during my happy days because its the sadness alone that gives fruit to penning down my deep emotions. When sad, you may agree, one is closer to divinity. You give time to yourself, do a lot of talking, murmuring, babbling.

I have no regrets in my life, probably the ones I felt in the past were the regrets, are my greatest learning experiences and form lasting memory in my mind. When i recount these memories, I feel strong, mature and know that I have sailed through. 

During the bitter experiences one allows himself to purge the emotions. One understands people better, judges oneself better after the troublesome or hard days of life.

The rainy days of life are blessings in disguise because they allow you to grow, mature,get older and realize that your circle of friends has limited. One spends a lot of time with oneself during the odd times and it is then one realizes his or her potentials,strengths and weaknesses.

Expression

Expression of emotions is essential and can be in any form-written or oral, prose or poem. It is like opening up a knot.

It is a passion lived by many, fulfilled by some. When the mind and voice are aligned it is then the emotions are allowed to overflow. You breathe well and walk confidently too when your emotions are expressed.

You should speak out, express what you feel like that is your fundamental right. We want to speak out but control ourselves sometimes because we aren't trained to do so. Our educational system is all about mugging up formulas, eat (learn) and puke ( write an exam.) We are not allowed to question, refute, debate or discuss. Many a time we have heard or experienced, the teachers asking the students to shut up when they raise a question. in this way, the inquisitiveness, creativity is killed at that spur of the moment. teachers don't realize that they are plucking a flower who was about to spread fragrance. Students then shy away or are embarrassed to pose a question in a class of many as they know they will be shut up. I think educational institutes should look into this matter seriously as a real teacher is a guide, mentor who shows up the light and stars in the darkness, not the one who drags into darkness. Like Helen Keller who saw the light (knowledge) into her dark (ignorant) world through the help of her teacher (burning candle), Anne Sullivan ( a real guru.)

I hope the expression of emotions, giving opinions, speaking up the mind is developed and encouraged in everyone and by all. I have high hopes for the platform of social media but sometimes it is abused too. Twitterati is trolled on Twitter, patrolled by the freaks if given an honest opinion. I believe in God or not, I speak evil or good that is my tongue, I stay quiet or shout at the top of my voice, this is my choice and freedom. 

Free yourself

We need to talk,
we need to walk,
on the lonely road.
Talk our past,
 listen to trance
Free our souls.

Now or Never,
Will we ever
Free our souls?
Talk it out
Take it out
free your soul.

Absolute Khushwant: My thoughts

Just finished reading 'Absolute Khushwant' - The Low-Down on Life, Death and Most Things In- Between penned by Khushwant Singh with Huma Quraishi. On the cover page of the book it is written,
"I would like to be someone who made people smile."
Not many people cross 90 today and even if they do, they are not as articulate, clear in thought and expression as Khushwant Singh was when he wrote this book at 95. 
This book gave me a thorough understanding of the major figures like the Gandhis of Indian Political history. I really loved one of the chapters 'On Happiness' which i read daily as a ritual these days. His frankness, brutal honesty about his relationships with other women is also one comes across in this book. 
The language is simple and one can finish this book in a reading or two.
His references to Ghalib and Urdu poetry also make the articles interesting.
On love he quotes Ghalib,
"Ishq par zor nahin,
hai ye wo atish Ghalib
ke lagae na lagey, aur bhujaye na bane."
While criticizing the fundamentalists he says I will keep on writing about them even if there is no outcome and quotes an Urdu couplet,
"Kya poochho ho haal merey karobaar ka,
Aaeeney bechta hoon andhon ke sheher mein"

What is education?

What is education?
Is it just the increasing number of engineering/medical degrees?

Can't we all,
the students-teachers-parents-administrators
do our duties?


No one's going to
hire a B.E or an L.L.B

if he/she doesn't even know how to spell
Physiotherapy.

Concept building, creative thinking
imaginative writing and a lot of reading activity
that should be the hurry.

Everyone's not the same.
Find your S-W-O-Ts (Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Threat