Sat upon the high bark of the tree the lone buffoon,
Stared down upon at what it deemed as a world of fools.
Laughed it at the variety of sights it got to see,
As the madness of the world brought it immense glee.

The visions it got to see from top, appalled the poor monkey,
As it saw men killing each other for something as cheap as money.
As it saw men deceiving others including their own kith & kin,
And still facing the next day without slightest of remorse for their sin.

It got too see how men change their actions frequently,
For that matter, even their behavior towards others shamelessly.
It saw how humans tend to forget old companions & friends,
On receiving new pals or buddies without effort to make amends.

People fighting with each other at the drop of a hat,
Saw it profound bloodshed for reasons known only to man.
Saw it children being orphaned by death or even being thrown away,
Owing to reasons ranging from poverty, illness or even human ravage.

Prayed it for its progeny to continue being the half developed apes,
But never be born in this world of men which is nothing but two faced.
Somewhere deep within its heart it felt joyous & happy,
And thanked god it for not being the men it got to see.

Wished it for its sweet world in the jungle & forest remain unchanged,
Where love, peace & harmony was still prevalent & there to stay.
Through its eyes, it saw how evolution had the human kind changed,
In the form of greed, enmity & only negativity & ultimately get estranged.

The twinkling of its mesmerizing & captivating eyes,
Brought a smile on her exasperated & time worn face.

The innocent, calming & soothing smile on its lips,
Brought her tempestuous heart to find itself in peace.

The simple movements of its limbs & itself,
Was better than watching dancers skate or swimmers swim.

The bliss, felicity & charm on its face was eternal,
It was enough to stare at it without wondering about time ever.

Its voice had the serenity like those in the church bells’ ringing,
Reminding her off all that was good, untainted & pristine in this world.

It was the symbolic representation, she felt of the lord himself.
As in it was the fantasy, reality, surreality & all that is & shall be blessed.

Felt she at peace with oneself as the beauty of the entire world lay in her arms,
As rocked she her entirety, the only truth for her & meaning of her life to sleep.

Ever played a game of snakes and ladders? I bet all have while growing up…So have I…I ended up playing the game the other day with my friends just for old time sake, and viola I won…
If only that luck stayed with me throughout…The dice in the game would not necessarily give me a double 6 every time I rolled…& sometimes the double 6(the lucky number) lead me to the mouth of the snake, which eventually as u all may know brings one down the board.

The best thing about playing a game, any game in this world is that there always is a probability of winning, no matter how bleak. But the probability of losing too is also there always hovering above one’s head now isn’t it!
This probability of losing/winning in a game can be extended, or rather does extend to life in general too.

I personally believe that no one loses in life, but people do get setbacks, more often than ever sometimes. It is these setbacks that add up and in one’s head it ends up looking like a huge loss in life.

Getting back to what I was thinking, life does play games with people too. Many a times what we deem to be the best way to do a certain stuff or take a step in the direction that seems perfect to us, ends up getting us in trouble and sets us in an abysmally fall.
The vice-versa too is true to quite a large extent. Many a decisions, which may seem wrong at that moment, end up working wonders for us, for reasons knows to none.

These decisions of life are similar to the act of rolling out a dice. The outcome of the rolling is always a huge mystery. Sometimes we do get a number desired, but not always.

Life too rolls out a plethora of options for us to choose from at any given instant. It is upon us to take a decision and just wait, ponder or, for some, even fret over what the outcome of that particular decision shall turn out to be.

Trying to take control of one’s life by taking decisions is like trying to capture sand in our hands without even a single particle of it falling down. Decisions, even if have certain known outputs, can always end up going a complete other way for the person. It is by no means necessary that the outcome of a similar decision taken by two different people be the same.

Life cannot be lived at the behest of others and that applies to decisions to. The direction taken by life has been, is & shall remain a mystery. Your decisions can only aid in certain situations. Decisions have to be taken by an individual all alone because at the end of the day if everything goes hunky-dowry everyone is fine with it, but if the decision backfires and gets to an unseen, unwanted or even an unpredictable output the blame is always individualistic in direction.

Even if the decision taken has wrong consequences or dire conditions set out in front of you, it only strengthens you from within.
Never take decisions at the behest or request of others, it shall always prove to be fatal in some way or the other.

How I wish for it to rain down,
And wash away all the world’s pain & fear!

How I wish for the sun to rise up daily,
And spread happiness to places far and near!

How I wish the clouds to come out daily,
And stare down at the beautiful world going by!

How I wish to hear a child laugh throughout,
And infect everyone with his innocent bliss and joy!

How I wish for the trees to remain evergreen
And never ever succumb to death and fall!

How I wish the birds flew around forever,
Without facing ever the fear of not averting danger!

How I wish for the wind to blow incessantly,
And wipe away all the dirt and filth on the face of this Earth!

How I wish for a river to never get arid and stop its flow,
And spread the gift of life to all along its never ending road!

How I wish for the various animals to understand each other,
And utilize the power of thought and speech as well as humans!

How I wish the flowers would never wither,
And spread their effervescence hither & thither.!

How I wish we humans got along well with each other,
And always spread amongst others the Joi de Verve!

How I wish the World would remain a big place,
And never ever shrink to not fit the complete Human Race!

Walking in the middle of a crowded street, I came across this age old bookstore. It looked completely shambled and something that may come down any day now.
Inside this godforsaken place was an old man sitting all alone trying to clean up the store and maintain the books. Say out of pity or out of my love for books or some unknown reason, I somehow felt my feet going towards this store. There seemed something uncannily strange with this place.
I walked in through the shackled door and headed straight towards the books kept there. They seemed to have been there since the time of say my grandfather or even earlier. It had stocked up books starting from nearly the first edition of that title.
I got this eerie feeling of a pair of eyes glaring at me from behind, and thus I turned around to notice the old man trying to keep an eye on my moves through the rim of his spectacles.
Having felt offended on being thought of as a thief, I glared back and assured him not to worry as I was not a thief and had come in there only for my love of books. All of a sudden his stern face gave way to a morbid smile and there was a twinkle in his eyes that seemed to relax me.
I decided to spend some more time with him and so walked upto him to have a conversation. He seemed to have read my mind, and pulled up a chair near his lonely seat and beckoned me to take a seat.
With all courage I asked him, since when had he been in this store? When was this place opened? How many generations of book had he stocked up in this store? Why was he working all alone? Why hadn’t he renovated this store to make it more attractive to allure people?
My list of questions seemed endless, while he patiently sat there listening to all that I had to ask him. After I bombarded my questions towards him all he did was heave a sigh and gave me a huge smile, leaving me completely startled and astounded.
He turned to look at his books and all of a sudden got up to get a copy of some book. It was an age old book, withered away at places, but still was intact & readable & that he said was the inspiration behind all the years of his running this business.
He said, “Son, this book is the essence of me running this business. Take a look at it , don’t bother about its name and contents. It’s a simple book made up of pages, but still notice how long it has lasted. It only knows to give to others, & not expect a single thing in return from its readers.
It has withered away, but yet has the ability to give back something to its readers. Now tell me, when a non-living thing like a book can continue its aim & life, why can’t I, a living thing continue with zeal throughout my life. It teaches selfless-ness, a virtue missing in most people you see today. Everyone intends to do stuff or work only for themselves or for providing for their families. No one seems to be bothered to work other than in offices or make money and give back at-least some part of it to the society. Heck! People don’t even bother about helping out people they know well enough in the lieu of being selfish.
I run this store, not for myself, but for these books, for the people, for everyone who is interested in enjoying books. This virtue of serving for the sake of serving is one important lesson I have learnt from books. Even a simple diary, a completely blank book is selfless enough to let others use it to write in it!
As for why I run this store alone. Well, pick up any book from the self. It has a start and an end too. Even books in series have a proper end to them in each individual book. The individual entity of a book is not dependent on any other book, similarly a man is defined all by himself. He doesn’t need to have someone else with him to help him out. A persons life is meant to be lived by one and only one person. The other people are just companions who come and go to give company to the individual. Getting someone else to do my work here for me or even with me shall imply that I have lost interest in doing it & that shall be the last day of the passion within me for working. It shall also drive me away from myself.
A man’s biggest companion is himself. If an individual can’t stay at peace with himself alone or needs constant company, then it is a sign of escapism. Either he isn’t happy about his life, or is running away from himself or his conscience isn’t clear. I have lived life on my terms all these 80 years and shall continue to do the same till the last drop of breathe in me is laid. I have no regrets and bare no scars on my heart of hurt or of hurting others. Thus I don’t expect company from others and am happy to live with myself and my books all alone.
As for your last question, why haven’t I renovated this store? Well, my renovating this store shall wipe out all the memories that I can see every-time I turn around and throw a glance around at the books in this store.
Making it alluring shall imply I am not proud of what it was before renovation. Making things more alluring can only add glamour to the real article, it can only beautify the stuff, but can never improvise it by adding in value to the same. It shall increase only the monetary value of the article, but not add to the real essence of it. The books in this store speak for themselves. All those who are genuinely interested in reading , shall not mind that the book was brought from a place nearly 60 years old. The main essence of my store is the books within and not the show I provide to the shops surrounding mine.
Remember this my child, standing alone in the crowd does not imply that you are lonely. It only implies that you are confident enough in yourself to stand out in the crowd and require the people around only for support and that they can’t be the building pillars behind you.
Stand amidst the crowd, carve a niche for yourself, find your true calling, and I can guarantee that life shall seem much more meaningful then it already is.”

All of a sudden there was a heavy downpour and I decided to make a dash for my car. The next time I tried to visit the store, I was informed that the owner of the store had succumbed to death.
The last memories of the old man always leave me agape as to all that I got to learn about life and living it from talking to a complete stranger albeit for a few minutes…

There she stood at the gateway to heaven,
Staring down at the lonely peach tree turn auburn.
Lay below on the Earth a silhouette sitting all alone,
Staring up at the sky above with eyes all tear jerked.

How he wished he could have her back sitting beside him,
Lying still in his arms, with only the birds chirping around them.
All around them the world moving at a super fast pace,
While lay still & quiet they & enjoyed the moment at full bay.

She stared down at him, and thought about the moments spent
Besides him, sleeping with a smile on her still face as time went.
Wanted she to spend some more time with him at the least,
So as to be able to recall him throughout future, and until eternity.

His eyes longed to see her face and adore her beauty till the end of time,
So that he could close his eyes and sleep in peace with all her memories.
Wanted he to lock her in all his dreams and deep within his heart,
So that she could always feel his presence with her even in the darkest of times.

Standing up above, deep within her heart she saw his picture,
All smiles on his face with eyes filled with happiness and no fear.
But down below slept he now, laden with pain and eyes with tears.
Filled her eyes with tears as she saw the contrast in both pictures.

Where had they gone wrong to face all this pain, thought she,
While she asked St. Peter, “Why did the Lord do this to me?
Had I sinned that much to be punished thus by thee?
Or had he not prayed enough to have me lay still down beside him?”

With vanquish in heart thought she, Why GOD couldn’t let us be,
While the world is filled with those he could deal with and set free.
Spoke she to St.Peter , “Wanted I to devour the last moments all alone with him,
But that wasn’t acceptable to you and called off me closer to thee.”

Sitting below saw he, a pair of eyes in the form of stars,
Twinkling and shimmering, while staring down at the world down below.
Saw he her face around it, with the clouds acting like her smiling lips,
Felt blessed he to see her face all around him despite the loss faced by him.

It’s a sin thought they to fall in love and yet face this world all alone,
With only thoughts in heart of those whom we wished to forever adore.
To face this cruelty is chiding enough for lovers thrown astray,
By nature’s forces and have to remain far away from each others for remaining days.

The other day I read this Facebook status which went as follows: “When we were small we were praying to grow up. What were we thinking?”…..Isn’t it the most ironic statement that one has come across???….All the years of growing up we aim to become big in life and in age, primarily in age so that when our parents tell us “Child this is not the right thing to be done”, we have the most apt reply at the tip of our tongues viz-a-viz “I am a grown up now…don’t tell me what to do or not to do!!”

What we fail to see is that during the years of growing up, we hardly got a chance to think on our own. All our thoughts and behaviour patterns are inherently and sub-consciously imbibed within our system by looking at all the plethora of people within our access.

As kids, we learn from watching the elders’ behavioural pattern…Our reactions to a certain situation is always the result of how somehow we have seen react in the similar situation would have been…..

The same applies to the principle of dreams too….We dream big…But it is never what we inherently want…It always is what we inherently don’t have and wish to have…Our dreams too aren’t ours thus…

I have heard many people say this, “It was my Parents dreams to do this….I am trying to fulfil their dreams….”….or….”My parents always dreamed this for me”…..what makes me laugh on hearing these statements is that how come no one says “It is my dream to achieve this in life”…or….“I have always dreamed of doing this.”…..

This is what I refer to as a Caricatured Dream….it’s a dream sketch out to fit us….even if not to the tee…

We are trained to fit into these dreams and not aim beyond the reach of these….Our elders always wish to see us grow up into someone big in life….it is not necessarily what one would have aimed otherwise, but because one’s elders have wished this for him/her, it kind of becomes a patthar ki lakeer that we have to aim & achieve all that has been dreamed for us…..

We are trained to spread our wings and sour great heights in this life, but unfortunately these wings always remain clipped owing to various circumstances…
It’s very easy to reach the apex with the proper resources, but the fact remains that the value of zenith achieved easily is always lesser then when it is achieved with a tad-bit struggle…

Caricatured Dreams lead to achieve this satisfaction…dreams tailored out to aid set up a goal in life, though not truly liked by the individual, assist in giving a sense of direction and achievement, even if not to us, at least to those who had dreamt it for us………

Individual Dreams, once fulfilled lead to providing bliss to self…..Caricatured Dreams give bliss to all those who have concern for us….

The setting sun set the hues alight.

Red, simmered the sky within his sight.

The universe seemed to have a shine,

While the world came to rest in time.

The brightness of the colours in the sky,

Contrasted the sand which was now dry.

The land was of the colour crimson red.

Which wasn’t only because of the sunset.

He could see the profound bloodshed.

The corpses of men were overall spread.

Death had struck on everyone there,

Leaving not a soul to breathe the air.

There was a gushing cold in the wind,

And all he saw unto horizon was in ruins.

The village,which took years to build,

Was in a day brought down to utter sill.

Faces once familiar,lay now still & faded.

Once filled with smiles, now seemed jaded.

Those who lay there had lead a life satiated,

Now the families were left completely tainted.

With certain arms skewered, faces disfigured,

The pain & grief of families couldn’t be measured.

Who was to account for all the losses here today?

Whom to question for the fate of those laying there?

The vultures flew high above in the sky,

Ready to plunge down & scoop the land dry.

When was the war against mankind to end?

When was Earth to have peace & nothing to mend?

When will the Earth be rid of all jealousy,greed?

When will the mankind be allowed to freely breed?

When will the doves freely fly without bounds in the sky,

And spread the word of peace & love to lands low & high!

Is it too much to ask for, thought he,

To have world peace & let love everywhere be.

Is the vision of a beautiful world free of treason,

To much to ask, or is it a part of man’s lost visions?

With an emptiness in the heart.
And the time seemingly have stood still.
Something pricked his mind like a dart,
And stood he without the zeal to live.

All seemed to be lost in this world,
Nothing was in its place as was before.
With things strewn astray here and there,
Stood he amidst it staring at the world from far away.

Had GOD forgotten him amongst the crowd of humans?
Had GOD let him lose to find his way?
Life has become though to lead, he thought,
Yet with all his might in him, he couldn’t get the answers he sought!

Are we humans damned to live in the past?
Or have we the strength to face the world moving fast?
Should the mystery of the future scare us out of our wits?
Or should we enjoy the beauties of the present as a wonderful gift?

His heart sank into the depths of darkness,
His eyes could see the white light shining afar.
Stood he amidst the plethora of people around him.
Yet lost was he in the mind, the only thing he could call his.

Through out faced by deceit & treachery,
He longed not for only solace but also ardency.
Heart marked with numerous scars,
He set forth all alone on the path.

All alone he walked along the sea,
Leaving his footprints for all to see.
Someone would join him, he wished,
And be his mate he prayed silently.

He was tired, he was in pain.
Deep inside his heart lay slayed.
As tears filled his eyes
He cried out a loud sigh.

How he longed to be loved by someone?
Someone who would trust him.
Someone who would understand him.
Someone who could see beyond his spectacle’s rim.

He wanted someone to read his eyes,
Without him having even to say a word.
How he longed to lay in someones arms?
Without caring about what others want!