The Irony of Common Dreams......

In the sunshine of my life

I found you at my side,

We shared many moments magical,

Ever happy, never cried.

Till came a time in our lives

When the Wind of Change blew fierce,

In the darkest winter blues you cast me off,

My heart abandoned, cruelly pierced.

We walked the road uphill,

Where we shared common dreams,

I left mine to make yours come true,

But you walked away without giving me a clue.

Soon you realized that your dreams belonged to you,

And you needed someone else to walk with you.

I was just a means to reach out to your dreams,

And now I am left alone wondering,

Were they at all our common dreams!

The Fairyland.....

This is a story of a little girl

With a granny who sang her a song

Of fairies in white gowns

Flying down to take her

To the magical world

Of shining wands.

She fluttered open her tiny wings

To dance and sing

With her fairy queens.

Time passed;

The little girl,

Now a young woman,

All set to create her own fairy land.

She donned her white gown,

To walk down the aisle of life,

Only to be greeted by elves,

With a crooked hat and a crooked smile.

She ran back to her granny

Now very old;

Looked at her,

With a pair of weak, shimmering eyes.

The young woman wept and cried

And said, “Granny I lost my fairies

And the fairyland,

Please tell me the way back to my lost paradise”

Granny gave a wide toothless grin

Before she replied,

“Dear, the fairies left the world,

As the men’s hearts turned cruel.

Now,

It’s your turn to recreate the lost paradise.

So,

Spread out your wings

And let the fairy in you fly

To create a land of wonder

Where dreams, visions, and hope

Sound the thunder.

And the day you welcome the showers of bliss,

I’m sure

Your fairies would be back

To bless your fairyland.”

The Unknown Voice......

The wind was playing with my hair

As I was staggering down the muddy lane,

Carelessly kicking the pebbles,

And watching the mud rise,

Suddenly, I heard a small voice asking me,

“Do you know me?

Have we met before?”

I stopped;

Silently,

The pebbles rolled to one corner;

The rising mud fleeted down,

To caress the lonely lane again.

But,

The wind still played with my hair,

And the small voice spoke again,

“Do we know each other?”

I was speechless as I looked around,

I could not see anyone far or near,

My breath was as silent as me,

But;

The wind still played with my hair,

And lo!

The small voice could be heard again.

It slowly whispered,

Hey, answer me!

I muttered, “Dear I don’t know you,

Nor can I see you,

But I can only hear you,

May I know who are you?”

There was stillness all around

But,

The wind still played with my hair

And the small voice could be heard again!

This time, the voice chuckled

I was dismayed.

It said, “I’ve known you all along

But you never tried to know me.”

I said,

“Dear that’s an unlikely proposition

As I’ve always cared for people I’ve known!”

The voice replied,

“You’re right sweetheart.

You’ve cared for people

You’ve cared for voices.

You’ve cared for everyone

But you’ve never cared for me!”

I replied,

“Ah! Common that can’t be true;

You say,

I’ve cared for everyone but you!”

The voice, was stern this time

And said, “Yes you heard it right

You cared for all but me!”

The voice continued,

“I was your all,

I was your dream

I was your being,

I was you and you were me,

Yes, I was your LIFE

But

You never cared for me!”

The wind still played with my hair,

As I continued walking down the muddy lane.

Now,

I kicked the pebbles harder;

Smiled at the rising mud,

And shouted loud and clear,

“Life, watch out for me!

Now it’s going to be

Just you and me!”

A Small Pack of Wishes....

Yeah…I’ve a small pack of wishes,

I’d like to share with one and all.

My wishes may look puny

But, they are enough

To make the flashes of my life

Worth watching!

I wish to have my share of rainbows

To always follow the clouds,

A few silver linings

Which reassure that every

Night is followed by a beautiful morn.

I wish for laughter to kiss my lips,

Even at times when my chips are down,

And when sadness intrudes,

I wish for innumerable smiles

To brighten up my days

And say

Yeah, we’re there for you.

I wish for beauty

That sooths the tired eyes

Warms the broken hearts

Lifts the spirits that sag,

Hugs the drooping shoulders;

And takes away the pain

From the lives

It touches.

I wish for undaunting faith,

To believe in myself;

To have courage to know,

And patience to accept the truth,

That life is much beyond

To what my eyes can meet.

And last but the not the least

I wish for the cup of love

To be always overflowing in my life

Along with the sparkles of everlasting friendships,

To see me through the sunset of my life!

Yes, I've Learnt to Say NO

When the going is rough,

The situations are tough,

And reason says enough,

I say, NO

I’ll never give up!

When I see a child without a school bag

All wrapped up in a rag

And growing up with a tag

That education is meant for a privileged few

I say, NO

This can’t be true

The child has a right

Just as you and me

To have the best in life!

When I see a woman

Being deprived of her rights

Beaten black and blue

By the ridiculous norms

I say, NO

I’ll never be one of them

As I prefer having my share of fights

But will never give up in fright!

When I see people

Running after materialistic gains

Forgetting to enjoy life

While bartering their gains for pains

I say, NO

To this mad marathon

As life to me is too true

And beautiful

To be spent in counting pennies earned!

Yes, I’ve learnt to say NO

The harder way

But then

It’s one of the best things

I’ve learnt so far!

An Ode to Humanity

                I would like to dedicate this to Mother Teresa on the occasion of her birth anniversary.

                                                                                    

My friends, you have the liberty to call me naïve

As I attempt to write an ode to humanity.

Humanity has fallen from its throne,

It’s been mercilessly strangulated by countless gory deeds.

It now wallows in the mud,

Crawls with the lowest animal;

Shrieking for mercy and praying for love.

It lies helplessly, watching with its glassy eyes;

Humans marching back

Toward the forgotten Darwinian age

That preached "Survival of the fittest!"

 “To be or not to be”

Is the burning question asked to us by humanity.

 If humans can feel,

Then why are they so cold?

If humans can listen

Then why don't they do as they're told?

If humans can speak,

Then why is there silence all around?

If humans can wait,

Then why is there impatience in their deeds?

If humans can really include,

Then why is there loneliness all around?

If humans can love,

Then why is there vicious hatred all around?

My dear friends

You can’t create heaven in hell!

This is all we got,

This planet is our heaven or hell.

It’s high time

That we get back to our basics.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

Yes, we can retrace our steps;

As the clock is still ticking,

Reminding us that it’s still not too late

To continue with our noble responsibility

Of building a secular world

That believes in global religion of humanity!

My dear friends, let’s join our hands;

To create a new, beautiful world;

That believes in hard core humanity

And preaches the modern mantra

Of having a world

That is “One for all and all for one!”

It's Time that We All Go Green!

Green Living
Green living should become the motto of the present and the future generations. It has become essential for all of us to educate our children about eco-friendly methods so that they learn to respect the environment they are born into. The love and respect for nature has to be inculcated right from childhood. Children of today are adults of tomorrow; hence values instilled today will reap rich dividends in the future. The children who are brought up in a surrounding that is healthy and green would definitely get used to this kind of living. Therefore, when they grow up as citizens they will ensure that they do not do anything that would jeopardize the health of the planet.

There is a need today to develop new technologies which would facilitate green living. New researches are being done to find out new forms of green energy. The oil and coal reserves of our planet are fast depleting owing to massive industrialization. If the rate of consumption remains the same, then soon coal and oil reserves would get exhausted. Therefore, measures are being taken to conserve the remaining resources and find alternative methods of generating energy. Solar energy and tidal energy are some potential sources of energy available. They need to be exploited and expanded in a right way to get maximum output and benefit. The solar energy and tidal energy are renewable sources of energy and are eco-friendly too. As a part of green living, people should be encouraged to use solar power for house lighting. These days, technology is also developed to run vehicles on solar power. Though, this is still in the gestation period, it would be a great alternative to gas and petrol used for running the vehicles.

Awareness programs should be conducted by various ecological departments. People should be educated on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They should be taught to make use of the natural resources reasonably. The effects of irrational use of the natural resources should be explained to the people in detail. People in general have a tendency to misuse and waste fresh water. This has led to scarcity of water. Steps should be taken to curtail this wastage and make people more responsible. Similarly, people also tend to waste electricity by switching on lights unnecessarily. If one extra bulb is lit in every household, then imagine the amount power consumption. This is a national waste and should be avoided.

As inhabitants of this planet we should all work towards developing green living habits. This is both our social as well as moral responsibility.

                                                                                  

Green issues

Economic development and industrialization has led to numerous global issues especially pertaining to the environment. The health and future of our environment is at risk owing to the uncontrolled industrialization, urbanization, and deforestation. It may be surprising but thoughtless intensification and expansion of agriculture in some of the third world countries has also added to the ever growing problem of environmental issues. The crux of the problem relating to environment is degradation of natural resources like water, forest, minerals, rocks, and salt. Another point of escalation is the depleting ozone layer and loss of biodiversity.

The world is witnessing a global water crisis. It has been estimated that one in every three persons are having water shortage. There is scarcity of fresh water supply and if water is not used carefully then there is going to be an acute crisis. The underground water supplies are getting exhausted due to excessive boring done all over the world. The consumption of water has to be rationed. New sources of water supply have to be generated. According to the statistics released by the United Nations about 95 percent of the countries are dumping their raw sewage into water. This is not at all a good sign and needs immediate attention.

Another serious environmental issue is global warming. The climate of the world is changing rapidly because of the industrialization. This has become a topic of debate amongst the scientists, researchers, media, and environmentalists. Although, a lot of attention is being paid to towards this issue but the governments of different countries need to make an international agenda and strategy to tackle this situation.

Most of the species on this earth are on the verge of being extinct. It is stated that every 20-25 minutes one animal species is dying out on this planet. If this rate of mortality continues then by the end of this century almost 50 percent of the living species will have disappeared completely. This extinction is going to be one of the sixth major extinctions which took place on Earth. This issue is attributed to loss of habitat, species exploitation, overpopulation, and global warming. Illegal killing of animals for trade has to be checked also.

The challenges faced by the environmentalists are difficult but not impossible. There is still time to restore what has been lost. The green issues have to be dealt seriously both by the governments and non government organizations.