Touch-Me-Not

“Touch me not!” she said as he came close

While trumpets and confetti flew in the air

The flowers danced and the songs flowed

Off fluttered his soul and landed just there

Right on her bosom,when dewdrops froze

Oh the rhyming and timing that life chose

Bringing so much love, sparkling and rare

Without a touch, eyes met, breath slowed

From two to one, and here from nowhere

It was time to forget all poetry and prose

-R-

A Rose Is A Rose Is A Rose

...whether you give it with your left hand or right, so I argued with one of my friends way back in school. It was during one of those functions when we had to go up the podium and give each of the teachers sitting there one. And me being left handed, it was quite scout like, surprisingly the teacher smiled too. Well, that's the magic about a rose. It conveys everything that you feel - how many ever you give, however you give and whichever colour you give, it really doesn't matter. I am sharing a few of my favorite rosy quotes today. I hope they make you smile too :-)

"What's in a name ? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

-William Shakespeare

"The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose."

-George William Curtis

"A rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose.All flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too. I want to encourage women to embrace their own uniqueness."

-Miranda Kerr

"One rose says more than a dozen."

-Wendy Craig

And last but my favorite: 

"Anyone can love a rose, but it takes a lot to love a leaf. It's ordinary to love the beautiful, but it's beautiful to love the ordinary."

-Unknown-

-R.

Water-Thursday Challenge

"We're all water from different rivers,

That's why it's so easy to meet,

We're all water in this vast, vast ocean,

Someday we'll evaporate together"

-Yoko Ono-

This photograph was clicked in 2009 during my visit to the North East of India with a bunch of good friends. The difference in the shades of water completely amazed me, this is one spectacular view I shall  never forget. Here is where river Rangeet befriends the river Teesta, also called 'The Lover's Point' locally in Sikkim :-)

PS: For other beautiful pictures on this theme, visit Thursday Challenge-14th August 2014

Full Circle

Tangy Tuesday Picks-Blogadda-July 29th 2014

“Having a place to go is home, having someone to love is family, having both is a blessing”

-Donna Hedges-

This story began with an extraordinary discovery Appa made sitting in the balcony one afternoon of this fortnight “Look! There!” he said, “Where?” I asked. He pointed between the leaves of a young coconut tree which is growing within the compound of the house across the road.  And from then on I had the pleasure of watching a beautiful family of jungle babblers come to become. They went about their daily errands in complete ignorance of being watched. The parents would fly to get food like worms, insects and what not to feed the hungry little ones. And they would open their raw and red beaks widely, each one thinking he or she is chirping louder than the other. It more seemed like they were saying “Mama for me! Me! Me!” What a precious sight and sound that was!

There were three of them in total if I am right, and what ruckus they created especially in the afternoons. On most of the times it was the neighborhood cat lurking around the nest waiting to make them his satiating lunch, and then there were those cloudbursts at odd hours. The nest was made at a very odd place, one strong breeze and they could be down on earth. Despite all this the fledglings always remained protected because one of their parents was always around in the building.

In a matter of few days I saw them perch on the edge of the nest, the mother or father would rush flying from nowhere to keep an eye on their movements. When they could obviously manage themselves they started taking steps, one by one. They made small leaps first on the tree which held their nest, and then they slowly jumped fluttering their wings to the nearby areas, on the bush, on the ground, on the compound and within no time they were out of sight. The nest is all that remains now when it is no longer necessary, with still and spawning memories.

Four years ago I had written this poem: Roots And Wings for the love our parents show us. Only when we bring our focus to certain things in nature we realize some of our blessings, there are messages in everything that is happening around. Even a small reed of grass swaying with the wind has a thing to tell. Now when I look at this empty nest I think of the babblers, “Where have they gone? What have they become?” Maybe I will find another nest by the younger ones somewhere around here again.

I am sure there are many concrete blocks down any road with the same story as this nest. People getting married, having children, bringing them up, looking after them, teaching them, seeing them grow and seeing them go. Isn’t it amazing how life comes in a full circle, even for us humans. Too abstruse I know, maybe that’s what The Big Bang Theory is all about, "we come together to move away" -LIFE !

-R

Touch-Me-Not

On this earth, wish each life big ’n small

Had the heart and grit of a touch me not

Closing their doors to the pain and strife

To everything that we refute, every time

An axe is up in the air for all that timber

A knife is made sharper for all that meat

 More than a conscience, celebrating guilt

What we mind only on days such as these

Has been here around ‘n surrounds us all

Suffering, while surviving the selfish lot

Whom do we owe for this living and life?

The strength supreme, subtle and sublime

Of nature who bears our hunger ’n slumber

Against whom we fight this battle of defeat

Or her patience on which our ego lies built

Forgetting she is nobody’s enemy to please.

-R- 

PS: Written as a part of World Environment Day on June 5th 2014, theme of the year- 'RAISE YOUR VOICE, NOT THE SEA LEVEL' :-). To know more do visit United Nations Environment Programme.

Poke- A- Man

The saddest thing about the children of today is that ‘we’ think for them that they have enough to learn, and in that process we have no idea where mankind is heading to. The connection here may not be so obvious but do read this article: Why Conservationists Should Heed Pokemon? We better agree.

  

To summarize what this study says:

If we were to show a kid these two pictures, there are high chances that the Pokemon characters will be identified with relative ease. On the other side a giraffe, panda, chimp, lion, tiger or any other living being for that matter will be pretty alien to the little one. There is no getting away from the fact that even most of us adults will fail to differentiate a cheetah from a leopard. I admit I cannot until somebody tells me.

Going by the current trends and how matters are right now it does seem like we are close to the point of no return. All in the name of evolution we are too busy learning and doing things, most of which work against the laws of nature. ‘Save Green, Save Wild or Save Earth’ sounds more like ‘Save Mankind’. A fact enough to poke each man on this earth is that most of us are unaware of what exactly makes our environment, its flora and fauna, and our interactions with them and that is where the entire problem begins. Nobody yearns to know. What follows is the blatant ignorance. It all begins right from childhood, regrettably. Think of all the ideas of destruction and doom that we propagate, get excited more than dread about. Take this for some thought, we live in a fictional world which fortunately is very real.

Miracles

It is pitch dark outside and all I can hear are those strange cricket sounds, totally nocturnal. The rain, it seems as though it is out somewhere on a short break right now, the pretty hard day that it has had and has given the people of this town. No surprise if it returns any time soon to swing it with the winds, well all over again to  bring some more melancholy around. As I am typing this the windows of this room are practically rattling like someone has given them the worst shock of their life. And me the poor little bird that I claim to be is courageously sitting inside, like there is no place safer than her nest.

Speaking of real birds, where do they fly and stay during such thunderstorms? In such weather I would be half dead on the ground! I know this sounds crazy but what I am thinking right now is how many of their eggs would have fallen off the nest? How many of their friends would not have come flying back home? Or at the least how many of them would have caught a cold? All my questions aside,  I am pretty sure that I will be listening to their tunes tomorrow morning, louder and fresher. After the heavy pitter patter all night such strength, positivity and hope I guess that makes what we usually fail to see, life’s little miracles. To move on, to wake up everyday to live.

Picture Courtesy

A Share Of Sky

Life is too beautiful to spend it in keeping your feet on the ground

Dream of all those places and people, the ones who remain unfound

You have a choice to make, you either be one of those floating cloud

But lightning may strike your soul, thunder may scream at you aloud

Or you can be a flying bird, who wonders, wanders more than sings

Who does not need a push by the wind, who can beat his own wings

And still can reach his fellows, make his home in those valleys whole

Remember God has given you a fair share of the vast skies to stroll

-R-

Posers

“Just living is not enough...one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” 

-Hans Christian Anderson-

These flowers live in the garden of a dear aunt of mine, I clicked their photographs yesterday. Quite colourful posers aren't they? I wish we could give a carefree smile like them:-)

A happy Vishu to you all.

Wishes and love for the new year :-)

-R

Where Do You Think You Are?

Picture courtesy

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much-the wheel, New York, wars and so on-whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons."

-Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-

“For as long as I can remember, I've been searching for something, some reason why we're here. What are we doing here? Who are we? If this is a chance to find out even just a little part of that answer... I don't know, I think it's worth a human life. Don't you?” so says Dr. Ellie Arroway, the protagonist in the movie ‘Contact’, based on a Carl Sagan novel of the same name. The purport of existence is something which every scientist or scholar, in fact every human would not mind knowing. Aren’t we in this quest in a way or the other, what if we are not, is that okay? One may ask what is wrong in living without knowing why, how does it matter and many questions else. There is a difference, between existing and enduring which is all the answer.

Apart from all the scientific and religious theories which attempt to explain the intriguing fact of how we came into being and are managing to survive on this planet till this day, there is an imperative reality we all ought to know no matter who we are-‘Where do we stand in space and time?’ Take a look at this picture, it left me quite ‘bamboozled’. Yes, that is exactly the word.

When I finished reading this all I asked myself was” Where do you think you are?” Frankly I have never felt so very little in a good way.I am humbled and happy. If there is anything called heaven, here it is! We all are living in one of the most gifted planets of this universe, the value of which we acknowledge not. Whatever we do or give in return if at all we ever want to will always be imperceptible, but does it mean we should never?


Have a look at this video, it made me drop a tear.Hope you like it too.

Have an earthly life all of you...

-R.