The Prayer

Image courtesy-The Hindu

Give Me Strength

This is my prayer to thee, my lord---strike,

Strike at the root of penury in my heart.

Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.

Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.

Give me the strength never to disown the poor

or bend my knees before insolent might.

Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.

And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.

This poem is from Gitanjali,the Nobel Prize winning work of Rabindranath Tagore.I have fond memories of this poem for it was my school prayer.Every morning after the Sanskrit slokas we sang these lines in high school.Initially when this poem was introduced as our new English prayer,we used to blabber it off with not much of an interest.Each one of us gobbled up words and sang in our own rhythm.Our teachers taught us a nice tune thinking that some melody would do justice.The prayers then on sounded better,it took us some time to get in sync though.The best and the loudest line always was ‘Strike,strike at the root of penury in my heart’.Maybe the double effect of the word hammered our minds and made us pray so with all our hearts together.I can feel an intense and a strange strength in this prayer till this day,I am glad that I have not forgotten it.

Today May 7th, 2011 is the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore.Not many of us know that there is much more to him than our National Anthem and the Nobel Prize for Literature.If we can call someone ‘Master of all trades, Jack of none’,there can be no candidate for this title more apt than him.Rarely you may find someone as versatile as him.What makes him special is that his works have a universal appeal.His creativity crosses place and time.When you read his poems and stories,or see his paintings they feel afresh and take you to his time.My favorite is the Kabuliwala,every time I read the story it touches me a little more than before.He indeed is an inspiration to us Indians in many ways.Salutes to the legend par excellence and my many thanks to him for teaching me to pray:-)

Image coutesy-Livemint

"The butterfly counts not months,but moments,and has time enough"

-Rabindranath Tagore-

To read more visit:

• Rabindranath Tagore-Wikipedia
• Biography of Rabindranath Tagore- Official Website Of Nobel Prize
• The Complete Works Of Rabindranath Tagore-Website
• Kabuliwala

-R.

Thursday Challenge #5-Beautiful

"Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing" so said Mother Teresa.This wall hanging was at a restaurant in Gangtok, when my eyes fell on this I could not help but smile and click a picture of it.Isn't this thought beautiful?:-)

This week's TC entries are here.

Good day to everyone.

-R.

Bookworm Adventures

My best adventures are with books but the title of this post has nothing to do with this fact.It is the new fancy I have caught lately,a game by the same name.Computer games were never my cup of tea.I could tolerate only the Minesweeper till a few days ago.Recently I came across Lex,the tiny but smart bookworm of Bookworm Adventures and he was too friendly to resist.

Lex is quite a gentleman.The conversations he makes throughout the game impressed me a lot.There is a charming finesse in his choice of words.I can now spend hours building words and battling those monsters.When I am about to leave the game,it touches me when a teary eyed Lex says"Don't leave me!".Very juvenile I know but sometimes it is more fun to take a step backward and do things which you think are no more meant for you.

Apart from the time pass entertainment that he gives,there is something about Lex and his game that makes me think.Here is a list of some little lessons that I have learnt from him:

• Make the best use of everything that comes your way.
• Know your weaknesses more than your strengths.
• Keep your friends close,enemies closer.
• A simple word can sometime work wonders.
• Use your powers for the right cause,at the right time and in the right place.
• There is no unchangeable game plan,be flexible for some risks are meant to be taken.
• It is good to take breaks,do not forget to relax and refresh.
• Humor is the most useful weapon in the most impossible of situations.Laugh it off!
• Treasures are earned,nobody gifts them to you.
• Success is not the end,it is a step to the next.
• Fight till your heart bleeds the last drop of blood,never quit.
• Last but not the least,enjoy whatever you do!

Remember life is a simple but not an easy game,if you do not play you do not win;-)
Have a good day all of you:-)

-R.