The Taj

On the divine day

I left to reach the Taj Mahal.

Memoried paths reminded familiarity.

History refreshed my mind.

     The beautiful clouds

     and the wonderful Jamuna,

     The green trees and the white marble.

I walked into the Tajand stopped!.

I saw on the wall

the adorned love, placed on an ornate pedestal.

     ‘O’ Silent Architect, why doesn’t this get blown away ?.

     Who constructed the Taj ?.

     Shah Jahan or you ?.

Or those twenty thousand labourers

or should I call them ….

twenty thousand Tajs ?.

Taj, because it is precious.

     Aren’t their hands the greatest ?.

     I looked at my feet.

     And thought – where am I standing.

     On Shah Jahan’s love ?

Or on the sweats of the Tajs ?.

‘O’ you ruthless Mughal !

Though you cut the hand of the Tajs, you forgot one thing –

     You forgot that the place

     where the Tajs lived

     was a bigger, a much bigger

     Taj than yours.

Taj Mahal is a white palace

on which one can contemplate

lovebirds, dogfights and punishments.

I walked back…

     I walked back

     through the faded prints of …

     Shah Jahan and the Tajs.

Seasons

When the sky is clear

And when chirping of the birds we hear

We see leaves on the trees

We hear the whistling of the breeze,

Then the Spring arrives.

     Then comes the Summer with its scorching heat,

     The creatures panting for breath

     For the water we struggle,

     When we hear the baby’s cackle

     It isn’t pleasant time for us.

Then comes the Autumn

When the sky is clear

And afternoons are pleasant

The trees will have ripe fruits

Which we do like to eat.

     Then all too slain by the Winter

     The trees then cover themselves with snow

     Which looks like a white peak

     And when the hails blow,

     The trees become tired and weak

Jokes

I    Raju        :   I wear spectacles when I’m reading. What about you, Ravi ?

     Ravi        :   Why should I wear spectacles when you are reading?

II   Teacher   :   What will happen if the sun does not rise ?

     Arjun       :   We can sleep peacefully

III  Ram        :   Shyam, which day is the longest ?

     Shyam    :   Wednesday !

     Ram        :   Why ?

     Shyam    :   Because it has nine letters

IV  Customer    :   Waiter, this soup tastes funny …

     Waiter     :   Then aren’t you laughing, Sir ?.

The Secret of Happiness

It is said, “Laugh and the world laughs with you. If you weep, you weep alone”. So the secret of happiness lies in having an aptitude for happiness. The aptitude can be developed through training of the mind by constantly reminding it of the positive aspects of life. One and the same occasion or incident can be interpreted by two different persons in two different ways; positively by the one and negatively by the other. The farmer is bound to be happy, the latter cannot escape melanehd.

Browning has said “God's in this heaven & all’s right with the world”. This is high optimism which is the genesis of true happiness. This universes is very vast and varied. Nature spreads all around us in full bloom. It is only for to behold it and we are richly rewarded if we do so. Our reward is joy ever lasting happiness. We should develop the attitude to realize that whatever happens, happens for our good. “I do not choose the best, the best chooses me” says Tagore in “Stray Birds”. Even if cloud of sorrow darken our lives sometimes, we should not feel depressed. We should remember the immortal words of the famous English poet Shelly “if winter comes, can spring be far behind”?.

Much of misery in life comes also because of ill health. So, the children must be taught from the very beginning to take regular exercise to build strong body and to ward off diseases. Similarly. One must work hard to get proper education and training “Work is worship” is well said. Similarly, we are told. “An idle man’s brain is the devils workshop”. A busy man is always a happy man. He does not have to feel the pinch of boredom. More over proper education & training received at proper time enable a person to get a suitable job.

There is no doubt that necessities of life are important and one must endeavour to obtain them. But to over – tax one’s energies to possess uncommon luxuries is a folly and a source of unhappiness. Petty short comings of others should be forgiven. After all we are human beings and “To err is human” we should also keep our mind pure and free from ill-will and malice. Such things spread unhappiness on all sides. One important way of remaining happy is to have a broad outlook and cheerful demeanour. We should have good companions who have a healthy outlook in life. “Devotion to duty is one of the greatest source of happiness.

The famous poet Emile Bronte says,

“Riches I hold in light esteem,

And love I laugh to scorn,

The last of fame is but a dream

That varnished with the more

Accordingly, we can have taste of eternal happiness by tuning our minds to the purity of nature and sprit instead of playing second fiddle to false love and feigned friendship.

Ganga – The Sacred River

India is land of rivers, From north to south and east to west there is network of mighty rivers like the Sultej, Ravi, Chenab, Beas, Ihelum, Indus, Ganga, Yamuna, Brahrmaputra, Narniada, Tapti, Krishna, Kaveri and Godavari. They are fed by hundreds of their tributaries. Like Bharat Mata, Indians consider the Ganga as their mother. Nowhere in the world is there a more sacred river than the holy Ganga. Many legends and mythological stories are associated with the Ganga. She was the ‘river of Gods’ brought to the earth by the efforts of Bhagiratha. She was the mother of Bhishma Pitamah and has been responsible for the salvation of millions. To see her is to get salvation. The Ganga starts from the Gomukh in the Himalaya. Gangotri is a place of pilgrimage. Then starts her journey through the mountainous area. The cool, shrift, clear as crystal water of mother Ganga reaches Rishikesh and Haridwar after a turbulent journey. She passes through Haridwar, Garh, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna and Calcutta. Finnally she reaches the Bay of Bengal. The Ganga is a great gift to us economically too. Her water irrigates the plains of the north. The Ganga canal is a very important canal. Much navigation is done on the river. This sacred and mighty river, whose water is supposed to be like nectar has been polluted by the thoughtlessness of modern men. It is badly & polluted. Luckilly, the Government of India has realized this. A massive programme to purify the pollution has been undertaken thanks to Rajiva Gandhi, the scheme, is being implemented effectively. The day is not far off when we shall have our mother Ganga as pure as she was when she came down from the heaven.

Strength and Destiny

Never say ‘No’. Never say, ‘I cannot’, for you are infinite. You can do anything and everything; you are almighty. You are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Come up, Oh lions, and shake off delusion that you are sheep. You are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal. Never mind the struggles, never mind the mistakes. You never heard a cow tell a lie, but it is only a cow-never a man. So, never mind these failures, these little back slidings; hold the ideal a thousand times, and if you fail a thousand times, make the attempt once more. So, my friends, be strong, be bold. The only words that we find coming like bombs from all Holy books bursting like a bomb-shell upon masses of ignorance are the words – strength and fearlessness. Strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal. Weakness is constant strain and misery. Say, “This misery that I am suffering is of my own doing and that it will have to be done by me alone”. Take the whole responsibility on your shoulders and know that you are the creator of your destiny. It is the coward and the fool who says. “This is fate”. Say, I will make my fate”. So, my friends, ‘Arise, awake, sleep no more, within each of you, there is the power to remove all wants and all miseries. Believe this and the power will be manifested’.

(Swami Vivekanand)

Autobiography of a tree

Hi !

I am Anouma the banyan tree. Now I am sixty years old. I am in the center of a big factory complex. Are you ready to listen to me? Louder! Yes?? OK.

Here goes …. Let’s see …. Ummmmm ……

Ah, now I remember when I was very youn my siblings and I dangling from my mother. Then, one day when I grew very long, I got a foothold on the ground. A big storm started to rage. It poured and poured – the wind was howling and all the animals were scared and came to my mother for protection. I slept and slept ….. Then I got up as I heard a huge cracking sound – my umbilical cord to my mother broke and the huge branch fell with a deafening thud to the ground. I was now independent – and sad – my mother and siblings were near yet so far – I could not hold them for comfort and warmth. But I got over this lonely feeling.

One day I looked up at the sky and I saw a small nest being built by a pair of crows on me. I was really thrilled when the crow laid four eggs. When the crows went away for feeding, a cuckoo sneaked in and gave me one egg to keep in their nest. She pleaded with me not to tell the crows about it. How could I refuse? All the animals and birds were my friends. The crows, anyway, never did find out nor ask me – phew! The five eggs hatched soon with four small crows and the little imposter all bubbling out. The crows were away one day when I felt a tingling sensation on me. A green tree snake had slithered onto me to find food. How I wished I could warn the poor crows! The snake had slithered onto me to find food. How I wished I could warn the poor crows! The snake slithered straight to the nest and ate one little crow. Before it could do further damage, the crows returned and drove it away.

Not many days later, I had a warm feeling in one of my legs where there was a cozy hole. When I looked down to see, I beheld a cat giving birth to a cute litter. I called out to her “Mrs Cat you have got cute things there!”. She thanked me for the hospitality and requested me not to let the kittens out when she is away and to take good care of them. It was such a pleasure to see the little fur balls play and grow up.

All this while, I too was growing. A lot animals, birds and insects visited me – some stayed with we and some moved on. My biggest visitors were the huge hornbills and smallest the orange minivets. Leopards used to climb on me with their kills and eat at leisure. One day a tiger came at my foot and demanded that the leopard drop the deer from me. Though the leopard refused, he waited for a whole day near me. He asked me why I had given refuge to the leopard and I had a tough time convincing him that both were good friends of mine. A similar incident happened with a hyena a few months later.

I became so big that I towered over my mother and siblings. A boy and his sister used to come and enjoy the forest. They always pointed a small black object at all of us and lightning without thunder used to flash from it. They used to animatedly look at it later and – believe it or not, it used to contain miniatures of us. From their conversation we could understand that they were called Chiri and Chipi. All was happiness and peace in the forest.

But disturbing things started happening one day in the forest. We heard a lot of noises in the distance. My brothers asked me to see over the distance as I was the tallest. I could see far away some very strange and big monsters which had very huge claws on which human beings sat and pushed and pulled stick like limbs. These monsters were felling the trees. We could not understand why this disaster has struck suddenly. A few days later Chiri and Chipi came to the forest. They were saying things which we could not understand – things such as mining, licence, hydel power etc. They appeared very agitated and rued the ignorance, insensitivity and short sighted commercialism of the people responsible. Do you understand any of this?

Very soon my mother, siblings and other trees all around me were cut down. It was bloodshed and chaos as all the animals fled, the birds’ nests were destroyed and insects crushed under the huge monsters. It was my turn I thought, when one of the important looking people pointed at me and gave directions. I found later that I was to be preserved. Buildings and sheds came all around me.

I am Anouma the banyan tree. Now I am sixty years old. I am in the center of a big factory complex.