Grey Reflections!!

They are floating away
They are also stubborn
Gently pushing is the fine breeze
only wanting to unveil the universal smile.
Refusing to listen are the intense ones
Naive ones, are always obedient
Growling and Grumbling , emotions burst
Wrapping me in a desirable blanket of passionate sorrow.
In its eruption i melt
Reducing into a fine nothing
as a paper constantly ripped in half.
Wiping out the darkness
appears the brightest star.
Happy as i am
but the longing so remain
In melancholy , i ask
the disappeared grey reflections,
Where art thou &
When shalt thou return , my friend .......

She made me rich !!!

'To the world you may be just one person ,
but to one person you may be the world'

Ok! That's an extreme expression in this particular case. But its close! This salwar clad woman may be just another ordinary person, but for me, she is my walking talking childhood that refuse to grow up .
Every year when I travel home, she comes to meet me. Every time she comes, she unwraps beautiful moments from the past I want to indulge in !
We then wandered like vagabonds plucking flowers, ripping leaves, munching on the tropical fruits found in the tree shaded yard, sharing itty bitty secrets, checking on the cattle, shaking off the final resting drops of rain from the tree. 
Year after year when we meet, we walk down the memory lane chuckling away at the seemingly silly but intense montage looming large.
Those days we just enjoyed childhood,we didn't think beyond. It didn't matter whether she was a Muslim or a Christian, it didn't matter whether she was rich or poor, it didn't matter whether she was clean or not ! All that mattered was the inexplicable joy we shared as kids.
When my school holidays ended, i had to leave her and my beautiful ancestral house to return to the mundane school life. When I left ,I used to keep looking back and wave until she turned into a little blur figure. Then i would look ahead , use my fingers and toes to count my days to the next holidays.

I feel rich. Maimoona, she made me rich !!

Destination Now!!

As mentioned in my prelude, about Today being the gift i waited for Yesterday, in this poem 'Destination Now' , I narrowed it down to NOW !!

We need to actually make a conscious effort to remind ourselves that this is the very moment we need to dip ourselves in ! Be in its complete awareness . I have very often noticed that even when we are enjoying a much awaited event , we worry or get anxious about it getting over soon and returning to our mundane chores . These thoughts not only dampen the fire we ought to feel for the moment, but also extinguish the hope for a beautiful tomorrow. 

In this poem i have tried to express how one must consider every moment as one's teacher. Be it good or bad, every life moment can add a little to your very essence.  

Destination Now

I journey through
the sun kissed valleys
the dark deep woods
the vibrant dazzling flora
the enchanting silence of the snow capped mountains
Overwhelming nothingness of spirituality

As i cleanse through emotions each
A layer of pseudo aura i shed
a seeker i am
an eternal one that too
The more i journey ,the more i seek
Unfolding in me is the unmasked

Arrived, i have, where i had to
Perceived, i have , what i ought to
I arrive , perceive and
I will for aeons to come

The humble seeker in me bows down
To the enlightening master
In this moment is my being
My eyes i close, my lungs i fill, my journey i resume
To DESTINATION NOW!!!

Israel - Palestine : A Vicious Circle !!!!

'An eye for an eye makes the whole word blind' M K Gandhi

'Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also' Bible

Quotes after quotes can be written on patience, forgiveness ,tolerance , positive thinking etc. As normal earthlings leading normal lives ( some of us, that is! ), how much can we bring into our daily lives .

Frankly speaking or rather questioning, haven't we grown immune to these disturbing images from across the globe?? Since Hitlers time , holocaust images and images of concentration camps have been shocking the world in horror !! Images which continued to question the faith in humanity did not cease with those. It came under the names Hiroshima- Nagasaki bombings , World War 2 ; still considered as the deadliest conflict in human history, invasion of Kuwait and now (not really!!) it is the innocent lifeless faces in GAZA!! Puts one in a helpless emotion lacking colour .
At times i feel these little ones are luckier than their previous generations, who have been dragging their lives through this suffering for years . Blessed are these souls who have departed to a safer, happier space . Let me hope that they came here for a short while to clear off some karmic debt after which they have returned home .
These are ways of reasoning and finding peace when earthly answers and justifications cease to make sense .

I dont know what it takes to stop the atrocities across the globe, really !! It touches me and it hurts me and i just pour it out here. Below are the words of an Israeli poet and peace activist Dan Almagor from his poem "In My Shoes,” . He describes how his acquaintance with Walid, an employee in his local grocery store, changed his perception of Palestinians:

For some people a Palestinian is Yasir Arafat,
A youth throwing a Molotov cocktail at a bus,
A boy hurling taunts at soldiers and cursing their mothers.
When you say “Palestinian” to me, I think of Walid,
The only Palestinian I know and who knows me....

(Almagor had given Walid his second hand clothes for relatives in his village including an old pair of shoes which he expresses in his poem as below)

How strange to think that someone, somewhere
in Walid’s village near Nablus,
Is wearing my shoes now.
Once, not so very long ago,
I was in his shoes .

So, this is proof that there are beautiful minds on either sides of the missiles , shells and rockets. I hope that the numbers increase to its population size . Hoping for a better tomorrow , not just for GAZA, also the entire world !!!

Womens Internation League for Peace and Freedom US , on GAZA