Poem: IN THE ARC OF TWILIGHT

Copyright@shravancharitymission

IN THE ARC OF TWILIGHT

In the arc of twilight,

When the day recedes,

Night retrieves,

Is when the daylight dims,

And darkness begins.

*

That makes me wonder,

Is it time to surrender?

Where the end looks closer,

And time every minute a bulldozer.

*

It appears as if,

There isn’t much left to render,

For the thread of life,

Now looks slender.

*

So the time looks ripe,

In the realm of life,

To forthwith—account for,

What you missed in life,

And gathered in the strife.

*

But before destiny strikes,

 And takes you by its might,

Into the wide blue yonder,

That is full of thunder,

Only to surrender,

It gives you a flash to remember.

*

So before the untoward arrives,

Scan your blessed life,

To slate it out for your own sight,

What you attained,

And what remained in vain.

*

Yet rejoice,

At the opportunity of life,

That the rare attain,

Wrapped in cloak of humanity,

And under the aegis of Almighty.

*

And reflect honestly,

The count of your vivacity,

To feed your own vanity,

And ask yourself.

*

Did you see what you wanted to see?

Did you do what you wanted to do?

Did you say what you wanted to say?

Did you love, whom you wanted to love?

And care, whom you wanted to care for?

*

For the rhythm of life,

Is only as wide,

As the breath of life,

And only the lucky go past,

The fill of life.

*

So before the destiny,

 In plentiful,

Be kind,

Be sublime,

For that is prime,

In God’s mind.

*

By Kamlesh Tripathi

*****

Copyright@shravancharitymission

SAYS CHANAKYA—1

Vishadapyamritam grahammedhyadapi kanchanam,

Nichadpayutama vidya striratnam dushkuladapi.

If there is nectar in poison, accept it. If there is precious metal or object in filth, retrieve it. If a low breed man has some good knowledge, wisdom, art or quality, imbibe it. If a woman born to a family of disrepute turns out to be a lady of high qualities, possess such a gem.

*

Strinaam diguna aaharo budhisatasam chaturguna,

Sahasam shargunam chav kamoastgun uchayate.

Compared to males, the females, eat twice the amount of food, possess cleverness four times, display courage six times and have hunger for sex eight times.

*

Aanratam sahasam maya murkhtavmatilubadhata,

Ashochatavam nirdayatam strinam dosha: swabhavjhaha.

Speaking falsehood—starting a work without any due diligence or thought, daredevilry, deceitful behavior, foolish acts, greed, impurity and cruelty. These are things, basic to the nature of women.

*

Bhojayam bhojanshaktitascha ratishaktivarragna,

Vibhavo danshaktishcha naslapasya tapas: phalam.

Only great penance can earn one: Rich food to eat and a good digestive power to dispose it—A beautiful woman, for a wife and the virility to ravish her—and riches with charitable disposition to use the money for good causes.

*

Yasya putro vashiibhooto bharya chandasnugaamini,

Vibhave yashcha santushtsatasya swarg eihev he.

This very earth is heaven for one whose son is obedient. The wife is faithful and whose own heart is content with whatever money he has.

*

Te putra yepiturbhakta sa pita yastu poshakah,

Tanmitram yasya vishwasahah: sa bharya yatra nirvrati.

True son is the one who is obedient to his father. A true father is the one who looks after his sons. Similarly, true friend is the one who is trustworthy and true wife is one who makes her husband happy.

*****

Translated by Kamlesh Tripathi

POEM: MY HEART--MY JESUS OF TIMES

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

In the eternity of lifetime,

There was seldom a downtime,

When the kind heart stopped blessing,

And the cunning tongue stopped maligning.

*

For heart was naïve,

Heart was kind,

And it was caring and forgiving,

Just like the Jesus of times,

But it had a straight tongue,

To remind about tough times and crimes.

*

Where the cunning tongue was sweet but vicious,

And had imbibed all the wickedness of times,

Just like the serenade with unheard rhymes,

And had a cunning mind,

That wanted to outlast the Jesus of times.

*

And all along in life,

When the cunning tongue was in dungeons,

Kind heart kept helping,

Kept aiding,

Kept forgiving,

Which the maligning tongue, kept loving,

In the happenings of bad times.

*

But even with all the rapturous showers in life.

Tongue had its own designs,

Of the wretched kind,

And so,

Tongue kept cribbing,

Kept maligning,

The Jesus of times.

*

But kind heart kept overlooking,

Kept forgiving and forgetting,

Cunning tongue’s venomous onslaught,

That lasted an eon of time.

*

And for the Jesus of times,

It was only heartfelt regrets,

That it had a heart of gold,

Laced with a straight tongue,

Not appreciated by times.

*

Even when it spoke for values,

For goodness,

And for virtues,

But now time was running out.

*

And kind heart had nowhere to go,

With the carcass of his straight tongue,

When the Jesus within said.

*

Fear not my child,

For you’re not as wild,

And your gracious tongue will be understood,

Only by a few,

In these dark and squalid ravines.

*

So come with me son,

Leaving behind that maligning tongue,

To its audience.

*

And remember,

What you sow you reap,

And so,

Wait for the day,

When the cunning tongue face-offs with a cunning heart.

*****

SHORT STORY: MONKEY'S ADVICE

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

    Pained by human atrocities, some like minded animals and old friends, prominent among them being; a cat, a cow, a dog, a donkey, a horse and a monkey decided to meet up, to discuss the burning issue of atrocity and chalk out a way forward, to tackle the human lunacy that was troubling animals, big time. The king of the jungle however excused himself as his species was already under threat from human beings and he didn’t want to take an adverse position against them any further.

Scheming cat who happened to be a relative of the king of the jungle started the conversation by saying, ‘to us, all human beings look the same but they are divided by something called the religion, and unlike us, who don’t follow any religion but only follow our heart, human beings are guided by their religion. And if we could only exploit their religion we could divert their attention from us to save ourselves.’

‘But what is religion? Asked, the donkey.

‘Arrey yaar! You don’t know religion? No wonder you’re called a donkey. You must have often seen human beings going to differently looking buildings, to pray, and that is called religion.’ Clarified the cat.

‘But what is religion suppose to do?’ enquired the donkey, exposing his ignorance further.

‘Well, it is supposed to divide human beings. And it is doing that quite efficiently.  For human beings fight tooth and nail for anything and everything. And since I keep gallivanting most of the times I see that with my own eyes. And they might be our enemies but they are the biggest enemies of themselves’ Said the relaxing horse.

Thereafter, they decided to go for a long walk just to graze and relax since they were old friends and had met after a long-long time, to have a heart-to-heart conversation with each other. And they all were leisurely walking side by side, along the river, while the monkey was happily sitting atop on the donkey’s back is when the donkey asked the horse,

‘Boss the government is planning a lot for the employment of human beings but what about us? In the present scenario I neither have a job nor a peaceful place to stand nor even for an assured morsel of food. Every day I need to walk quite a distance and that too across the road to feed myself where you only get some dry grass and pesticides laden dry leaves to munch. About two years back I used to get the same food, in fact better, here only, where we are walking, but today because of these multi-storeyed buildings there is nothing left for us. The horse felt sad for the donkey, and while maintaining his pace he softly said,

‘I know it’s very sad, but yaar, you’re a donkey, at least you know the art of survival and no one expects wonders from you. But look at my plight. A bright talented horse that used to participate in derbies and equestrian shows. But with age catching up I was thrown out of my job. I was then bought by a tangewalla and he used me mercilessly in Chandini Chowk for some time, but as and when tongas went out of circulation, he kept me for a month thinking he’ll be able to sell me off, but when he couldn’t he just left me here one day and never came back. And today a skilled guy like me is not only unemployed but even harassed on the roads by moving vehicles and the traffic police.

‘My dear horse, that’s indeed sad. Such a skilled personality like you; meeting up with such a fate.’ Donkey consoled the horse.

‘My dear dog, how are things with you?’ asked the cow.

‘Not too good. These Indians could never get out of their colonial mindset. They still keep foreign breeds as their pets, and that leaves we—the Indian mongrels on the lurch, and it really takes some humongous efforts to fend for ourselves. And how about you?’ the dog asked the cat. The cat stretched itself while walking and said,

‘Well somehow surviving, only because we cats are of no use to a man. Neither, they require our skin, nor bones, nor our flesh. And that makes things somewhat easier for us; otherwise you can see how they have massacred the tigers from our family. But I guess in today’s time cows are the real VIPs’

‘But why do you say so?’ asked the cow meekly.

‘Boss because, you are hitting the headlines every day.’ Replied the cat.

‘But for religious reasons,’ was the doleful moo of the cow.

‘So then, what should we do to survive, and improve our lives? Let’s ask the monkey who is very quiet.’ Suggested the dog.

Monkey, who was sitting merrily on donkey’s back, with his eyes closed, enjoying the winter sun was a bit amused at the melancholic conversation that was going around. But he preferred to remain quiet even when the dog had asked a pertinent question. After few moments when monkey didn’t answer, cow repeated dog’s question and requested for Monkey’s suggestion.

Clever monkey kept quiet for a while and then opened his eyes and simply said,

‘Become a monkey, rather than a man.’

*****