The theme provided to me by a friend I just tried to put words and make it a poem. And here it is:

If I don’t start and reach there early I know
Winding like serpentine, the line would grow
I cannot stand in this endless queue
My legs are weak, and I cannot pursue.

Though advanced by years, I too desire
To cover my shame and so I require
This long piece of cloth that would erase
Many a disgrace I very often face.


Outside my hut in this pitiable plight
I stand waiting to see if there’s some light
Came this gentleman, sent by the divine
With his help I was first in the line.

Oh....Absentminded me.....

Along with my husband, I visited a good friend. When taking leave of them, they gifted me with a lovely handbag. I had the wonderful opportunity to use it that very day. All set in the evening for shopping and to have dinner outside, I kept some cash in a purse and asked my daughter to place it in the handbag I had received from my friend. Shopping luckily was done with credit card that my husband had with him.
As we were entering the restaurant, some intuition prompted me to check my new handbag. And my intuition proved right….there was just Rs.10/- and my keys in the bag. No amount of checking helped. I kept asking my daughter why she did not take the purse that I had given her and she insisted that I had not asked her to take. Well my husband’s wallet did hold some cash and the restaurant did accept credit card. So without being embarrassed we walked out of the restaurant.
As we were walking to our two-wheeler, I was remembered of another incident that took place 18 years before.
Newly married, my husband took me to Guruvayoor temple. The temple rules insist on men not to wear pants or shirt. Only dhoti and mundu allowed. So my husband gave me his wallet and asked me to keep the same in my handbag. So sweet of me, I did so and followed another instruction that my husband did not give me. I placed my handbag in the car and free hand had a wonderful dharshan of Lord Guruvayoor. My husband asked me for cash to put in the hundial………oh god I said……..it is in the car.
While returning to our car, we met one of our relations who insisted that we have some lunch. This relative was well known for his miserliness. Try much my husband could not avoid. Anyway he said…we have your watch and my watch, if need be. We restricted to eating bare minimum while our host went in full swing. Time to pay…..not having a penny, my husband volunteered to pay the bill. Being newly married has its own benefits. So our host said it does not deem fit for us newly weds to pay and he would only make the payment. Not a person to leave it at that usually, my husband immediately agreed and heaved a sigh of relief.
Two incidents are more than enough for me to ensure I have my wallet filled with cash when I take you out, so said my husband as we returned home.

A beggar and his friend

Read in a tamil magazine about a dog howling beside a dead beggar,

thought why not put in words to make a poem. And so here it is.

Seated along the roadside corner
Adorned in clothes tattered all over
Begging for alms to see him through
And what he gets he shares it too.

Today he was not seated but sprawled
A scene so different as he was walled
By the many who did throng
Letting him die they moved along.

Sitting beside was his four-legged friend
Someone who with him did append
Gratitude was what it did show
By staying beside when others did go.

When whole human kind was against him
Finding not a morsel to eat and life was dim
Here was a heart showering & sharing love and meal
With the beggar’s demise, life now has lost the zeal

As his howling seemed to deepen
People considered it an evil omen
They threw stones to shoo him away
But he stood transfixed filled with dismay.

Mom's home

Trying yet to come to terms
And overcome the sadness engulfing us
Due to our dear mother’s demise
A question in our minds did arise.

Who would now adorn the role?
Played by mom, our loving soul
A character so significant in life, that bind
Us into a relationship of unique kind.

My sister felt to suit the role, I am tailored
Till at least from abroad, my brother returned
My husband expressed a different view
Saying I was younger, and might not fit into the shoe

Each pointing our hand to others around
Yet the solution remained unfound
In between something my sister told
Took me high which as a treasure I would hold.

Mom’s demise, dear Lakshmi, is a big blow,
And now we need a mom’s house to go
It is in your home that we do find
Exactly what we have in our mind.

school friend

Some are remembered for being good in academics. Some are remembered for being champions in sports. Some are known for being notorious. Yet some for their good nature. But being a student who remains silent and way too reticent by nature and yet remembered is something I did not expect at all.
As I walked out of the Nilgiris Departmental Stores, I saw my husband in conversation with another young man whose face seemed very familiar. As I neared them, he asked me if I remembered him. I shook my head in the negative. I knew him well enough, but I just could not place him. He did not give me too much time and said - I am Sundar from Vanavani School. Oh god, I thought, yes indeed… Sundarram it is.
He said he had seen my daughter Anu waiting outside the departmental store and immediately recognized her as someone very closely related to Lakshmi, a girl who had been in the same school he too had studied. And so he had gone directly to my husband and asked if the girl waiting happens to be Lakshmi’s daughter.
And thus they entered into a conversation. After chatting for few minutes, Sundar gave me his email id to keep in touch. He also said he would put me in touch with other schoolmates of mine.
A pleasant surprise indeed it was for me. Being an introvert by nature, I hardly ever mingled with my classmates, leave alone other section students. One could say my presence in the class was probably known by the silence I maintained in the class. (I remember one of my teachers paying me credit in this regard) And now after 23 years a person from the science group recognizes me.
I felt extremely happy in meeting Sundar. And I hope through Sundar I would be able to reach out to my other schoolmates.

towards my final journey

A day will come when I will have to bid adieu
To all those who are near and dear
Bidding farewell not to relocate
But to leave here and meet fate.

When the hourglass of my life
Ticks towards the final journey
I wonder how prepared I should be
Who and what can I take and leave?

Will my love come along with me
Will my siblings or kids give me company
Will I have to be alone in the final journey
When my soul leaves behind the body?

Will the jewels and wealth be of any need
Or will the attires I had be of any use
Will I have to leave behind my lovely house
And all that I had prized along with my spouse?

Will the anger I sometimes showed
Over power the love I had showered
Will there be some cherished memories
Or remembered of my great follies

I know I would not need jewels or wealth
Nor would I need house or the clothes I held
For life is short and full of surprises
And we are left with no choices.

I realize that all I want before I leave
Are some fond memories and happy thoughts
By leading a life filled with joy and cheer
And be remembered by all I hold dear.

Friendship is what we did share
Relationship so very genuine and rare
And then some acts I began to misdo
Too late when I began to rue.

A jealous feeling engulfed me
For I wanted friends to be close to me
And so I tied an invisible rope
Binding them, and not able to cope.

Writhing very much, heart filled with pain
And yet from me they did not refrain
Waiting patiently for me to understand
That friendship sans any type of band.

Fool that I was I failed to get the message
Bind I did tighten, and created a slippage.
Endurance power they seemed to lose
And soon to me they bid their adieus.

I stand all alone looking at the horizon
Because of the folly never to be undone.
Filling my heart with feelings of jealousy
Losing everything, I wander aimlessly.

To my mother

As I entered my mother’s place

I felt a shiver run down my spine
Waiting were you inside the ice box
For your son to have a glimpse of you.

Your face showing a look of serene
As if under the caress of gentle sleep
Decades of pain you went through
Now you are released from all sorrow.

Kith and kin paid their condolences
Crying out loud - why you had to leave
And this ma makes me wonder
Are you aware of the love they shower?

Their heart filled with gratitude
Your generosity they had forever valued
For even in times of pain all day through
You invited them with a loving smile

It hurts a lot to let you go
But we were given no other choice
And then I feel you sent a smile
A smile that says I am with you.

A whisper too you send to me
Telling us not to grieve
For you have joined dad above
To shower us with eternal love.

The blind beggar

Seated on a bus by the window side
I saw him climb up with cane as aide
His eyes covered with dark glasses
He extends the bowl to the masses.

Tapping his cane he reaches each seat
Saddening the travellers at his pitiable plight,
Into his bowl the coins find the way
He profusely thanks and moves away.

The driver returns to start the bus
We shout out to him in chorus
Helping the blind man climb down
Happy we feel to erase his frown.

As the bus moves, I happen to notice
A Change in our blind man’s status
Dark glasses his face sans
And the cane waving in his hands.

Laughing heartily as I look by
He bids me a barbed goodbye
From the bowl he counts the coins
Moving ahead his group he joins.

The manipulated lot

None to care or show concern
Different places they stand to earn
Be it temple entrance or street side
Garbage bins or station platforms they reside.

Some blind, some dumb too
Sick to the core, their numbers accrue
Some handless, yet some on crutches
Their face is marked by wrinkles and creases.

Tapping at your car window
You see a face filled with sorrow
Eyes that sunk deep by starvation
Dishevelled revealing poverty-stricken

As you lower down the window pane
You notice her with kid deep in pain
She says, "hungry ma for many days
A little mercy would show some ways."

Suddenly you see her face turn in fear
Her emotions seem totally unclear
Turning towards the direction of her eyes
You see a man one would sure despise.

The sad plight of these beggars
Is revealed when they hand over
What they earned by way of begging
To the ruffian, without thinking.

Taking away the lion’s share
He moves away as they stare
And meekly the beggars go their way
For tomorrow they face another hard day.