Thoughts transferred to words ….
Born in the foothills of Tirupati in 1979 is the river named SVUCE79
Imparted with rich nourishment of knowledge and various skills
Forty or so years ago, hundred tributaries left to enrich the world
Flowing through the valleys and meadows with twists and turns
Marking 2019, great kumbha mela for the tributaries of SVUCE79
Under the auspicious of dear God to rejoin and rejoice once more
Renewed with energy and enthusiasm parted again to pursue great goals.
None can buy it, none can sell it
None can enjoy life without it
None can stop, pause or restart it
None can arrange or pretend it
Love is such a feeling abundant and unlimited.
Seeking true love is what we all do.
Love without boundaries
Love without expectations
Love without patronizing
Such love should make all of us free
Oh! Birdbath in the back yard
Brings such a joy parallel to none other
Hours of dawn, draws the birds to bath
Chasing each other, chirping silly songs
Dipping in the water, dancing around the rim
Birds come in groups, one size at a time
Bigger ones chase the smaller ones away
Smaller ones return after the bigger ones gone away
Order of nature right in front of our eyes
Happily they fly away after having a good time.
Burdened by inadequacy of vocabulary, I submit
Alas! My words cannot capture all the joy it brings.
It is the most destructive evil of all.
Enthusiasm fenced and blocked
Knowledge fails to get an upper hand
Experience questioned and ridiculed
Such is the power of “fear of failure”.
Drive this out from its seat in the mind
Success will emerge like a diamond from a rock.
Water in the stream making happy noises flowing by
Waking up the sleepy flowers to wave goodbye
Flowers of many colors, bright, yellow, red and blue
Decorating the rocky bank that is what they do.
Wooden bridge over the stream done so well
Built with bamboos, I believe it is nature’s own
Once on the bridge, one cannot leave
Though the water is still flowing, the time would stop.
Koi fish in the pond are competing for color
Birds in the trees practicing their hymns
Buddha in the temple is silent as ever
Blessing anyone comes across the tea house.
Wonderful Zen garden created at this business hotel
Not far from the noisy train station named as “Shinagawa”
Steams of people running in and out to catch those JR trains
Life gets busy in town of Tokyo, no time to relax, no time to rest.
Hey! Gardener in charge at the grand prince hotel
Few patrons you get are the ones that respect
My words can’t explain all the wonderful work you did
Buddha is the witness and protector of your park.
Weight of poverty obviously dragging at your feet
Hammered at the anvil of sorrow by the devil himself
Parched by hunger and dried by the scorching sun
You dive into dumpsters bringing out fruits of your labor.
Bravo, for braving the darkness of daily life, day after day
Hooray, for getting up in the morning for another bad day
Bravo, for denying the dastardly fate last laugh on seeing you dead
Hooray, for staying alive by diving into a dumpster and fighting the stray dogs.
Au contraire, in the war on rubbish you are the brave foot soldier
Removing the recyclable saving God’s green globe for many years to come
Is this ‘Trickle down economics’ finest example of job creation?
Is this benefit of economic growth that I don’t know?
Nonetheless
This I learnt, I should never complain
This I learnt, I should share what I can
This I learnt, I should never despair
This I learnt, I should rejoice today and look ahead.
This I learnt, there are many more lessons to learn with eyes wide open.
Life’s challenges come like the plays on goal in a soccer game
Live in the moment, face them with courage and no fear
Let yourself in with the best effort you can, sparing none
Like the lightening, holding nothing back strikes with all its might.
Today’s losers will be tomorrow’s winners
Learn to be humble in your victorious hour
Learn to be resilient at the hour of defeat
Roger’s game at lawn courts of Wimbledon
Wonderful it was even if Federer couldn’t win.
Victorious is the one who has not given into a defeat.
What is knowledge, I wonder.
Formless, odorless, weightless and colorless, I guess.
Eyes and ears gather this stuff, essence of daily observations we do.
Gather, sift and sort items well to store in that knowledge well.
Knowledge is like the diamond in the mine
No one knows even if is not there.
Having knowledge is a great preparation to life
Putting it to work is what makes a change to the world.
Cats carry their kitten with their teeth rounding the litter
Kangaroos carry theirs in their sack jumping around
Monkeys carry babies on their back from tree to tree
Protect them only long enough to teach skill of survival.
Humans, most evolved of them all, yet to figure a way
When to teach and when to watch the young ones
Children’s mind is forged on the anvil of family values
And tempered in the furnace of society around them.
Society of ours changes continuously breaking the boundaries
Rigidity is our enemy and flexibility a friend dealing with beliefs
Some of the rules we lived by are not the same our children will live on
Create a rule book simple, honest and humane for better results.
Difficult it was to address our team today
People being laid off due to a merger at work
Silence never felt so heavy nor words never felt so stale
Sorry to see lives running into a storm straight in
Looking in to their eyes, I look away
Feeling their worry by just passing by
Counter on wall remainder of inevitability
I realized pain of others is most difficult to bear
Events of this kind may be happening everywhere
Lives disrupted due to actions and events out of control
Character is the only help, build it strong and resilient
Have friends and family to lean on at times of need.
Giri's Collection 