The world can sure stay alive without tiger skin and elephant tusks. Please let them live in peace. We are the youngest species on this planet but have succeeded in disrupting the harmony that exists. Nature allows us to co-exist but that won't just satisfy our greed, RIGHT. Please open your eyes and heart now else we will wake up one day to realize that the world as we knew it does not exist anymore

Hope we don't have to go to a museum to see this nature... SAVE OUR PLANET! BE Environment friendly!! 

Untouchable

My first breath of life made me cry
I was carried everywhere;
Everyone loved me, touched me

When I walked,
I could see the stares
As I were unusual on Earth

People! Educated people, wouldn’t allow me to drink water
Cause I had a Family
But Dogs could since they didn’t have a Family

People! Educated people, wouldn’t allow me to wear clean clothes
Cause I had a Family
But Dogs were dressed in houses since they didn’t have a Family

People! Educated people, wouldn’t touch me
Cause I had a Family
But Dogs were touched as they didn’t have a Family

Hmm… Then came along a Brahmin
He looked at me with displeasure
I walked up to him

This ECHOED!!!

“You Untouchable! Stay away from me… You learned Illiterate!”
“You are indeed Untouchable! Stay away from me….”

I said this to the Brahmin
And these were marked as my Last Words
Will you continue them for me….. 

Warrior

A warrior’s blood is spilled

Who is a Warrior?

One who tells TRUTH

One who fights for TRUTH

One who lives by TRUTH

One who dies for TRUTH

He is the warrior

Still his blood is spilled, By WHO?

Us! Us! Us!

Us, who have shut our eyes to crime

Us, who have shut our mouth to crime

Us, who have shut our ears to crime

The Monkeys

But not Mahatma Gandhi’s

Laugh my people Laugh 

As the warrior’s blood is spilled

As we always have

And always will…

The Tight-Rope Walking Girl

The Tight-Rope Walking Girl

I am a commoner, a person in the crowd. I have a face that almost half of the population in my country would resemble to. But surely that doesn’t make me a “Nobody” thoughJ. Why I referred to this is to point to the mindset what most the common mass in India carries with them; that they are just the “Common Man” who is entitled to live silently and die silently. Those who try to do otherwise are called misfits. I did have that thought in me before I finished writing this book for you. Now I have changed. My eyes were opened by a Girl; A Tight-Rope Walking Girl….

It was a Friday, March 4^th; I remember the day because it was my Birthday, when I first saw her. Maybe four or five would have been her age. She had a cheerful smile that would make anyone looking at her to smile too. Her hair was pleated on two sides and had pink colored ribbons on them. Wearing a dance costume like the ones we could see in old Tamil movies, full glittery although most of it was shining owing to the dirt in it. But one would not notice it as for her bubbly face. I don’t usually take my time with these roadshows that happen around my street. Trivandrum is known for these roadshows by travelers from outer state. “We used to have the same organized for our temple festival too”, I thought. Even though I have heard of these shows, it was the first time I actually stayed to watch. I didn’t know her name but could hear the man in the ring calling her Ms. Something; so I called her Kinginni because she was wearing an anklet that had bells in them, the ring was nice to hear.

On being called her name she went up to the ladder climbed it and started walking the tight-rope. She did it so fast that I could almost feel my heart in mouth. “Holy Shit!” is was came out of my mouth, but no one around me seemed concerned about me making shit Holy, so my swearing went unheard J. She did see me with my mouth open when she was doing the act, so she smiled at me when she came down and walked towards me, I looked at her, she looked up at me smiling, there was this disturbing noise of metal hitting against metal around I didn’t know where it came from, and it was answered quickly. She was holding a plate that had coins and she was requesting me to put money in it. “Jeez”, I felt as if the whole lot over there saying “That guy is so cheap, he won’t pay for the act which he watched”. I put in a 10 Rupees note in her plate and looked back at the people who had put in only coins, “Now who’s a cheapo?”

I reached office, but still couldn’t get the girl walking the rope out of my head, she was gifted for sure. We had a meeting in office about the company’s charity work in which we decided to help a child with his/her studies. I said to my friends about this tight-rope walking girl and all they said was “Wow”, well actually I didn’t even understand why I said that over there. That evening when I was returning home, I saw their tents where they were cooking, singing and having fun. I felt so proud of giving that 10 rupees as if it were the reason for their happiness. With this smile of satisfaction I entered my house only to see my wife, Lekshmi. She is beautiful but can be pestering at times. Maybe I can get implicated for calling my wife a pest but will surely be pardoned cause I said beautiful too. She started with her usual questions, “Why were you late?” “I know you must have been talking to the females in your office” “Nowadays you are behaving strangely” ”You have no love for me now” and then she would start with the soft crying along with which she would make dinner for me. The best part about this is that she knows that I love her so much that I wouldn’t even think about other girls yet she would say all these and later apologise for saying it “Pagli”. I would kiss her in forehead and say in her ear softly “I Love You” which actually brings a smile in her and that’s priceless J. We had our dinner during which I told her about the girl walking the tight-rope, her face twitched but it was back to normal when she heard the age. She listened to it and suddenly the motherhood in her erupted, “Ow, the poor child, she is having a struggling childhood, you should give her some money”, and the almost simultaneously her woman side erupted too “I have tell this Renu di also” Renu di was my neighbor’s wife and my wife’s best friend, they can talk all day.

Seeing the tight-rope walking girl had become a routine in my life, every day morning I would walk past the show while she will be walking the rope, she always had a smile for me which actually made me feel happy. And while returning home I would either give her toffees or some coins which she gracefully accepted with the same smile she had in the morning. But the life we live is only a bubble and we all tend to forget it at times.

I woke up that morning with the enthusiasm that my life is going to be as beautiful as the previous one. I walked towards the street entrance and while walking I had this strange feeling in me. My heart was feeling a bit heavy. I couldn’t see any crowd, “Why?” I wondered. The roadshow was not there, the girl walking the tight-rope wasn’t there. I felt like a little child lost in the mass. It just didn’t seem fair to me, “I mean, how could they leave without telling me, its something imp… I… well… this is not fair…. Aaaah”. I couldn’t stop thinking about it while at office, it was a bad day for me, I had a fight with my peer for having taken my pen!

With all energy lost I returned home, I told Lekshmi about the roadshow moving off without saying a word to me. She was puzzled, “Why should they tell you?”, I didn’t like that question because it was Truth.. Truth is always annoying and women particularly have the habit of saying Truth when it’s on their side. Anyways, with no one to see my emotional drama, a week passed by and then the most pivotal point of my life came along; the day I understood that what I had thought about myself was simply bull****. I saw my roadshow near my office, I was so happy that I ran across to them and watched the whole show, but I couldn’t find the girl. “Where is she?”, “Was she hurt?”, “Why isn’t she walking the rope?”, all these questions were being hurled inside my head. I couldn’t stop myself from asking the ring master about the little girl. “Where is the girl who used to walk on the rope? She was your star performer right?”. He looked up at me, I could see the sadness in them, I could see tears in them. “I remember you Saab, you were the one who used give Mahi toffees, right!”, that’s the first time I realized that I didn’t actually know her name. “She fell from the rope while performing a week ago, her head hit the iron rod which was bolted to the road to keep the rope tight”, tearing started rolling down his bony cheeks, “Bahut pyaari bachi thi Saab, shayad isiliye bhagwan ne jaldi bulaliya mere bachi ko”. I put my hand on his shoulders and patted him, I didn’t know what else to do. I felt like crying but held it back. “She talked about you when she was in hospital; she wanted to give you this…”, he pulled out a doll made from toffee covers, a small one, it looked exactly like her, “Usne apne hathoon se banaya tha Saab, Aapke liye”… I couldn’t control my tears anymore…. “Thank You” I said to him and I walked along. My mind was filled the smiling face of Mahi, “Why is it that she had to die at such an early age?” “Would she be alive today if we had helped get into a school?”. I headed the charity group in my office, we discussed a number of times of helping children but I couldn’t see the need for a child who was so near to me… was it my callousness or was I so hard hearted that I wanted to be entertained by the view of a small girl walking a tight rope.

I couldn’t find peace even after getting home, Lekshmi tried to console me, but I could feel that lacking in me. That is when I decided to write a book on this issue in our country. Days passed, weeks passed, months passed… and I finally completed my book “The Tight-Rope Walking Girl”, it covered mostly into the reasons why children are denied education in some parts of the country and how can we overcome this, the book was on Mahi. I knew her soul would be happy to know about this, but still my heart was beating hard while I was taking my final copy to my publisher. I didn’t know why….

I decided to walk through the same street where Mahi used perform. I could actually see her performing in my mind. I stayed there for sometime with my eyes closed. The visuals of Mahi walking on the rope came before me, I could see her smile, she walked to the other end climbed down the ladder and walked towards me. I felt as if she was standing so close to me, I could feel her presence, she held her hand out to me, but I didn’t have a toffee  with me, I could see a tear fall from her eyes.. “Please don’t cry, I will get you a toffee Mahi”. I could only hear her voice faintly “I don’t want toffee…. L”. I opened my eyes, “Why was she holding her hand out if she didn’t want the toffee”, then it occurred to me that she was holding out her hand to help her… she wanted me to help her… but I didn’t know how… I kept walking

Just before I reached my publisher’s office I noticed a group of road performers camped in the empty plot opposite to the office. A girl almost the age of Mahi was standing by the road. She was smiling at me. I walked across to her, I still don’t know what made me do that, I smiled back. She then held her hand out to me just as Mahi had done in my thought. I bent down and held her little palm in mine, “All I had done these many years in my life was only to talk and write about saving children, bettering their lives, but not even once did I think of doing something worthwhile to actually save them”, we all always tend to do the easier part in life like “forwarding a message or information” but will never follow up to see whether the needy has been done, “we talk about politicians not doing their work properly” but will never stand in an election to make the change. I felt so lowly of having spend this much time of my life in simply writing a book rather than actually helping out the children.

“You want to go to school?” I asked, her face brightened up, I smiled took her palm in my one hand and my book in the other towards her parents. I wanted this to be the first step of many to actually bring the change that we all yearn for. “Will you be there with me or will you stand by and watch?” I ask you my dear reader and I need you to answer; not to me but to you…… J

The Beginning!