The Righteous Act

                       The Righteous Act

She was born to the cruellest part of the world that she knew of. In the muddy lanes of Lal Bazaar, officially named as Kamathipur, Mumbai lived Laxmi Gaudbole. She was a mere eight years old but knew things that the sixteen year olds were still discovering. She never wrote her true address in her school diary. She used to get down on the previous stoppage and walk to her home. She knew, the day the world finds where her “home” is, she will no longer be the innocent angel; she will turn to a potential prostitute!! She always begged her father to get out of the place but hardly got an answer. Laxmi’s father was a followed person in the locality. Her father was counted among the rich of the community and that was what made him stay there, thought Laxmi. She missed having the mother she never saw and she hated her father. Soon, both the things were about to change.

“This is my last and only option. Please, arrange a customer for me who can pay me 15000. Please, I beg you. If I do not bail my husband till tomorrow, they’ll torture him to death. Please. I do not have anything to sell but my body. I beg you. Please.” Having said this much, the lady broke down. She was wailing at the top of her voice which woke up Laxmi. She grumbled the few abuses she had picked up from her father and peeped into the drawing room. The drowsy eyes of Laxmi saw a woman kneeling before her father. She was disgusted to say the least. Business as usual, she thought and went back to bed. Soon her father barged into the room, he quickly checked if Laxmi was asleep and then carefully opened the old, rusty Godrej almirah. He took out few of her mother’s jewelry and wrapped it in a white handkerchief. He left the room as quietly as possible, giving an impression of a man who is stealing from his own home. Seeing her mother’s last remains being stolen by her own father, Laxmi was seething in anger from within. Her father had scaled new depths in her mind. She quietly sneaked out of his bed and followed her father to the drawing room. What she saw next, threw her life upside down.

“Take this. Sell this. It’ll fetch you more than you need. Bail your husband and never come back to this hell. Now go.” This was not business as usual!! Her father generally bought high-end customers to the prostitutes he “managed”. He would keep the commission and that was his living as far as Laxmi knew. But this woman was not a prostitute. She would have become one had her father not stopped her. Laxmi saw the woman leave with tears of joy and a little later, she saw her father crying. He kept his wallet near his lips and was crying profusely. Laxmi was too baffled to have any kind of response. She was too astonished to have reacted to the most righteous action by the filthiest man she knew. Her father slumped into the couch dropping his wallet on the floor. Laxmi went near, picked up the wallet and found out why her father was holding it so tight. There was a photograph of the most beautiful person she had seen. It had to be her mother, the mother she never saw.

The world had its own weird ways of unmasking the best in a man. The man she hated with all her might, the man she hated to live with, the man she thought was a monster in a human’s skin, the man she had decided never to look back to once she went out of the place, the man who was nothing but devil; that man had just stopped an innocent woman from selling her sanctity to some rich, cruddy, unsatisfied, sex-starved demon.

She saw her father who was now sleeping like a baby, kissed him on his cheeks and whispered “I love you, baba.” He could not hear it, but it didn’t matter. Her world had just changed forever.

I am sharing my post, 'I saw and I learnt' at the best community of Indian Bloggers, www.blogadda.com in association with Doright.in

When You Say Nothing At All

WHEN YOU SAY NOTHING AT ALL

When i touched your face in sleep,

There was a flicker of smile beneath,

But now your love’s gone,

And the fake flicker gives no relief.

There was a time we used to call,

Out of nothingness and all,

I could feel the warmth of your voice,

The charm of your being and poise.

Though on the same bed we lay side by side,

We lie down thousands of miles apart,

You vowed to walk by me till demise,

But now that you’re willing to depart,

I know not what to make out of my life,

The one who mattered being the reason of this strife.

The rain outside seems depressing now,

The drops resemble my tears somehow,

The grumpy sky seems to go paranoid,

The wet earth is certainly annoyed.

There is a sea of vivid emotions,

Caged like a hungry tiger,

Going through the numerous notions,

With desperation spreading like venom of viper.

There are a hundred reasons i have accounted for,

I’m ready to take all the blame if it ends the fall,

Just speak up where we went wrong,

It kills me within when you say nothing at all.

~PUNYASLOK RATH
This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda

MY DADDY DEAREST

‘I am writing ‘10 life lessons I learnt from my father’ at Parentous.com‘

MY DADDY DEAREST

“I would never tell my kid to do anything like this”, this is what I thought when my dad once forced me to call a receptionist of a hotel and talk to her about some reservations. I was in class 9^th and was a total chicken!!! Now I realise that his disciplinarian attitude has made me better than many of my peers and I would always silently thank him for that. ;-)

So how could I have left off this perfect opportunity to thank him in front of the whole social media? My dad loves quoting his thoughts since he has got a way with words. So here are a few quotes that I would never forget from my daddy dearest.

1.     ““I am the best.” The world won’t even listen to you if you do not believe that you are.”

Believe in yourself is what he wanted to say. It’s the belief that can do wonders to the way you work and how people perceive it. If you of all persons do not believe that you are the best then there is no reason for anyone else to believe in you.

2.     “Everyone is good, unless proved otherwise”-

His job requires him to correctly judge a person and as far as i know, seldom has he failed. In his own words, he just described his simple formula for handling enormous number of people with total ease and complete success.

3.     “once you are in, spend like a king”

This was something he said when I was being hesitant to order a dish in a restaurant owing to its heavy price. He said that once you commit to do something then put all your heart and soul in it. Either do it with all you have or leave it. Straying in the mid way would just leave you frustrated and unhappy.

4.     “Do not change your goal if confronted with failure; change your way to approach the goal.”

He taught me not to be disheartened when faced with a failure, but to learn lessons from it. He fiercely pumped competitiveness among my basic qualities. The “never-say-die” attitude is something I proudly inherit from my father.

5.     “People will come and go, but cherish the relationships which are close to you and hold them tight.”

Being employed in a transferable job, we had to travel to quite a few places. As a teenager I always hated changing schools and friend circles, but my father taught me that change is the only constant in life. The only thing one can do is to find relations which would be worth cherishing for a lifetime. Today I have a few friends almost everywhere I lived and all of those relationships constitute my second family!!

6.     “Never ever expect anything from anyone.”

This was one of the most important lessons I learnt from my father. These were one of his favourite lines and he strictly adhered by this. He inspired me to give my best in everything and not to expect anything in return. He said that the universe has its own curious ways of giving back what you deserve. Patience is a virtue I learnt by following this in my life.

7.     “First impressions should never last long.”

Contrary to the popular phrase “first impressions last long”; my father was from the school of thought that first impressions should never cloud your judgement of a person. On certain occasions he would even demonstrated me this very fact. I realised late in my life that all my close friends had horrible first impressions. It was may be because of my father that I did not let their first impressions impair my judgement of them.

8.     “Believe in God but not in fate.”

My father has never ever blamed his fate for anything that has gone wrong in his life. Though he is very religious, he maintains that it is only you who decides what course your life takes. Nobody can ever control your fate.

9.     “This too shall pass.”

My father taught me never to surrender to the stalling tactics of life. No matter how bad the situation was he always said the above line which gave us glimmer of hope.

10. Besides his lovely quotations, one thing that has penetrated my personality just by observing my dad is his willingness to work. Never in my life have I seen him complain for an overload of work. He hardly every sits idle. Even on Sundays he would find himself some work and keep himself busy in it. He loves organizing things and this inherited quality in me has helped me a lot during my college days.

Dissecting a Father's brain

“You know what’s a nightmare to a father-expressing love!!! Ask them for angry looks and their trademark you-will-be-screwed-if-you-do-not-listen-to-me expression....you will get them galore, but ask them to tell how much they love their daughters and sons or as a matter of fact any living being, i bet they would stammer or even you may witness blushing if you ask about the right person ;) .” not my words, these are the words spoken by the great, his highness “BUBBLY”(i wish i could have written the original name!!). A guy with the feminine name which is the result of the emotional outbursts he has every now and then. And this is how i thought of dissecting a father’s brain, metaphorically of course!!

If history suggests anything then fathers are essentially the chief bread-earner of the family and with that cometh the great power of being the lynchpin of the family. And as everyone is aware that “with great power comes great responsibility”.. the father is at the helm of all the affairs of the family. Any geek with party shoes would tell you this!! What though is admirable is a father’s quality to carry out that responsibility with such ease that no one around him even gets a hint of the turmoil he goes through. It is that particular quality which makes him the “father”.

Not that every guy is born to behave as a father, they are simply moulded into one. Mostly by looking up to their own parents guys simply follow the apply-what-you-experience method. The point of talking however is the time when a normal guy transforms himself into a father figure. Just like the hot iron is made into a tool by applying pressure on it, guys become fathers by the pressure society applies to them after marriage. We live in an age where we very often talk about the society norms and rules regarding a girl. Well, there are some for the men too (if you are respectable enough to follow them).

If you are a married man then you are expected not to behave as a guy....that is not to behave like you have in all your past years!!! That is a hell of a change, i tell you!! You need to be disciplined, respected, endearing and blah blah blah!! Your wings are more or less clipped by the society. Suddenly you find yourself responsible for a woman and a child( or children) in a few years. You take all the tough financial decisions when all you previously did was to earn and spend it on your luxuries. You are required to find the best education for your children and may be the best beauty parlour for your lady!!

Fathers have an uncanny ability to show themselves as devoid of any motherly emotions such as love and care. Well, they are not emotionally devoid ; they are just the people who learn not to let emotions affect their decisions and judgements for they know the true impact of a decision on a family. A house needs someone to look up to. It needs someone on whom they can rely at all times. It needs someone who will be their “man of steel” in the hour of need. It needs someone who does not break when something drastic happens. It needs to respect someone who is wise enough to show them the direction. It needs someone trustworthy to believe that the path he shows is not wrong. A house needs a father and that is what a father does.

A mother’s love may cross the metaphorical “seven seas” for her child, but it is the father who pays for the trip. A mother’s love may have the power to convince her child to fight with a disease, but it’s the father who provides him with the treatment. A mother flinches when he sees her child injured, but a father never does that because he has to be the epitome of strength. Not that i am taking any sides, but one seldom sees the roles fathers play. Man sacrifices many a things to become the father he is expected to be.

On this Father’s day let’s respect what our fathers have done for us all these years. From completing our dreadful school projects to attending out numerous PTA meeting to giving us the best of everything..... they deserve every bit of attention and love. Happy Father’s Day.   J

Story of a SLAVE

Story of a SLAVE

.........“ i will be like him”, he said one day,

Eyeing the man in the suit,

“i will work hard till i have enough paid,

And then i will follow his route.”

Those particular words the master did not like,

And already mad with his demand of a hike,

He caned him and had him beaten,

But the dreams he had woven were not to be broken....

Knee-deep in the pain,

His brain was all dead,

A daily plunge into the gorge of hopelessness,

Drove him utterly insane.

“ i will buy that car” he said the other day,

Eyeing the Bentley zooming on its way,

“I will drive it in the top speed,

And make it out of this weed”

The master overheard the boy’s tone,

And saw him as if he had swallowed a fish bone,

The dream was the same and so was the result,

The master had him caned but the dream remained.

“i want to buy this book” he said one day,

Showing a book in his hand to his master,

“i want to study further and be a rich man,

If i be one, then i will gift you this land.”

The master kicked his butt and shouted at him,

“get lost you moron, your brain is full of whims,

you are never gonna be a rich brat,

you were born into slavery and to this king,

and you rot in it till death gives you a ring.”

That was the end and that was the beginning,

That was the bend he was so keen on hitting.

Now a free man, he had no masters,

But not a single day did he forget his blisters,

He made his own path, Used his tremendous wrath,

To conquer his dreams, To live a life that he owed to none,

To breathe the air that he didn’t have to earn.

He shined like a gem,

And returned to the master’s helm.....

The master had grown old and wrinkled,

He saw a Bentley parking in front of his house,

Thinking who it might be, he adjusted his specs,

And he gulped a lump in his throat,

as he saw the face......

The master was seeing his procurement,

And in his hand he held a document,

“If you had not kicked me then, I would not have fled,

Taking directions from my dream, i could not have led,

i told i will gift you this land if you help me,

And here it is,

Today i am as rich as i wanted to be.”

                                                          PUNYASLOK RATH(27-05-13)

A Special Diary Entry

A Special Diary Entry

Dear diary,

You remember how many pages I wrote to you grumbling about my elder sister?? And that too just because she hid the mixture and ‘mudkis’ that dad brought for us from berhampur reasoning that I finish them too early without sharing!! You remember what I wrote about her when one day she criticised me for my dressing sense?? You remember how much I used to complain about her taking all the new pens dad brought from his office??

You might be wondering why all of a sudden I am asking you questions regarding my sister. Today when I was returning after watching the disastrous movie, I saw a little girl probably 7 or 8 years of age walking down the street holding the hands of her small brother who was looking at her instead of the road. With the typical roads of India being filled with potholes, the little guy was destined to take a fall the way he was walking, and he did! The sister immediately turned back, picked him up, wiped his tears and stomped, kicked the road making his brother believe that the culprit was being punished for what he/she/it did!!........

This kind of made me feel guilty. It was as if I was witnessing a part of my past which I was never able to see for myself. I never wrote pages about the time she had changed my diapers when I was too small and sickness had caged me. I did once write about she being my guiding light in her slam book, but I never dedicated any page in you to her to convey how special I felt when she tied a rakhi on my hand. I never wrote about how thrilled I was when she said that she would pay for my new phone with her first salary. I did condemn her for criticising my dressing sense, but never thanked her for making me want to improve it. I never said her sorry when she left alone tired from the wait for me at the bus stop on the very day of raksha bandhan .I complained when she took the new pens but I never expressed my gratitude even in the writing when she shielded me after my result declaration from the wrath of mom and dad.

......the road was being punished furiously by the sister, but the little guy was in no mood to close his flooding dam’s gates. With a worried look the girl began searching something. She fixed her eyes at a store and ran inside it. Being left alone the guy increased his pitch which now even I could hear from the other side of the road. Just when I was about to step in, the girl came out running from the store with a diary milk in her hands. And boy, you should have seen the reversal of mood on the little guy’s face!!! But the girl won’t give the chocolate......... she extended her cheek signalling her smaller brother to peck her which he did with the speed of light. She then gave him the chocolate and they both walked to their home merrily.

Probably the guy was only interested in the chocolate and not in the affection her sister demanded......but one day may be....he would be the one writing something like this in his diary!!