These are a few of My Favorite Things

The smell of summer’s first rain

The waft of wind across jasmine plants

The sound of a gushing waterfall

The dew of a mountainside

The stars in a desert sky

These are a few of my favorite things

मातृ देवो भव ...Once again

With all the recent well deserved hype around the issue of rapes in our country, I went back to read a post(मातृ देवो भव) of mine from 3 years ago. I realized that my anger is unabated, and my ideas are unchanged. It is true that we need tougher laws and more responsible law-enforcers. But, what about us? What about the disease in the minds of these men of my country? What sort of hell breeds such base monstrous evil in human minds? For the women's sake we need tough laws, but for the men, is there any hope? Can the evil in their minds be cured?

Education is undoubtedly a pillar of progressive thought, but there is evidently a missing component of moral upbringing. I am curious to know what section of  society these offenders come from, what sort of family setting they grew up in, and their childhood experiences. This statistic will be useful ,not as a political agenda of discrimination, but to analyze and possibly chart a method for improved morality.

As a developing country, we concern ourselves with improved quality of life, higher literacy, and a higher number of college graduates (irrespective of whether the purpose of education is achieved), but in-spite of the very obvious decline in morality in all sections of the society, we neither hear nor ask for improving that. We can safely agree that growing up in a "good" family plays a big role in an individual's sense of right and wrong, but it is not just the fact  that the parents are righteous people, it is the importance they gave to moral and spiritual education. I have said before in other posts, and I only grow more convinced of it, there is no hope for us as a nation when we insist on turning our backs on the importance of moral and spiritual development that is inherent to our nature.

As more and more NGOs are reaching out to the economically backward sections of our society, and taking modern education to their doorstep, I pray that there is some emphasis on moral education as well. It can be done without obeisance to any particular religion, Jataka tales can be as instructive as stories from the Ramayan.

Our laws and policies must be geared towards an ideal society, where evil is not contained, but eradicated; where men and women live with mutual respect; where all cravings of the mind and heart lose to our love for mankind. 

A humble Offering

I cannot recall when it was that I fell in love with you

But do you remember the doubt that first behest you

A while it took for me to shed my vain defiance in full

Perhaps  when a part of me was in thirst to be just you

I could never have known an entire day of futile gloom

Had you bestowed that smile on me that once vest you

If I have learnt to value every unfinished hour of the day

It is a trifling tribute to every single virtue that crest you

Vain now are your rebukes and your distant demeanor

It is your love and patience not your anger that test you

This phoenix rises not out of ashes but from gentle flame

Stoked by those tender caresses that could only nest you

This is an offering for a friend who means a lot to me, and who I often miss dearly.

The other person I acknowledge is a friend who suggested that the ghazal form of poetry might better suit my style. Although I have not strictly adhered to all its rules, I have tried to embrace it in principle.