Poem:Oasis

Oasis(A Poem for the journal 'Literati')

(Dedicated to Neeraj Babuwani, a young office assistant)

One morning while beginning a day’s routine,

Hectic and hard as usual,

Tough and tight as always,

I happened to see him there,

All smiling, curly locks,

Tiny creature, bubbling with enthusiasm,

But quite young to occupy such a place,

I only wondered how this tiny figure

Would do such a serious job?

Tackling tough persons,

Tussling with papers,

Twisting among plethora of difficult tasks,

Would be a little too big a challenge for this cherub,

But spreading his immense gift of angelic smile,

With twinkling eyes, with an expert’s ease,

He greeted everyone, ready to face the challenges ahead.

For him life has just begun,

For so many of his age life is just a fun,

I didn’t know how many pleasures

He had to shun,

For accepting this reality of life,

I was skeptical how this dear, debonair, darling kid

Would face this drab, dangerous, difficult task,

But gradually showing his worth

This little angel started handling these

Serious people with smile and mirth,

Expert in computer,

Agile in paper work,

Prompt in action,

Fast in fraction,

He started winning our hearts.

The sultry, sombre workplace

Now turned into relieving, relaxing fun place,

His funny comments,

His jovial and playful demeanor,

His full of life approach,

Has ultimately overpowered

Our slimy, serrated, serious attitude.

I just thought whether he’s God’s bliss,

Or Nature’s boon,

Or luck’s lovely plan,

But surely in our dim lighted, dull life he was as OASIS.

Poem: Flowers and Old age

Poem: Flowers and Old age (Pub in 'Dew Drops' by FCWE, Nagpur)

Flowers always look lovely in their bloom,

Their delicate branches bear their load happily,

The plants that yield those beautiful buds,

Feel the proud to be the source of such soothing sight,

But when they wither the plants leave them to scatter,

The branches shed off the unpleasant beings,

No one bothers for those ugly looking dried petals,

Don’t they give a signal to those who go for the similar fate?

Our life is flower like, pretty, pleasant and attractive,

We bloom and blossom like flowers during the prime of our life,

Forgetting the impending trouble and tribulations we are to face,

At the end we all have to undergo the bitter trial of OLD AGE.

Poem: Woman, A Heavenly Creation

Poem: Woman, A Heavenly Creation

(Published in CENACLE Vol:1 No:2 Jan-Feb)

Being gifted to be emotional,

Woman is always at the receiving end,

Being gifted to be more sensible,

Man always takes advantage of that.

Being passionate in her attitude,

She is mostly misunderstood and misjudged,

Being soft in showing her mettle

She is mostly cheated by man.

Being truthful and sincere,

She mostly has a rough path to tread upon,

She is wonderfully gifted with moral strength,

She is God’s wonderful creation.

Being softer at heart and delicate in health,

But strong in her approach,

She is an ideal mother, an able sister,

A loving wife and an adorable daughter.

She has an immense capacity

To listen, to understand, to care and to support

Whenever man needs it,

Standing up for righteousness

And for unconditional love with all integrity

She is a heavenly combination

Of caring, charm, beauty, and grace. 

Poem: Don’t Cry for What is Not

Poem: Don’t Cry for What is Not

Don’t cry for what is not

Be happy for what you have got

You always aspire for what is unachievable

Thinking one day you may get it

Desiring one day you may find it

Hoping one day you may achieve it,

Let’s not cry for what is not

Be satisfied for what you have got

You always dream for what is unattainable

Thinking one day your dream may come true

Desiring one day your dream may be a reality

Hoping one day you may attain it.

Be happy for what you have got

But don’t stop and don’t cry

You can better try and try

Plan out things and strive for it

Keep your target always before you

Tread towards your target slowly but steadily,

Be happy for what you have got

But don’t be sad for what is lost

Don’t get dishearten for your lot

Row your boat till it comes to shore

Go with your efforts till it comes to success

Toil hard till the end of your strength.

Because the real happiness lies

Not in achieving the target

But in striving for it

Once it is done successfully

The result is inevitable and unstoppable.

Thank God! You are there

(Published in Middle Space on 15^th Aug 2009)

Thank God! You are there

                                                                Dr. Jyoti Patil

It all began with the discussion why today’s youth is turning towards God these days which is perhaps a very startling shift in this cyber age where amazing discoveries have become a commonplace happening, where materialism and physical pleasure rule the roost and youngsters are free to follow their whims and fancy defying their parents’ dictates. When you only face dismal situations on home front, in your close circles, in society and in the world in general, you have nothing left except distress and depression. There you have someone looking at you with compassion and care and it does not matter to Him whether you are young or old, beautiful or ugly, rich or poor, good or bad. The only thing required is to seek His help and He is there to help you in any situation.

Recently I was travelling  in a train from Amritsar to Delhi, I happened to get a chair car face to face with a young couple with a year old daughter. They settled down very comfortably and before the train started they all fell asleep. It seemed they all were very tired and hardly had strength to revel themselves in the beautiful surrounding. The train started moving and gradually gathered good speed. After half an hour I noticed them all awakened and little worried about something. They were searching their entire luggage frantically. They were talking in a language which at first was difficult to decipher for me but slowly I understood that they were talking in some south Indian language. But later I was informed by the girl that they were speaking Konkani.

They both started making frantic calls to the hotel people where they had stayed last night after having darshan of Harminder Sahib and a visit to Indo-Pak border at Wagha. I gathered from the fragmented information they were sharing on phone that the girl had left her mobile on the side table of the hotel room. She had perhaps left few other things but she was worried about her mobile. I heard her telling the hotel manager in chaste English that they were doctors and had an important visit to certain hospital for MCI inspection and they were awaiting some important calls on the cell which they had forgotten at his hotel. It was very important for them to get the mobile back in any case. The boy contacted the trip manager and conveyed about their problem. But the manager told them to wait and see if the mobile was retrieved by the hotel boy.

 Watching them in such a fix, I also in a way got                          involved and became worried about them. Just to give them some courage to tackle the situation I initiated and gave them few counsels to keep their cool. Then I enquired about their visit to the Golden Temple and told them to remember the Holy Granth Sahib perhaps God will suggest them some way out. I also narrated about a reality show in which the girl was about to loose and there she prayed to Saibaba and surprisingly she escaped the situation. The strong faith in God always plays wonders, it was my strong belief.

The girl then following my advice prayed to God and chanted some incantations for Saibaba to rescue her from the situation. Quite surprisingly the help came earlier than expected. The girl got a call from the hotel manager that the mobile was not found in the room and they must check their belongings properly. I then suggested them to send a ring to the number of their lost mobile. She followed my advice and a phone started ringing from their bag in which they had kept their daughter’s eatables. It was a moment of relief and joy not only for them but also for me as I became more concerned about them. She exclaimed with a sigh of relief, “Thank God! You’re there.” I only remembered Robert Browning’s famous lines in his ‘Pippa Passes’ “God’s in His Heaven, And all’s right with the world.”

                   

Gender Sensitization

Article for Middle Space (Appeared in The Hitavada on 13 June 2013)

Gender Sensitization

By Jyoti Patil

The other day my son came home fuming and seething with anger. I was little surprised and started guessing what must have happened to him. I thought it must be some verbal dual with his friends or some problem in settling the deal with some company. I first gave him water so that he came back to his normal mood. When he settled down he started firing volley of questions towards me. Why, why on earth you always talk about gender sensitization? Why do these ladies come out on the streets and create problems for men out there? I objected to it. I enquired what exactly the matter was. Why on earth are you against the ladies in particular? Oh mom, they talk about equality for them, freedom in all spheres. So why not face the situation with equal challenges? Ladies first, reservation for women, 50% reservation in politics, 37% reservation in jobs and  for particular jobs women candidates are preferred, all these examples show that they are already a privileged class and why, why on earth they need more and use these prerogatives to take on the  boys in any way. He continued to vent out his resentment against women in general.

Oh mom, these women have no sense of direction, more so they have no sense of proper driving. RTO should put a ban on women drivers, particularly the two-wheeler drivers. Whenever the regular flow of traffic is interrupted, you surely find a woman driving some two-wheeler in haphazard manner that too without giving side to other commuters. She would have her own pace, own speed variations, her own quaint ideas of direction. She would move aimlessly towards left, then would turn to the right unnecessarily. Others would only wonder which direction she would take next to baffle the people behind her.

I tried to pacify him, Okay, tell me what really happened. My son then opened up and narrated his experience. One lady was driving a car and she was not ready to give side for at least 15 minutes and some vehicles were honking behind her but she was just adamant. With her nonchalant speed she was moving precariously to any side which pleased her. I was helplessly following her as she left no option to overtake her. I felt like asking her who the hell has given you the license to drive (to create ruckus on road). She was simply creating a traffic chaos.

 Even the other day a girl was driving a moped and had the impression in mind that she was flying some helicopter. She zoomed past me just to bang on the rear of a plush car. Whenever the green signal is on, these young butterflies are the first ones to cross the road and move past all the vehicles whether it’s Karizma or Aviator or for that matter a BMW.  They don’t have any direction sense even if they are walking as pedestrians. Traffic police display all the rules time and again to use zebra crossing while crossing the busy squares and watch the traffic lights. Preference should be given to the bigger vehicles. In that way trucks should be given priority to ply on busy roads, then cars and then two wheelers. Pedestrians should always wait for their turn and if they violate this rule their life will be at risk. But these women always think that they are faster and quicker than any other vehicles on road. And the blame falls on that hapless driver, who unluckily becomes victim of their whims and meets with an accident due to unpredictable moves of these women.

The other day when I was crossing the Ambazari T- point, an elderly lady, who noticed me coming and giving horn to stop, she tried to compete with the speed of my Karizma and started running to cross the road first. Thank god, my vehicle has strong breaks; otherwise something might have happened that day.

Another important Traffic rule for pedestrians is that they should always take the right side while vehicle drivers take the left side of the road. More so they should always take the extreme side of the right hand of the road. You can not walk on the middle of the road. But you can see the hefty ladies for evening or morning walk take the left side of the road and that too almost the middle of it. I always feel like singing this song in whispering tone whenever I see a woman crossing or walking on the middle of the road: “Jane wale jara hoshiyar yahaa ke hum hai  thanedar, pichhe pichhe hamare car sawaar….”

I told him that I also belong to the same creed and what he is saying is just the half truth. Most of the time, the boys on the road are reckless. My efforts to defend my point and give him some lessons on gender sensitization only fell on deaf ears. And the conversation ended with him calling me ‘a female chauvinist’, a new topic of discussion.