Shades of Joy and Sadness

Festival time is the time when the atmosphere is filled with joy and celebrations. Suddenly there is mirth and excitement in the air, all that is boring and mundane disappears. Everyone is busy with shopping, sweet preparations, making guests list, planning a trip to home, meeting up relatives and friends.  This weekend there are two feasts, Mawlid al-Nabi  and Holi. Its like a bumper weekend which will be filled with lots of fun n frolic. And for once all those who have weekend hangovers or hate mondays can rejoice coz monday is a holiday.

Amongst all this hulla-bulla, am a bit lost. This time my heart has become immune to all the happiness that is floating around. Somehow the spirit of festivity has not been able to sink in me. Not because am away from home or because am not that religious. I know the reason. I know it deep down in my heart and it has been disturbing me for long. Wanted to speak about it long back but remained silent. Not because i lack the courage to speak but because i wanted to think deep and reflect, wanted to understand some of the things which is beyond my control.

How can i celebrate when i have lost a dear one?

How can i celebrate when my house is in darkness?

How can i celebrate when my mother is weeping?

How can i celebrate when my path is drenched with my own blood?

How can i celebrate when my brother was burned to death while he was busy protecting another brother of mine?

How can i celebrate when my family was massacred just because they went to pray in a building that was different from mine?

How can i celebrate when my brother does not let me enter his house just because i belong to a different region?

I don't know the name, age, gender, religion, colour, region of the dear one that i lost  to human greed. I have not seen his/her face still my heart bleeds for him/her. Of what use is this life if i cannot share my joys and sorrows with my brothers and sisters. Do we have to be related in order to treat another person as a part of our family? Each day we watch the dance of death on the television and read it in the newspapers. Does it affect us in any way or have we begun to view it as a part of normal life? If it is so then nothing can be more abnormal than this. If we will go on bathing in each-others blood then soon we may become an endangered species. Humans are a social being and they cannot exist in isolation. ME is nothing but WE. All this time we have been mistaking WE to be THEM. But think and see properly. Mirror never lies. Look at yourself in the mirror.

              ME

          ///////////

              WE

It was him/her yesterday. Today it can be ME.

If you will be able to see Tomorrow then think yourself to be lucky. God forbid, but tomorrow if you will meet the same fate as my dear one. I will not be there to shed a tear for you or write a post like this.

P.S. Some may think that this is not the right time to discuss such serious issues especially on a happy occasion like this but how long can we go on pretending that everything is fine and keep turning a blind eye to it.  Festivals are a happy distraction. I hope that we don't forget all those who have lost their dear ones. Festivals bring hope. I hope that it reinstates Hope in human hearts. With a heavy heart I wish you all a Happy Mawlid al-Nabi and Happy Holi. May the colour of love and brotherhood wipe out the sadness and evil from our hearts though we will never be able to see our dear ones again. May their death be a reminder to us that  violence does no good. Please remember them in your prayers.With a prayer on our lips and hope in our hearts lets rebuild and heal human lives.

Pic1:  www.nonziescraps.com/.../mawlid-al-nabi-scraps/  

The End

Everything has come to a crashing end.
Days of anxiety and confusion
Is over
Finally Over.
Yet scared to utter the word 'Finally'
Freedom embraces to console
Yet sadness looms above
Uncertainty floats
But joy is not far
Its just that the moment pricks
It bleeds not
But it troubles
A nagging pain
That splinters laughter into
Thousand of tiny broken glasses
Each piece mirroring
The dance of Fate.

A glint of hope peeps from far
Far far away
Like another sunrise
That waits to devour the darkness
A wait that seems endless
Yet a wait worth waiting
To end
The End.

The Lost case

He looked at her patiently.

She stared down, afraid to look into his eyes.

"This cannot happen. It is not right", she said.

"What is not right?"

She looked up to explain but the confidence in his eyes made her feel shaky.

Never she had lost a case but today she was unable to win her argument. Unable to make him understand the gravity of things, frustrated she left in a huff.

"Hey......what happened?"

"Am going. Just go away."

"Why? What happened?........Where are you going?"

He moved towards her. She walked away fast.

Hey wait. Why are you running away?

He shouted with tears in his eyes, "Why are you running away from the truth? Are you afraid to fall in love AGAIN or afraid to fall in love with someone younger to you."

She stopped. STUNNED by the truth.

P.S. I tried to write this fiction though am not good at story writing. Don't know whether it was predictable right from the beginning or i was able to hold the surprise a bit. Its been inspired by one of the serials i had seen (can't remember the the title of the serial) when at home about the concept of an older girl falling in love with a younger guy. Do let me know your views about this piece. Suggestions are welcome. Love is in the air. Wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day in advance.

I wish...

I wish...
I could go far away.
Free from deadlines, electricity bills, stalkers...
Free from every care, far away from the prying eyes.
I wish...
I could lie down on a grassy field. Wrapped in solitude and pastoral bliss.

Hear my own heartbeat. Feel the cold breeze on my face. Look into the wide eyes of the blue expanse and say here i come with my arms flung wide open. See the vast blue stare back at me silently and shamelessly. Watch the sky turn from blue to crimson to ebony. Let the darkness snatch me away from the summer light and seduce me by sprinkling millions of diamonds in the sky. Let the moon come out of its hiding and play hide and seek with me. Let him bathe me with his silvery presence turning me into princess of the night. Let the singers of the night sing their songs and put me to sleep in the nature's lap.