Saturday, February 17, 2007

trying to be a good man




You hear people say and as a school going boy you read in your thin moral science books- Honesty is the greatest virtue. At some point in your life you realize, indeed it is so. The best thing you can do in this mortal life is to maintain your honesty. So you try to be honest, to be known among your folks as an honest man. However there is not honesty alone, there is kindness too. You do not want just to be honest. You also try to be kind. Apart from honesty and kindness there are so many qualities that define a good person and you try to imbibe all of them in your characters; ultimately you want to be one whom people may describe as a good man. As days go by, through every moment you deal in your everyday life your effort is untiring. Then sometimes along the line you stop, turn around, and cast a long look behind you. You ask yourself, how good a person you had been till date? You remember some instances that give you assurance. But at the same time you recall some that disturb you. With a sad feeling you realize, you had not been a very good person after all. And there is a secret or two; imprisoned somewhere deep down within you, which you would never dare to set free. A sigh churns up in your chest and escapes. You take a look around, you look up at the sky once and you set out to try again, to be a good man, knowing well that the moon cannot rub off its black spots but it can surely make them less prominent in the glow of its light.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

a face in the crowd

You look out through the window of the crowded train you are traveling in and you suddenly see something on the platform out side that takes you by a pleasant surprise. Tired and surly you hobble along the overflowing sidewalk and suddenly in the sea of sweat smelling people you see it. You get only a glimpse yet that is enough to make you forget your tiredness, even if for a moment. I am talking about a face of a beautiful girl. You see her when you least expect. When you see her you don’t become leery or start fantasising about her. A feeling of well-being fills you. She comes to you as a whip of fresh air among all the unpleasantness that wraps you around. Long after she disappears the feeling the glimpse of her divine beauty stirred in you remain with you and you sense a new spring in your footsteps until she becomes one of the crowd in your stale memory.