Flowers

I have seen them strutting nestled in arms
displaying proudly their wiles and charms

I have seen them settled in a lady's hair
chatting in the company of people fair

I've seen them gleaming in grand bazaars
Out doing a chandelier's crystal stars

But I cannot remember when last I saw
One in a meadow, earth wet from rain
spangled with dew
hidden from view

It has been long
but if I were there today
I'd go on my knees and say
"You look best where you belong"

I'm going to leave work late today

that's what my boss had to say

and I smile

My son is in bed with fever high

I try hard to hide a sigh

and I smile

My man ran away

and left me with bills to pay

and I smile

It seems I don't get tears anymore

the ends of my cheeks are sore

and I smile

I cut my hand doing the dishes today

and I come up to you and say

"Can I take your order now?"

and I smile

Dedicated to all the ever smiling waitresses of the world, and to the one who wants to be one.

Trust Dreams, Trust Your Heart and Trust Your Story

In midst of all this confusion called Life, often also given the very onerous sounding sobriquet, "The Real World", we forget the things that used to make us smile. Then one day you run across something that brings it all back.

The following I found on YouTube, on looking up Neil Gaiman, while reading the Sandman series.

Listening to this was like sitting in a room, drinking coffee with Alice, Baba Yaga, Ivan the youngest, Jack with his handful of beans, Little Red Riding Hood, The Ugly Duckling and their whole gang, discussing on what to do and what not to do. The complex yet so simple rules they live their life by, and the cliched yet so profound lessons you learn from them.

Then you realize that all the answers you've been looking for, have already been told to you, hidden in these long forgotten stories and all your trials and tribulations are but simple manifestations of what these characters went through while you were tucked away in your bed sucking your thumb.

Hope you enjoy the following video, nice little funny introduction in the beginning.

Neil Gaiman's "Instructions", text is here.

On Singers, Poets and Painters

How can they do it?

They haven't lived my life,

Yet they they speak of things that only I can know or feel.

My darkest thoughts, my most cherished memories,

my moments of depression, my dreams,

they pass it off in the tersest of phrases.

Is my life so ordinary, that

the broadest brush strokes describe it

Or is it so extraordinary that

they make a living out of it.

पलकों की दीवारों में न जाने क्या छिपाए बैठी हो
दर्द ऐसा कौनसा है जो लबों तक नही लाती हो
हम भी आशिक पुराने हैं कहे देते हैं
सीधे दिल का रास्ता निकाल लेते हैं