Poem: Life

Below is a poem that I wrote when I was in 5^th grade. When I read it now, it sounds very funny, because I still haven't figured out what exactly life is! I kind of stick to the last paragraph. Thought of sharing it:

Life

God’s blessings were showered,

He created lives,

Some hearts like flowers

And some hearts like knives.

Life is a game,

With so many toys,

Who are not the same

With lots of sorrows and joys.

Life is a cycle

With so many days

And with so many obstacles

Waiting on our ways.

Life is a message of truth,

With birth and death,

Where fate is the passage or root

in every breath.

Life has a candle,

That guides us to the right path,

And when we mishandle

Won’t fulfill our oath.

Life is a response,

To our stimulus,

Whose correspondence

is always curious.

In life, God always lent me a hand

When ever I fell down,

And made me stand

And helped me dawn.

Life has a shadow

That always walks with you,

But appears only when there

is light above you.

Life is a … er …. nothing,

That has something,

which can be … er … anything,

and it is the answer for everything!

The ‘H’ word …

Homework! Oh, Homework!
I hate you! You stink!
I wish I could wash you away in the sink,
if only a bomb
would explode you to bits.
Homework! Oh, homework!
You're giving me fits.

I'd rather take baths
with a man-eating shark,
or wrestle a lion
alone in the dark,
eat spinach and liver,
pet ten porcupines,
than tackle the homework,
my teacher assigns.

Homework! Oh, homework!
you're last on my list,
I simply can't see
why you even exist,
if you just disappeared
it would tickle me pink.
Homework! Oh, homework!
I hate you! You stink!

- Jack Prelutsky

Now that was a lot of swearing because I typed the ‘H’ word! And I don’t blame Jack P (can’t spell his name right) for swearing, because I can understand how he feels.

It’s September 13^th, a day before one of the worst days of your academic year. After almost two months of summer vacation nocturnal routine, i.e. waking up to find that its lunch time and going to sleep once the light goes dim (I mean, after you switch the TV off), you really don’t feel like waking up before the sun is even up but still going to sleep late after you are done with doing all your school work (from making presentations – and phone calls – and packing my bag at night when everybody is snoring).

“I don’t like this!!! I don’t want to do holiday home– I mean, the ‘H’ thing.’ I told my friend on phone today and she said, “Don’t talk about it!” The fact that I haven’t finished it isn’t really frightening because teachers never collect them on the very first day of doom’s year, or the ‘S’ thing. What I don’t get is why they give it in the first place. They don’t really count them seriously or give them marks. All the hard work just goes in the dumps! And it’s an extra pain for them also to check all our works. I really wonder whether they even check it properly. But I don’t think holiday homework – oops! I said the word – benefits any of us in any ways. It doesn’t make much sense to me.

And if they expect us to study on holidays, well I think that’s completely unfair. But I admit that I forgot maths completely, because I couldn’t do the worksheet they have given us. But you really can’t expect people to learn during their holidays and not forget what has been taught. And if you say that the very reason the ‘H’ thing exists is because the teachers in schools– oh! Here I said it again – thinks that we may forget what we have learnt, I think instead we can do a recap of everything once school re-opens and it’s just a matter of recollection. I still don’t believe the ‘H’ thing is a solution.

Well, that’s my point, but I don’t think this is of any use because it is not gonna help me from getting away with my present homework (I don’t care about swearing). So I think I gotta get going, and do my Maths, English, Geo, Science and so on. And oh yes, I must share this on my blog. Can’t believe school is opening tomorrow.

[Splutters]

[Sighs]

And I will keep singing this piece of poem – that I recited when I was in 3^rd grade in front of my teacher and admitted honestly that I meant every word of it and got a minus mark for that – till it sinks in me that it is all a part of being in school and every adult must have gone through this, just like Mr. P (still can’t get his name right)!

Who Am I?

I was sitting on my usual seat somewhere at the back of the school bus on the way back home from school after a very exhausting day. The fact that I am usually invisible (that doesn’t mean I’m an unpopular jerk) in the bus was sometimes an advantage because I am a very quiet person – okay, I’m not really quiet or it is not that I don’t like to talk, but I can live without talking for hours around a lot of interesting people, unlike some who can’t even bear to keep their mouth shut for even a minute, like the 10th grader sitting right at the back surrounded by a lot of freaky, attitude-ish girls just like her. The only two people I talk to in this bus is Riya, an 8th grader like me (but who talks more than me), and her sister Rini, a 12th grader. I had the seat for myself, so I had kept my big, red school bag and my blue lunch bag on my seat. The bus journey was never smooth but was always bumpy and my bags looked like they were on the verge of falling off the seat. The bus was as noisy as always and most of the noise came from the very back seats. I wasn’t feeling well and the noise wasn’t helping either. One of the attitude-ish girls had just sat on the seat besides me by pushing my bags on the floor.

“Excuse me?” I snapped at her, “Get off the seat and pick the bags up from the floor!”

She looked at me for a moment, like I was something weird and nasty and as though she had never seen me before, and said, “Who are you?? I didn’t even see you sitting here.” and turned away to continue chatting with her friend again.

My temper was rising, ‘Who am I?? I’ll show you who I am’ I thought to myself, and this time, much louder I said, “I think you didn’t hear me, I said get off my seat and put the bags back on the seat properly.”

“What will you do if I don’t get up?” she said, now laughing at me not bothering to look at me.

The next thing I did was something I didn’t really mean to do, but it just happened. I simply kicked her off the seat and she fell to the ground with a thud and a moan. I picked my bags up and kept it back on the seat.

“I’ll have to use force” I gave a late reply as her friend threw me a dirty look and helped her friend to get back on her feet.

Now I knew that I was going to be in trouble because I had just kicked a senior bus monitor. But I was happy and nothing could spoil my satisfaction. She went straight to the bus driver and began her rant. For one second I felt sorry for the driver because the look on his face suggested that this must be the umpteenth time he must be listening to complaints that day.

At last my (bus) stop came and I was going to get down, when the bus driver said, “I know it wasn’t your fault that you pushed her off the seat but please try to control yourself because I am the one who will be getting into trouble.” It was more like a request than a complaint. I just nodded and got down.

‘Who am I?’ the words replayed in my mind and I let out a sigh. This is one reason I hate being invisible at times. But I am not an unpopular person, I'm just someone who prefers to be left alone most times but still doesn’t mind the company of friends, so I don’t give a damn, as far as I’m happy!

Blogging Begins.

It is a Wednesday morning – nope, almost afternoon – when I looked at the wall clock in my room, showing ‘11:50’ and got out of my bed, reluctantly. It’s really bad when you lay awake on your bed till 3:00 in the morning to get some sleep. I only get to sleep like this during holidays. I made my way to the bathroom and after a half-an-hour or so, came out of it. I had my breakfast at half-past-twelve and once done with it, I switched on my laptop and the routine begins. I surf the net for the next one hour – mostly facebook, twitter, Google and my mails – and if there is no one to chat with, I would get bored and shut it down. The only person I usually chat with is my brother (who is doing his higher studies in India) and he won’t be online all the time. And today he sent me a message –

“Heyy, there wont be net in our college starting from 1st September for some while,
so till then I won’t be online, tell Mom and Dad the same :( and don’t forget to blog.”

‘He’s never online’ I thought. I read the last part of the sentence again and remembered that it has been months since I have visited my blog. I also remembered that I and my really close friend, Ash, had vowed to blog at least twice a month. For the next half an hour, I simply stared at my empty Microsoft page wondering what to type or what to blog on. In the end, I decided that I need to give a small introduction. That’s how I started typing this scrap. In every blog of mine (apart from short stories, song lyrics, poems, etc.), you will come to know something more about me. Enjoy reading more posts!