A flightless bird (published in March 2013-archiving here)

A flightless bird

You and me together- but alone.
Life and future so very unknown.
Don't know if I should really worry or fear,
What life holds for us a smile or a tear.
No matter how hard I try and try
Not able to decide that I should solitary fly
The chicks in our nest are still so naive...
and cant let my worries take a chance on their fun filled days.
Their days of joy and days of fun
Little will they know how much was to be undone.
Someday I hope the worry goes away
And someday I hope I can fly far far away......

Mona Lisa's smile(published earlier archiving here.)

I was good at a lot of things in life but there was this arty stuff at which I was a complete blockhead. Or so I thought! Until an artist friend told me, that all of us are born, with art, within us. For a few it gets nurtured in the right way, very early in life. For few others, we just have to wait for it to bloom at some point in our life…and then there are those few who will have to wait for another lifetime to experience this joy. It is all about how it is destined to be and that is what I earnestly believe.

I saw a glimpse of this belief when this artist’s work inspired me to write these two beautiful poems and the only ones so far. I could act, I could dance and I understood music. I could even play a few instruments. But poetry….never….I never imagined I could write and rhyme the way I did. Yes I really did. Came as a surprise to me indeed.

Somehow nothing has inspired me to write again until I watched this beautiful film – Mona Lisa’s smile.

I had always wondered what was so special about the smile ? What is so special about the painting?Even my good fortune of seeing the painting at the Louvre museum years back, did not change the fact that I understood nothing. I was too young to admit then, that I had perhaps wasted my precious time and money visiting this place.

Little did I know that someday I would reflect so much about that painting (or the memory of it in my mind!)

I don’t want to write a review on the film or the painting because I am no one to do this, but I am just going to write about the things I thought about after I watched the movie. My reflections on us -  the women race.

When I look around I see so many things that we represent.

When I think about it and look around at women from my generation and the younger lot of women, I wonder where the majority tilts to. Does it tilt to achievers in various fields that we women have conquered or does it tilt towards women being treated as sex objects with beauty without brain tags…? Who is responsible for this perception- whichever one you think is the majority?

There is a scene in the movie where the Mona Lisa painting  is drawn out of a folder and there is a dialogue about her smile -  and I wondered –

It is half a smile or maybe a quarter? Did she want to smile more heartily and was she asked not to? Is she truly happy from within? Is it a forced smile? Is she tired? Is she smiling because someone asked her to or wants her to? And did she really want to smile? Did she want to project a smile that was fake?And the last question which was in the movie – what difference did it make what was behind the smile?

A passing thought if one chooses, or a very deep reflection if one decides! 

At the end of it all we want to be proud of what we strived for in our own lives and want our daughters to be proud of what we taught them as a way of a beautiful life. Our fate – we decide!

Please watch the movie and let me know your thoughts. .

The tree that once bloomed

The tree that once bloomed

One spring day when I walked down a lane,
I saw a wonderful sight and here I explain:

Fire red flowers in a wonderful bloom,
Adorned a beautiful tree, on a full moon.

To all the busy people and their own plight,...
A view of her, would make things all right.

The young tree swayed all day in this glory,
And thought this was forever, going to be her story.

Alas the bloom someday, had to come to an end
And she never knew how the sorrow would advent.

Then spring had to go and the cold autumn came
And took away with it, her lovely floral chain.

Little did she know with the bloom that went,
All the love she got , became neglect to an extent.

The people who had worshiped moved on to other bloom
All she was left with, was so much of gloom.

But dear beautiful tree - I kept watching you,
I'll not forget that you once bloomed too.

You lost your floral crown as the time had come
For you to make way for the brand new one.

You made so many happy and so you should be,
Happy and happier as far as you can see .

Just pick yourself up and make yourself this vow,
Don't wait for them to worship, Don't wait for them to bow.

Happiness is something that lives inside you,
The moment you believe that, the world will bow for you.

(A sculpture by a dear friend of fallen leaves -  inspired me to write this poem. 

What happens in nature, happens to us - this is the thought i would like to leave behind to all readers of this poem) 

- Ashwini Jehangir Virji