The Master

At first it was an open fearful struggle
Learning the skills from the masters
Fearfully practicing these skills brought
Sweat, fear and the master’s angry retorts

As time changed, shifting around her
The struggles turned a strange corner
Fear was shoved behind hidden walls
As she worked with a fake, calm façade

By and by the world accepted freely
This fake outward calm as reality
And suddenly she understood
What lay beneath the master’s hood

They, the masters, didn’t know it all
They only conquered their fluttering heart
So with time, familiarity re-placed fear
And she became one of them. A fearless Master!

~Richa

© 2009 Richa

The master by Richa is licensed under a

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Dreaming of love

Dreaming of a love that her heart desires

 

A blissful sweetness that envelops the world
In its golden… warm… honeyed languor

An enchanting, exciting, electric presence
Making her heart float in its incense

A safe haven that is her anchor
As she charts stormy, choppy waters

Together discovering the worlds spoils
Or staying at home, with a warm fire

It can be all that and a lot more
With the one that shares her soul

Dreaming of a love that her heart desires…

~Richa

© 2009 Richa

Dreaming of love by Richa is licensed under a

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I am in love

The cool air on my face in the morning

A song in my ears that’s positively rocking

The memory of my sleeping son, smiling

When I kissed him goodbye this morning

 

My heart lifts, and my soul smiles

 

I spend the day in work, and compete against myself

Proud of my work, irrespective of its significance

Productivity, utilization, performance numbers sway

Battles lost and won, lil triumphs pepper my day

 

My heart lifts, and my soul smiles (although a lil tired this time)

 

I anticipate an evening in my lil one’s presence

Music, playfulness and nothing of any consequence

Watching movies late night or just sleeping away

To awake another day, and hopefully repeat today

 

My heart lifts, and my soul smiles

 

I am in love with today. I am in love with life

I hope this love affair lasts a lifetime!

~Richa

© 2009 Richa



I am in love by Richa is licensed under a
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Wait… wait…

Pummelled down, fists flying left and right
Black and blue and aching all over from the fight
No! don’t hit back… hold your breath and wait
wait… wait… wait… No!…No!… not yet… wait
 
Let flames lick your lungs…as your breath burns
Calmly the clock ticks along… and the wheels turn…
Now!… it’s your time, don’t wait another second
Lunge forward and hit hard… don’t miss a single shot

Now the fists fly again, with blinding might
Running the enemy to the ground in a flash of light
Gloriously victorious he gets up from the mess
The victor walks away… without looking back

~Richa

© 2009 Richa



Wait… wait…by Richa is licensed under a
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A walk to the grail

My heart sinks and sinks lower
My brain is at a standstill, frozen over
Paralyzed with morose, I cannot think
But, I can’t afford this time I am losing

I have to go on, if I want to survive this trench
I take a deep breath, and dive in the deep end
Slowly the haze starts lifting from my mind
The wheels in my brain start moving again

I smile, looking back at my earlier state
First step had been the toughest one to take
Everything after that just led me on
On to the grail and far beyond

~Richa

© 2008 Richa



A walk to the grail by Richa is licensed under a
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An interesting Birthday!

Yesterday I aged another year (I hope like fine wine).

This time it was an interesting day, started by a lazy morning spent sleeping, an all you can eat lunch with ‘Free Beer’, an amusement park for my son, a bad eye poke as a birthday gift (by my own son) ! And loads and loads of friends calling in to wish me.

Thank you GOD! Not bad I must say. Interesting day indeed.

Next year I won’t mind a repeat performance.

Although GOD, it will be much appreciated if you leave the ‘eye poking’ incident out, next year!

 

Sorry GOD

I wept because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet…

 

Congratulations Mr. President!

 

A horrible day

We go to sleep with the news of yet more bombs exploding in Delhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra.  We wake up to the first day of Navratri (A religious festival celebrated across India) to the news of more than 100 people dying in a stampede at a temple in Rajasthan.

Oh God! Human life is losing its value.  Bombs that could have been avoided with better policing; a stampede that could again have been avoided with simple management.  But these incidents were not avoided.  These incidents happened.  Resulting in senseless and unnecessary loss of life.

I weep for the families of the innocent who have lost their loved ones…

An excerpt from Times Of India files…

There are places in India which handle much more devotees with better planning. A good study of crowd management at Tirupati would have definitely told the Himachal cops that raining lathis on hapless bunch of people is not the right way of managing a crowd.

The management of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, which gets the largest number of devotees in the country, is an ideal example of how to manage the crowd and prevent stampedes. Some 60,000 people visit the abode of Lord Venkateshwara everyday, but there hasn’t been a major disaster there ever. The TTD has evolved a sound method of crowd control. Normally, a serpentine queue forms for the darshan. En route, there are two herding spots. Whenever the numbers become unmanagable, the crowd is segregated in these two spots and let out only when the situation eases. And, to avoid any mishap on the hill, the TTD employs a large numbers of managers, volunteers and cops to streamline the vehicular traffic up and down the hill.

Another good example of crowd management is Amritsar’s Golden Temple which receives close to 1 lakh people daily. Amazingly such a mammoth rush of devotees is controlled by only about two dozen ’sewadars’ employed by the temple.

There are some other places of worship in the country which have been following similar ways of crowd control. A look at the crowd management at the Kamakhya temple in Assam, Somnath and Dwarka in Gujarat and Ajmersharif in Rajasthan reveals a few effective ways: trained cops and volunteers along the pilgrim path; people staggered through phases to avoid crowding, separate queues for men and women; control rooms with CCTVs; and separate gates for entry and exit.

A few lessons from these could have saved many lives at Naina Devi. But, it’s too never too late. They can start right now.

 

She is on her way again

The brown dust slowly settles down
Gradually she feels the lull after the storm
She looks around, beyond the receding tornado
Her life changed forever, an empty hollow

A calmness settles on everything as far as her sight goes
The calm that means she doesn’t need to fight anymore
No battles that don’t allow her a moment’s rest
Taking away any excuse to keep her tears suppressed

In the clarity of the dawn after the storm
She sees her new world… emerge around
Alone standing at the end of the vast desert
She contemplates the time lying ahead

She heaves, breathing in the hot air stream
And she being she… picks up another impossible dream
No, not a battle in its truest sense, but a struggle nonetheless
Slowly a smile forms on her lips … she is on her way again

~Anamika

© 2008 Anamika



She is on her way again by Anamika is licensed under a
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