As Hunger Crept Back Into Me

At four in the evening
I sat at the hotel
Having ordered the first food of the day.
20 Rupees,wet with sweat
Laid close to my heart-
Beating with pride and joy.


Full of myself,as I sat there waiting
Came to me a boy of half my age-
With nothing in him but starvation
No pride,just hope
Hollow hope waiting to be filled with food.


My fast beating heart slowed down to think
Pride and joy looked at each other
My day,My labour,My sweat
The waiter placed the food in front
And I pushed the plate to him.


I stood up and walked back
With a stomach filled with satisfaction
What better breakfast can I have?
Love,care and compassion for humankind
For their betterment I should devote my life
For my little brothers and sisters.
As my thoughts touched the sky
To earth I was brought back
By the boy who was my brother
I saw him harshly push aside,
A girl nearly half his age
All because she tried to take a piece from his plate.


Shocked I was
And my dream palace came down
My lips went dry
And my heart stopped for a while
As hunger crept back into me
I stood there stunned
Knowing well that
My stomach will remain unfilled.

Gambler

With yesterdays gains
He started the game
A win and a loss
A loss and more loss
At the end-
With an empty heart he returned
No smiles won
No pleasures to drive him mad
But the game goes on
With borrowed pleasures
"Tomorrow may be my day"
He gambled with the night
And closed his eyes tight

Solitude-Quotes

“Being solitary is being alone well: being alone luxuriously immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of the fullness of your won presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement.”

Alice Koller

“Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.”

Thomas Merton

“Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god”

Francis Bacon

“To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be.”

Anna Lousie Strong

“Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.”

Paul Tillich

“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.”

Einstein

“I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind”

Einstein

There are days when solitude is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall.” Sidonie Gabrielle

“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the world, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.” Ralph Waldo Emerson “When everyone leaves you it’s loneliness you feel, when you leave everyone else it’s solitude.” Alfred Polgar

In Defense Of suicide

   As per section 309 of Indian constitution suicide is a punishable offense. It says-"whoever attempts to commit suicide and does any act towards the commission of such offense, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine or with both". Suicide as a law and order question is on the safer side-while killing others can disturb the balance of the society, killing oneself can't. A major argument raised by religion against suicide is that-since birth is not a person’s choice, death should not be self chosen. Ignoring this let us look into the other realities.

   Life is a duration of time during which "I" is valid. It is important that one remains in the state of mind that pleases him/her during this period. Happiness is desired by everyone, although unattainable at times. However it can't be sustained/attained in anarchy-it is from this realization that all the orderliness of society roots. Long- sightedness which extends for a lifetime is often carried further.

  Everything has an end, be it today or tomorrow .Thinking as a human being with a life span of few years, today and tomorrow makes a big difference. But not while thinking as a part of the universe whose origin and end is well beyond human reach. Living based on the fallacy that life is a duty roots from the concept of God-The best example of human creativity. God was not the product of a sudden stroke of imagination. It evolved as a necessity to put the distracted minds at ease-an axiom in the attempt to prove life.

  To explain life one need not jump into the past or future, the simple truth of life is the present seconds-these seconds with the vast potential to unfold ecstasies before us. A life can be said to be meaningful when the majority of the seconds are spent in a pleasant state of mind or in attempts to achieve the same. So when a person feels that future has nothing for him/her, he/she has a birth right to conclude life. Kanu Sanyal-The Naxalete leader ended his life recently and the news was highlighted in newspapers. Any interview explaining his state of mind before death would not have attracted even a 10th of this attention. Suicide is often treated with shock or sympathy. And this is what drives suicide that roots from short-sightedness.

To suicide is not cowardly, it is not bravery as well, it can be a sensible decision at times. At times the child has to be operated out.

  Irrespective of what drives a person to suicide it should not be treated as an offense. Section 309 of IPC gives an impression that Indian constitution is shallow. Existence of such a law will not prevent suicide. And the value of human life is to be upheld by living a life of quality, and not through a law. Law Commission report tabled in RajyaSabha last year recommended the removal of section 309 as it is a hindrance to provide psychological aid to people who attempts suicide. Mental disorders need to be cured. But the desire to bring about emotional stability should not stand in the way of differences in the same aspect. Take the case of Vincent Van Gogh-he suffered from bipolar mental disorder says description. How can one suffer from being oneself?

Once when a lady's husband died, she jumped into his funeral pyre as he was everything to her. Next when another lady's husband who was not everything to her died society pushed her into fire and called it sati. Years later it got reversed. Will the society that drags a woman back from her husband’s funeral pyre ensure her happiness for the rest of her life?  The question of lady's children remains. If they were something big enough to keep her alive she would not have attempted suicide. All living beings are selfish when it comes to matters of life and death.

Just because the heart and kidney of two persons function similarly mind can’t be expected to be. Thoughts can’t be confined to boundaries. The degree of passion varies from person to person and accordingly the definition of life. I don't intent to justify or to promote suicide that results from momentary emotional outbursts. Nor do I say that we should be indifferent to the pain of our fellow beings. Instead it is the opposite that I wish to convey. Life is not an endeavor that is to be accomplished for the sake of some unknown.

It is from out of complexities that simplicities arise. Many people fail to understand the simplicity of life as they fail to get over the complexities. Reluctance to accept suicide as something natural roots from the fear that it will increase its number. But it is the reverse that will happen. By accepting the simplicity of life, it is not anarchy but peace that is going to result.