Grow up, Will you!

        Cross your feet, elbows off the table, hold the spoon in your right hand, don't slouch! No playing in the mud. Don't get your clothes dirty. And the list goes on and on. Any idea who these instructions are for?

        Tiny toddlers and kindergartners hear this almost everyday. In the hope of raising an ideal child who fits into society's perfect mould, we now have children who would prefer to sit at home and play on their Play Stations rather than go out, make new friends and have a ball. In the urgent need of preparing the citizens of tomorrow, we have deprived them of being children today.

        Our fondest childhood memories are of evenings spent on the grounds playing out late, being yelled at to return home. Photos reveal hundreds of naughty, impish and mischievous smiles that were caught unawares. Today, its near to impossible to get candid pictures of children since they have already learned to pose and look 'cool'. School kids talk about Honey Singh and Sunny Leone and how amazing they are. They learn to sing all the popular songs and groove to them without thinking whether the songs even appealed to them personally or not. They try to emulate the way grown-ups dress and follow suit, pun intended.

          They miss out on all the actual childhood experiences that shape us into who we are. As a result tomorrow's future will raise clones who have similar pasts with a similar reservoir of memories and experiences and nothing unique.

           The next time you ask a kid to 'Grow up', think twice and maybe just allow them to grow.

Pinch of Salt

If variety is the spice of life,
I've got a mighty spicy one.
With myriad flavours and colours
My taste buds definitely have fun!

First are the evergreens,
Perpetually dripping with sweetness,
You can always count on them
To be your loyal witness.

Then comes the sour
With a slight taste of tang,
You accept them as they are,
Though of your loses, they sang.

The challenges in life mount each day
With every bite of the annoyingly bitter.
However hard to swallow they may be,
They go a long way in making life better.

The tantalizing and delicious
Make it a point to add flavour.
They are the reason why
The beauty in life, you can savour.

Never forget that precious handful,
Who helped you learn from your faults
Cause life is bland and boring
Without that pinch of salt!

The Little Window

The first rays bring with it
One more dreaded day
It says to me, "The night has passed,
Will you live today?"

When the gavel pounded the hardwood,
And the bench stood firm,
The sentence was declared for life.
A criminal I was termed.

Little did I know then,
A death sentence could've given me life
However few the moments,
They would have sufficed.

Awaiting that final moment now,
I die each hour of the day.
Staring into that ray of light,
Watching the sparrows at play.

Beyond that tiny window,
With the tightly spaced bars
The world struggles to catch up with time
And whizzes by in cars.

"I could lend you some time, you know",
I whisper out in hope
In desperation for a human touch
Through those bars, my hands grope.

The jays continue to mock me,
"We're free! We can fly!
You can no more be like us,
No matter how hard you try."

My heart yearns the impossible,
To be on the other side
The constraints remind me once again,
My time, I'll have to bide.

An instrument of torture it is,
In the disguise of hope,
that innocent looking window, a never-ending kaleidoscope.

A darker hue I now behold,
I am merely time's prey
I heave a sigh of despair again
I lived another day...