The different take - From the other side

Getting back home tired and spent one of these evenings, I had a special gift waiting for me sent by a friend. I quickly changed over and picked up the think book, not knowing what to expect and thought that I probably might lose interest in my tired state. Much to my dismay, right from the introduction to the last page, I just kept going, amazed at the subtle use of words, the deep sense of understanding of life and its ways, the so very narrative way in which the author described her whole family. I could actually visualize her family members………..

Here is a sample…..

High are everybody’s dreams

High are everybody’s rights

High are everybody’s thoughts

But low are everybody’s minds

Yeah that is just a sample….What an amazingly simple analysis of the life and humans that is seen around you.

Here is another pearl from the collection….....

Unlucky is I am

Under the eyes of others

But my Amma says

I am the luckiest to be born to them

…………….

Another snippet ……………………….

Years pass very fast

Our age is also going up

When our parents get aged

High is the tension in our hearts

But no one can control

The flow of years

Truly, the poet a very gifted and sensitive person who understands the turmoil of life and people around her.

There is a paragraph where the author writes about her mother and compares her with Goddess Parvathy. She essays how her mother is an avatar of the Goddess itself because she ‘defends her whenever my dignity is witfully questioned’.

The poems on Achan and Amma (father and mother) truly exceptional, talking about the qualities of parents which most of us take for granted. The poem about her ettan (brother) shows the deep bond she shares with her brother and how much she wishes for his well being.

Now comes another one that gripped my attention. A poem on cousins……. An excerpt

Really some are very loving

They give me sweet chocos

And treat me just sister like

Others really treat me as

Girl of no fun and senses

High is the need

Entire world should have an empathy

So deep is the sense of anguish at an insensitive world that she has brought out in the last line…please note she used empathy and not sympathy. On her paternal grandmother she says she made her father a good man.

Another excerpt that forces you to think…….

True verb does not mean your icon

Does not mean your ugly chauvinism

But the inner selfless attitude

At this point I would like to reveal that poet is a little girl of 14. That is when you realize and are astounded how much of a profound understanding she has of the things around her.

There is one on women’s day which goes………

Gender is what makes us soft

Really it makes us strong

Your bones cannot make

The world great in peace

The one on death……. truly I am lost for words

Unethic is death

Yet your companion from birth

Untimely it hugs

Yet you will never tug……….

Here goes another which says

In football, dear are other countries to us

While in cricket, we love only our country

Here is another on a topic that is badly needed - Rape

Good thoughts and good deeds

Make men differ from animals

But there are animals better

Than man to its girls members………

Such an observation, so true and on the spot, put across so simply by a child of fourteen.

At this point I would like to reveal another truth, this child is autistic !!!  I did some reading up on what is autism, but the one which struck me most is what the author herself has written in her book – 'Autism as I experience, is a terrible problem of communication'. I was amazed that someone who can communicate so well through her writings is saying this. But I guess that is the stark reality of life that she has been living with all her life. She goes on to state ‘Highly glad when we are appreciated as fellow beings’. These lines truly reminded me of one of my favourite movies ‘Taare zameen par’ which spoke about dyslexia and also how parents push their children in directions that they may not be suitable for them, how parents thrust their ambition on their children and how insensitive and intolerant we as a society are towards those of us who are differently abled. We fail to see their ability and just see that they are different.  Isn’t it true that God made each of us different with a purpose,  isn’t it true that he intended each one of us to be what we are, and we did not have a choice in this. We fail to see that each of God’s creation is meant to be and hence, ridicule others without a thought for their dignity and the anguish we cause them, deep down that no one can see. We only worry about the scars that can be seen and not otherwise. Look at what she has written for autism…….

High citadels are needed

For hiding the autistics

When the world around

Laughs at them……….

The above lines, I hope prompt each and every one of us to think and act. Let us not sympathise, empathy is what is needed for unless you are in a similar situation you cannot truly feel what's it like. This little poet really set me thinking and I am eagerly looking forward to her next book.  I have no doubt that she is truly a gift from God above not just to her parents, but for all of us. To my friend who thought of sharing her book with me, what more can I say but ‘ Thank you’ for opening my eyes.

I wish I could reproduce each of her poems out here………..