Is this a Goodbye?

Of the 17 years you lived in the same city as me, little did I know how quickly the years would fly away.
Of the 14 years we were mere acquaintances, little did I think that we would even have to face this day.
Of the 3 years that we were closest to each other, little did I know that this day would be so difficult.
But how can I be here sitting and counting the years we were together,
when I know so well that today your leaving for a far away place and i may not see you for a good amount of years.....
What are these numbers? they are figures defining the quantity of time we have been together.
But these moments are too special to express in a matter of mere numbers.
These moments are too special to even describe in words.

What can I say, today, the day you cross oceans to live out your dreams?
Today, the day you put your past behind you and only step forward into what life has to offer you.
Today, the day you say your goodbyes to the people who saw you grow and lived your life with you.
I cannot help but think of the innumerable times we have spent sharing joys, sorrows, laughter, tears and more than anything our vastly different lives.

I cannot help but recall every day that we spent together, be it at college, or at church, or the summer club, or evening are daily animated evening walks.
I go back to each and every moment, and though its all spread out into a span of years... every memory is still so clear...still so unforgettable.
And i dread to think that for the next few years you are going to be so far away.
You're going to be away from me.... after me having grown so close to you.

Of course, i understand what lies before you, your future is all planned and your ready to take off.
To soar into your life, all set and ready to do what you love, to live out your dream.
And i do wish you all the very best for every step you take and for every decision you will have to make.
I wish you all the happiness this world can give you. If you were near i'd take care of it myself.

My humble prayer to God is that he nurtures you like a little bird under her mothers wing.
I pray that he teaches you to fly high, and that he allows you to fall the 1st couple of times,
just so that you know that failure is inevitable.
I pray that you learn from your mistakes and then never fall again.
I wish you all the strength you could have because now your world is growing bigger and you will have to live stronger.
I wish you humility, so that no matter where you are in this world, no matter who or what you become, you can still get down on your knees and thank the mighty one for every breath he has given you.
I wish you all that makes your heart leap, for what good is life if you can't Love what you do?
I wish you the courage to take risks, and yet enough knowledge to know not to be a fool.

It still hasn't totally sunk in that you are going to be away for so long, when it does sink in, I probably wont be able to read this myself because of how flooded with tears my eyes may get.
Or maybe its just that I don't feel its a goodbye,
maybe I know that your'e going but I know better that somewhere deep down within me,
memories made and lessons learnt will suffice to actually make it feel like you haven't gone away.
I may not have my best friend sitting right beside me, shes probably somewhere around the world.
but wherever she is shes surely thinking about me just as much as I am of her.

So is this a goodbye or is it not?
Because it doesn't fell like one at all, at least not yet.
You were never staying in the same city as me as much as you stayed in my heart.
So even if you're oceans away, I still know that you are really close.
and yes, maybe I wont cry a single tear today when I bid you farewell.
Maybe I will though, when i'm in a train, or when i'm walking in the evening, or when I go to college.
Maybe a tear will fall when I eat at the places we ate together or when I sing the songs I sang with you.
But whenever I think of you, you can be sure that i'm not upset that you're gone,
but it's inevitable that your presence will me missed deeply by me.

I love you Ren :*

In a Crowd

He walks that road everyday, smiles at the people he recognizes,
waves to friendlier ones and speaks a word or two with the best of the lot.
Its a daily routine now to walk this road,
not just because his doctors have advised him to get out more often.
But because seeing the outside world is so much better than battling the inside.

As people pass him by, he can recognize fake smiles, smiles of pity and the real ones.
But he's used to it now, its not common in this small town to see a man with no hair.
So what if there exist different catagories of smiles,
at least he's got his own to make someone else's day.

This walk for him is more than just exercise, it's his form of exploring what little of the world he can.
With a salary of just enough to take care of himself,
he can only see the world in magazines and newspapers from the street side paper-vendors.
More reason to walk just this road.
He walks this same road again and again, because every time he walks it, there something different to see.

A mother with her child, an old man with a hunch, a newly wed couple, a beggar sad and alone,
A business man on a phone call, a musician with his instrument, a fruit vendor selling goods.
He notices a lot about these people, how they all smile back at him as though they are friends of many years.
And yet are complete strangers to each other.
How, not even once, will they smile at one another until they have some business with each other.
How they too walk the same street everyday, and yet cannot recognize one face from the other.
And here he was, recognizing people as though they were family.

What about him allowed him to see more than the others did?
Did he have nothing better to do? did he not have family or friends or a business to look after?
Why was he walking this street everyday?

The difference between him and the other people who walked that street.....
Was that his death was already determined by the cells in his body, he knew his time here on earth.

Then why walk a street? why not do something amazing? travel the world, try bungee jumping, 

climb mount Everest.... why walk the same street everyday?

Of what use is life if you travel the whole world and still not have someone to smile at?
Of what use is life if you scale the highest mountain and still not be able to recognize who are your friends?
Of what use is living if when you die, you have no one to say goodbye to?

At this mans funeral, apart from family, stood a mother with her child, an old man with a hunch,

 a newly wed couple, a beggar sad and alone, a business man with his phone in hand, 

a musician with an instrument and a fruit vendor. 

Not strangers, but friends..... all because he smiled at them when they recognized no one else in a crowd.

The Good Girl

She’s the kind of girl that will melt your heart, she’ll talk to you and make you smile

you’ll get to know her and you’ll want to know more and more of her.
Her Smile could bring you down to your knees. 
And the words she speaks could have you turn your life around for ever.
Her goodness is so overpowering that it could destroy you,
it has the ability to draw you close and then break you into tiny bits.
Her innocence and her honesty may not be made for this harsh world,
but if the entire world was just you, then you’d probably beg to have her as your own.
Her grace, her beauty! She may not have won awards for it,
but she surely seems to have won a lot of hearts in comparison to all the pageant queens from times immemorial put together.
She’s the kind of girl that will work her way into your heart, 

with absolutely no intention of being locked up there.
But you! You won’t be able to let go of her when it’s time for her to leave,
you’ll do your best to have her stay, but you won’t realise,
she’s already gone, distant from you and far away.
And the emptiness will only hurt, not because she’s not there anymore,
but because you experienced something ‘good’ in your heart,
something that while in you, brought you only joy!
And now that it has gone, it’s left you with plain regret
of having known something that good and not being able to have it to yourself.
Of having known perfection and still having to settle for something less.
She is a pure example of euphemism.
She comes to you like a soft feather pillow,
able and willing to take you into the most fascinating dream,
but once she’s there, with the least intention of actually doing this to you,
she will make you question your existence, she’ll make you introspect,
she’ll inspire you to change even if you don’t want to.
And you will then want to change, not because she inspired you,
but because the taste of good is a taste that has you wanting more.
She is dangerous, she is the kind you’d want to meet, but if you let her in,
show her that you’re worth her goodness; you’ll have her forever, all to yourself.
And you will change all of your life for Good, just to have Good all your life.
SHE is THE GOOD GIRL!

Memories

Very often we sit and recall moments gone by.
Mostly of happier times, of more relaxed times.
reminiscing allows us to travel into the past and be there once again.
It takes you back to a point in time where you'd rather be.
where you would love to stay forever.
Unfortunately or fortunately, memories are the past,
And though we want to,we no longer live there.
But does that mean we shouldn't take a little time to visit?
Absolutely not! It is the past that has brought you to where you are today.
Its the past that formed you, that prepared you for this very moment in your life.
take a minute to recall things, to appreciate those who were, the things that were and the you that was.
Analyse your journey from a memory to the present.
Would you be here if it wasn't for a particular moment in the past?
If everything happens for a reason, a moment some time ago could be for the present.
Memories, it's time travel.

A lot of things may not make sense right now,
But if you give it time, you'll soon realize that once it becomes the past your able to understand it better.
We follow are hearts, we do what we have to, we deal with life as it comes,
Not knowing what the future has in store for us.
Not all memories are good.
Some are the kind that will keep coming to us even when we don't want them to.
What may have occurred in the past sometimes seems foolish when you think of it now,
But at the time, you knew what you were doing, and then, it may have felt right.
Now you just know better. So a lesson well learnt!

Memories can heal. They can calm you.
Dont shun them, take the time to appreciate.
Memories are the only souvenirs of your past that will remain with you for a lifetime.

Daddy

He smiled on the day I was born,
kissed me good morning at every dawn.
He stayed up nights when I was sick
He even thought me a ton of magic tricks
When I first fell on a race track he clapped,
Screaming out "get up and run another lap"
His voice may have been enough to know
But it was his smiling face that got me to go.

He dropped me off at football practices each day
He disciplined me and taught me to be regular, come what may.
He was there when I said my first speech,
while my nerves raced, he was ever in reach.
He cried at my performances on stage.
He was overwhelmed but never failed to encourage.
He was overjoyed when i brought home my first trophy
He was always there when i needed him the most
and i speak in the past tense because now hes no more.
On the wings of the angel of death he was taken away from me
My Dad, my Father, a very important part of the word "we"
We may not have been the closest to each other
but having him there made the day a brighter colour.
Its true he won't be there for many important parts of my life.
Like when I get my 1st job or even when I become someone's wife.
But hes watching with eyes of an eagle from above
And constantly guiding my path, showering blessings with love.
And though there's an emptiness that can never be filled.
My Dad, he taught me lessons and set a foundation for my life to build.

10 Important Tips For Life

1. You have to believe in something if not God. Preferably yourself.
2. Life's too short to sit down.
3. Give with no expectations of receiving.
4. Just because it doesn't make sense right now doesn't mean it isn't supposed to happen.
5. Ask questions, you'll learn more.
6. Where you are now is where you're supposed to be, where you will be tomorrow is where you take yourself.
7. Sometimes loving a person is letting them go.
8. True Love does not have rewards and conditions.
9. Exercise your mind as much as you exercise your body.
10. No ten tips can teach you how to live your life, they can only give you an idea of a better life and allow you to change an unproductive one!
    
    So stop looking out for tips! Learn your own lessons! ;)

Jealousy

As little kids, I grew up with siblings or other kids in the neighbour hood, or school mates.
And it allowed me to compare myself with them, to understand our differences.
It wasn't long before we started comparing to an extent that it grew into envy or jealousy.
But I didn't even know how to spell these words back then.
Back when someone's lunch box was shinier than mine.
Back when the teacher drew a star in my classmate's book and not in mine.
Back when the grass grown on some one else's lawn was much greener than that grown on my own.

We were all born with some amount of jealousy and egos as tall as Mount Everest.
Although it doesn't show until we're able to express ourselves with actions, gestures and finally words.
We start off with little things like possessions.
But if it is not controlled, jealousy can do you a whole lot of harm in the long run.
When you think of it now, shinny lunch boxes and green lawns are nothing,
when compared to people, status and capabilities.
We all want what we don't have.
We fail to realize what we have, could be something that someone else doesn't.

Jealousy is a negative emotion, that may cause a kind of satisfaction but moreover it causes hurt.
It causes discontent, insecurity, low self esteem and more than anything it causes ungratefulness.
There's a big difference between being happy and being content.
When you're content you're satisfied. and that brings happiness beyond measure.
It's a state of appreciating what you have, it's a healthy state of living.

So maybe we were born with it, maybe jealousy runs in our blood cause we were all born human.
But growth is inevitable,
and we can all grow out of jealousy just as we grow out of childhood and immaturity.
Jealousy: a fruit of our egos, that tastes as bitter as our ungratefulness.

A Need To Be Covered.

She stands by the well, very little time to spare.
Away from her duties that await her two miles away, back at home.
Covered from head to toe in the hot sun of the Indian afternoon
Not only with the cloth draped around her but also with the sweat from all the hardwork and pain she endures.
As she sits by the well staring at he water surely deeper that 6 feet underground, she cannot help but fall deep into her thoughts.
It's not often she has time to spare like this... with the children at home and with the number of jobs left for the day.
She ponders of how her life moved from scene to scene just like the water in the well.
It rises and lowers according to what the land has to offer.

What had she to offer? What was so precious about her that a price had to be put on her?
Sold to a man who promised her love and moreover riches.
Having a value that's measurable may not be as good as having a value that immeasurable, priceless.
But marrying him promised her a better life, one that her own parents couldn't promise her.
She felt good, it isn't easy making a living out there in the village.

But now as she stared into the water, she looked at her reflection, her face, 20 years after marrying him.
And she's 35 now. She imagined her 14 year- old self, staring into the water, right before her parents struck a deal with the neighbouring family.
Right before she was given away.
She saw her younger self... tireless, carefee, not a worry in the world.
And now came a time where she couldn't sit at the well like she used to.
Now she came to the well, disturbed the water by fetching her share of it and left for home.
Now she had responsibilities, chores, duties. She had a society to keep happy. She had In-laws now.

And as she starred into the water, she dreams of a better life than this, one that she thinks will come soon.
She dreams of her husband taking her and her children to live in the city one day, when he's able to afford it.
She dreams of an easier life, where women like her are not bound to the confines of their houses.
Where houses are not as small as the one she lived in.
She dreams that one day she will be answerable to no one but herself and her husband.
Where society does not look down upon her and where she would be treated equally as man.
Finally she dreams of being able to be free, being able to look up from under the drape on her head.
To look up at the sky or people around her, to look into peoples eyes and have friends.
To be able to trust, to be free, to be treated equally, to be respected.

And while she dreams of a better life out in the city,
Little does she know of how badly women are being treated out here.
Little does she know, that at the age of 5 a girl was brutally raped.
while when she was 5 she stood at a well, playing, laughing smiling.
Little does she know that a women in the city cannot dress the way she wants to.
Like those in the village, she too now feels the need to be covered head to toe.