The Right Thing!

The Right Thing!

The small child said to his sister, " so I saw my friend bully and beat up a kid smaller than him. I wanted to stop him but did not".

The little girl said, "why didn't you? You should've done the right thing and helped the smaller kid."

"But then my friend would've not wanted to be my friend anymore and I would've lost him as a friend. He is my only friend", the brother replied.

I told the child that he should've done the right thing. He shouldn't ever think that he's without a friend because God is our best friend and always there for us. I assured him that God would've found him a new friend if he had lost this one by doing the right thing.

The thought that would not leave me was "how many adults do not do the right thing with the same logic?"

The Golden Teapot!

The bell shrieked the second time as I tried to hold my seven month pregnant belly in one hand while supporting the aching back with the other. I felt relief run through me as I shot a quick sneaky glance at my one year old sleeping son. I was afraid the loud shrill of the bell would wake him up. I had no time to spare at the moment and wanted to reach the kitchen before the next desperate cry of that most annoying bell.

The bell had sounded an hour earlier than my expectation and it meant only one thing. Ruby Baby had returned home earlier from her shopping. I had already set the trolley with the bone china tea set and polished silverware. The shining crystal serving dishes were all ready to be filled out with the exotic food that just needed my last final touches. 

It was time for the evening tea and my daily routine but today I was finding it hard to concentrate. My thoughts kept going back to my little brother and aging parents. I was trying to form the words in which I had to deny them the request. The thought had occurred to ask Ruby Baby once more but my past experiences had taught me never to ask her for the same thing after she had announced her opinion. Nothing on earth could ever make her change her mind once she decided on a course of action.

This morning I had gathered all my courage, swallowed my pride and spoken up while handing her twenty thousand rupees that she had asked me to get from her cupboard. She had just returned home from the parlor and did not want to spoil her five thousand rupees manicure. With my heart in my throat I had told her about my dad's request. He had to deposit two thousand five hundred rupees as school fees in order for my nine year old brother to continue his education in the village's only school. My dad had somehow managed to save four hundred rupees and needed the rest. I told him that I had saved two hundred in past two years while working for Ruby Baby as a house keeper. I had assured him that she would surely help me. I had never asked her for anything in the past two years and my tongue stuttered as I had told her my need this morning.

Once again, I tried to focus as I dished out the French pastries for the evening tea but my thoughts kept going back to how her face had looked genuinely sad when she had excused and told me how tight her budget was this month while she took those twenty thousand rupees from my hand that she was going to put in her purse for shopping.

The Vanity!

     I saw her bending over and felt like a crystal glass had just slipped through my fingers and shattered to those million tiny little pieces that can never be pieced back together. I had a déjà vu feeling mixed with a sense of irreplaceable loss. With a sadness  I realized that I was not really surprised at the surprise. 

I looked at the figure bending over in front of me and tried to recall all the reasons for which I had put her up on that pedestal in my thoughts from where she had taken a plunge in this past instant!

     I had met her a few months back and she had won my heart over with all her finesse, manners, and talk of humanity. She had come across as a genuine person with her merry go round nature. She seemed like a compassionate person with her easy ability to laugh and cry at the smallest of things. I admired her artistic taste and friendly nature. Now, looking at her bent back, I felt a stab near my own heart trying not to feel this much hurt. Was I disappointed in her or my own judgement? I pondered! 

     We had gone to visit our mutual friend who had just moved into her just finished grand new house. Our mutual friend was giving us a tour of her mini mansion. My friend started talking about the time she had built her own house and reminiscing the experience. She started emphasizing the importance of quality and brand names. With an air of ostentation, she stated a brand name that she had used in her own house and bend over to check the brand name carved at the bottom of the tap in the bathroom sink of our mutual friend. I wanted to stop her but failed to even make a move. she bent over and my illusion fell, like a crystal glass slipped through my fingers and shattered into those million little tiny pieces that can never be pieced back together.

21 & Above!

The Dazzle!

21 & Above!

He woke up to the smell of his own vomit by the roadside. He had no idea at what point last night had he fallen in that ditch. It was absolutely not how he had envisioned this morning to be, not even remotely close. Yesterday was his twenty first birthday. He had been planning and looking forward to yesterday for many past weeks.

His conservative parents had blindly trusted their obedient son as he had lied to them last night. He had always done everything by the book to their knowledge. He had even accepted their advice after high school and was going to the nearby college while residing with them. They had no idea that a year into college things had taken a turn. He had met a few peers who had introduced him to some forbidden pleasures in the coming years and those same friends had made arrangements to make this birthday a special occasion to remember.

He had met his friends at the night club with a racing heart. His fingers trembled with nervous excitement when he touched the ID card in his pocket that felt like a trophy validating his triumphal entry. Although he had crossed some limits in the recent past but he still was a virgin and despite all the peer pressure he had, so far, avoided the taste of alcohol. Tonight all of this was about to change. 

He immediately liked the girl his friends had brought along and whom he had striped naked in his imagination many times over within a few minutes of Introduction. She seemed all game for it with her seductive touches and flirty moves. Soon the champagne bottle appeared and was opened. He remembered the first sip of alcohol and how he had tried to hide his dislike for that taste in loud laughter and tried to finish the whole thing in hasty big gulps. He also remembered that his friends kept on filling his glass and he kept on raising his voice.

Everything was going as planned with all the fun, laughter and the girl in his arms when suddenly he had a vision. No matter how hard he had tried after that, he simply could not shake that vision out of his mind. He tried for some time and then abruptly got up. His friends were so busy making out with their own girlfriends that no one even noticed and the girl with him probably thought that he was going for a leak.

He had left the noisy bar and wandered aimlessly like a lost soul for hours before passing out in a ditch alongside a road and that's where he had found himself in the morning. He held his throbbing head in hands and tried to recall last night's events. Everything else was a little hazy except that vision and a clarity. With absolute surety he knew that his life was going to be haunted forever by that vision like a ghost and he was never ever going to taste another sip of alcohol in his life.

In his vision he had seen a boy turning twenty One. This boy was no stranger to alcohol. In fact he was hooked on to drugs, a junkie and had already impregnated numerous girls. He was celebrating his twenty first birthday at a joint with a hooker dancing in his lap. An old man stood a distance from the boy in that vision. The old man's back and shoulders were bent as if he was carrying an unseen heavy burden. The old man's wrinkles were wet with tears and an unbearably excruciating pain was written on his face.

That vision had shook him to the very bones. The boy in his vision was his unborn future son and the old man was his dad who was praying his night prayer at the very time of the vision! He knew that for the rest of his life he was going to do everything possible to make sure that this vision remained just that, a vision and did not turn into reality.

The Web!

Honey I'm Home!

A broad smile touched his lips and his stomach growled as he stepped out of the car while the garage door closed. He could hear the mixed orchestra of the working machinery. He could tell that his wife was running the vacuum cleaner while the dishwasher, washing machine and the dryer were busy doing their assigned jobs. The exotic aroma reaching all the way from kitchen across the mud room to the garage increased his already healthy appetite.

All this activity meant only one thing that his wife had gone to the ladies luncheon that afternoon. He felt happy that for next couple of days, she would be busy polishing her silver, rearranging her crystal pieces and doing her best to bring household in order. It always happened whenever she returned from those so called friendly lunch gatherings. The tv would get a rest and movies would remain unseen while she would try out new international food recipes. He had to admit that she was really good at it. His stomach's growl and his watering mouth at the smell of her cooking bear witness to the fact.

His smile faltered as he recalled what awaited at the end of those next days. He knew the prologue was going to start after dinner today when she would casually tell him about the new rock on the finger of the latest wife of his boss. His boss had not wasted any time moving in with the lady right after he divorced his second wife and married her within a year. He knew that his wife was going to remind him that his boss could afford this piece of jewelry despite paying two alimonies. After a few days the nagging would start. She would keep reminding him that she needed to buy another piece of jewelry. He would remind her of the mortgages, the equity loans, car loans, and all the various credit card bills that keep on increasing. His mouth tasted bitter with the thought of all those upcoming arguments. He also knew that at the end she was going to have her way. She always did.

She would get on the quest to find the best possible, finest jewelry item she could afford on installments. She would plan the next luncheon with careful attention to the minutest detail, making sure that his boss's latest wife attend it and then wear her trophy to show it off. He also knew that the boss's wife would go home after the luncheon and tell her husband about the jewelry piece. He could clearly hear the envy  in her voice and picture the emotion on his boss's face. 

He felt his appetite returning at that thought. He realized that it was all worth seeing that emotion on his boss's face. That would be a moment of triumph. Oh yeah, no matter how fickle, how short lived that moment, he would work all those extra hours, take those extra loans,to have that moment, to show it off to his rival. And with this thought and a smile on his lips, he opened the door and called out to his wife; "Honey, I'm home!".

My Need!

NEED HIM ALL THE TIME

I cannot stop,
   I cannot cease,

I cannot break,
   I can't be at ease,

The task is huge, and me too weak,
The clock is ticking, without a creak,

Without His help, my future's bleak,
I have to ask, so I do speak...

I ask His guidance, and a righteous streak,
His mercy, His pleasure, is all I seek.

LETS BE FRIENDS!

Best Friends!

I was taking a stroll in a park when I came across two girls idly lying down on the grass. There was no need for anyone to tell me who they were! A glance at them was enough to tell anyone that they were best friends!

Just like people in love cannot hide it, so cannot true friends, because friendship is, after all, a form of pure love! The exuberance of relaxation and camaraderie changes the whole air around them and discloses the secret of their friendship to the world.

My heart smiled at the two best friends as they waved at me while I captured the moment in the lens of my camera.
They made me think of all my friends and I thought who really is a friend?

The heart replied:

A friend is like the pleasant shade of a dense old tree under a blistering hot sun!

A friend is like the taste of refreshing chilled lemonade after a whole day's fasting!

A friend is someone whose voice makes our heart relax, smile and sing...sometimes all at the same time :)

A friend is someone whose name jumps to mind when we need to confide!

A friend is someone who can hear our heartbeat from across the miles, without any tangible connection!

A friend is someone who is missed when absent!

A friend completes the life.

Everyone needs a sincere friend..... SO, LETS BE THAT FRIEND!