The saga remains

Greed and pride flared somewhere in the wild,
that night humanity lost its only dear child;

A fire ran, divided the whole known world,
and seas got leaped and lands got engulfed;
winds blew and carried it across nations’ lines,
towns and cities burned, beyond a thousand miles;

ballads and legends glorified several of the braves,
who fought for cause and then slept in their graves;
still many unsung songs were never heard again,
for these chimes just died in their own iron chains;

childhood faded and beauty withered,
science corrupted and art shuddered;
sympathy choked and justice gagged,
and conscience died as life begged;

a bullet was fired and a cannon thundered,
an army marched and a village crumbled;
a husband was shot and a son was lost,
a wife cried and a mother sought;

story of each battle ran along same path,
and each left behind a terrible aftermath;
still the war raged and dined on human souls,
lives became numbers and got counted in tolls;

martyrs were redefined as the victors who died,
legends were retold and the history got scribed;
the fire died out with the humanity’s last sigh,
and left victims to brood on the answer to “why”?

Let the spark shining..

when you stand in dark and look for the dawn,
when the woods are dark and destination unknown,
when you travel lonely and bare under sky,
when you aspire for stars in the heavens high,

when you stand on shore facing rising waves,
when you feel let down in a battle of braves,
when you look for meaning in a world of chaos,
when you are not certain of the path you chose,

when stakes are high and chances not good,
when plans don’t materialize as they should,
when situations are grim and the omens bad,
when body is weak and the soul is sad,

when the ship is wreck and the sails are torn
when the mast is broken and the ropes are worn
when the rudder is jammed and the hull is weak
when the deck is ablaze and the cannons speak

when the enemy marches and the ground shakes
when the clouds thunder and the moon awakes
when the spirits are down and the men few
when the weapons are rusted and the faces new

when mountains breathe fire and the earth splits
when the heavens shake and the lightening whips
when the sea stands up and the winds cry
when the clouds laugh and the lands go dry

when the life seems long and the past untrue,
when your head spins fast as old memories brew,
when the hours race past as you stand still,
when stories unfold with wishes unfulfilled,

when you ask yourself your action’s worth,
when you dig inside for answers to unearth,
when you seek something but you don’t know what,
when your mind can’t analyze the tremor in heart ,

well ,look at horizon as the twilight spreads,
soon Apollo will smile as the darkness sheds,
now the night is dead and soon day will start
so just carry on forth with courage in heart.

Dil do hockey ko..

India hosting the 2010 Men’s Hockey World Cup. Own people, own land; but we are not even qualifying for semis. Twelve Teams, One Venue – definitely one will be the winner, but India (not Indian Hockey Team) is the biggest loser. It’s not the matter that we don’t have latent, but it’s just the matter that how this talent is nurtured.

India produces a new Australia every year, but why can’t it produce players like them. One fourth of India is enough to square Germany, England, New Zealand or Spain collectively, but we are losing our shame not just game by losing against them. And shame surmounts to tons when it comes to ‘national game’.

It pinches when the advertisements in media reads “Dil do hockey ko”. Ever remembered an instance when people requesting you to watch cricket!? But it brims me with shame, when we are requesting our people to watch our ‘national game’. And so does the case with our ‘national animal’. Mere 1400 in number; and the numbers are incessantly declining. And again we have initiatives like ‘Save Our Tigers’.

Today, the scenario is: we are pleading in front of our own citizens to support our nation, in terms of ‘national game’ or ‘national animal’. But as an Indian, it is the responsibility of each n every Indian to come forward and support the ‘nation’. Every passing day, we criticize the government not giving proper incentives & attention towards hockey, but what we are doing at our part? Why today Cricket doesn’t need any incentives from government, because its popularity, its passion among Indians made it independent of such mere helps.

Let’s come forward, and make a future where we need not to plead anymore to our own people to support our own game. In every small town or village, a Dhyan chand is hidden, all we need is to let him come out! Let’s enjoy Hockey! Let us make it our passion all over again!

Dragon vs. Elephant

It started at 2 am in the night. Our tent cover was shouting loud, and it made awake from a not so pleasant sleep. The wind was strong, as if trying its best to uproot our tent, and the rain was drizzling as fast as it can. The sound of dripping and the heavy rain were adding fuel to fire (read fear).

The scene is at the top of the hills, in the middle of jungle, surrounding full of snow and of course the wildlife. We trek up 24 km. all the way to the top. Having our first dinner in between dense woods, we were slowly making ourselves comfortable by NOT talking about the ‘possibilities’ of the night.  After arranging a nice campfire, we packed ourselves in our sleeping bags, and shut off our tents, just in hope that we won’t hear the roar. The time, the situation was like a dragon and we were conquering it hard by our elephant size confidence.

But at 2 in night, the dragon hollered out again. But elephant was still calm and quite. He was stable and was the common strand among six of us. The scene was fierce and scary, but the confidence was full to edge. Somehow some voice was telling us ‘AAL IZ WELL’. And soon the dragon settled down, turned his path and decently the storm passed away.

Later in the day, during the downhill trek, we had another encounter with the ‘dragon’. We lost our way, were moving randomly down the hill without a path. Listening sounds of water, gazing through every possibility of some signs, we were moving down. The sun was about to set and yet we had to cover about half our way. Dimming light was making the situation worse. Here again what comes into play was our ‘elephant’. The hope was full and so was our enthusiasm. Somewhere deep in mind we all are assured that we will reach town without any ‘serious’ trouble. And exactly what we believed had happened. And once again the elephant won the battle!

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