Song - I’m a good looking guy

Ch:

I am good lookin guy

I can see it in your eye

Don’t tell me otherwise

Coz your eyes don’t lie

The mirror on that wall

Says I’m everyone’s baby doll

And my selfie can only reveal

My good looks are for real

I can see it in their eye

That I’m a good looking guy

So please please,

don’t let go of mee….

Verse: 1

Come on gal

Lets do a shoot

Ill give you the eye

And the cam wont lie

I’ll give u the key  

And yull take my hand

Twirl me around

All  with pride

My lovely bride….

Verse 2

I look inside

what do I find

I’m lost and lonely

I’m not surprised,

Am  I right, Am I good

I’m twisted and tied

You twirl me around

A really great buy

But inside I die…..

Off beat

I am a good looking guy

The mirror don’t lie,

The camera holds still,

And I sigh….

Bitter Twenty, Sweet Sixteen

2016, Or Twenty sixteen, as it is fashionably called is here.  The world is one year older, but is it one year wiser? Will it be different from Twenty Fifteen?  That's uncertain, but is it too much to hope for?

Perhaps the climate will change... for the better, unlike last year when the summers were cold and the winter was hot, and wet was wet, dude!

 Perhaps the oil prices will be stable and there will be plenty to eat for everybody - not fried chicken, but rice and dal? Perhaps, we will pay a single tax across the country, as compared to the numerous taxes we pay now, and all our children will go to school.

On the flip side,  perhaps Saudi Arabia will trigger WWIII,  and the dictionary will redefine  the meaning of crisis,  as an act of Isis, while Terrorism will feature in school textbooks as the greatest ‘ism’ since Communism!

Perhaps our children exiting college campuses will find a job; Perhaps, the rapists will remain behind bars, while bars themselves will exit the landscape, making for happy families and happier bootleggers; Perhaps parliament will enact the word 'sitting' in letter and spirit...and I won’t find garbage at every street corner and water on my doorstep when it rains. 

All these answers my friend,  are blowing in the wind, which is fast getting to the point when it is being compared in content to the wind you break – and, which this year, could be restricted to odd and even days.

All this and more will appear on breaking news...raising hackles and a stink across our  swacch land, sometimes for the better, but mostly for more breaking news. 

Hope lies eternal. Lovely quote, but when the central word is used in its noun form, it can have disastrous consequences for the future of peace… of the world and of the mind.

My wife too is not immune to the “Winds of Change”.  How can she be, when “development” is the key word for the new year.  She told me it was time ‘I ‘changed….for the better. 

I promised her I would, but left out the details. Politicians often do that – leave out the details, while promising  a new beginning, that often has the same end.

My wife responded by nodding her head sadly. She watches too much television I guess.

Perhaps I will change, as will the world. But the devil always lies in the detail.

1/1/16

A prayer for a Toastmaster’s meet

Bless this gathering of your people O Lord,

Its fifteen days since we last met,

We thank you for the lovely breakfast

And the chance, with friends,

to tete a tete

Now, help us speak,

but after we listen,

Give us the words

and soothe our tension,

help us laugh, but also,

let our hearts melt

and our eyes...

May they glisten.

Prepare us O Lord,

to adorn the  stage

at the curl of a tongue

or a well written,

Well rehearsed page

Our roles today

Were Whatsapped

yesterday

But Lord, it’s your plan,

So, help us fulfill it

In every way.

Today, Help us O Lord

to manage our time

We have about an hour and half

And indeed, it is prime.

You've helped us grow,

So much more,

than what we imagined

or thought we know.

O Lord, Now rest assured,

with a confident core

we are shy, no more.

Last but not least,

Beyond the speech, and Grace's feast,

We thank you Lord for giving to us,

our talents, and gumption

Wonderful  people, and great functions,

through this one and only

Toastmaster’s organization.  

16/1/16

Why ring? I’ll Whatsapp you!

My son got engaged to an enchanting girl at the beginning of the New Year.  I was requested by his fiancée to say a few words on the occasion… and I was pleased to be offered an opportunity to give him a piece of my mind, that too by his fiancée.  So there I was center stage after they had exchanged rings in a brief engagement ceremony.  As I took stage, my son got agitated, wondering if I’d toast him or roast him.

I began by asking the couple, to hold hands till I finish. They frowned, but did it. I then asked them, what in hell were they doing, getting engaged on world peace day?

I told his friends, that even though I put my arm around him often, I was not privy to all of his secrets.  They heaved a sigh of relief. I then revealed one. The couple often pursued their romance at my brother’s house, and it was he who tattled. As they were leaving his abode one day, she asked him to give her a ring. He replied – Why ring? I’ll Whatsapp you!. He realized his mistake pretty fast, for here he was with a ring - a real solitaire....not a ‘smart phony’ (Smart phone) one.

Addressing his fiancée, I said, my son knows how to handle women, and make them dote on him. Her eyes widened in fear. What was I about to reveal?

Just that, he was given birth to by one, was brought up in the laps of 11 others,  and was doted on by his maternal grandmother (a mother of 15, 12 girls and 3 boys) who is 93 and was at the venue to check out the new woman in his life!  She could’ve sent her blessings by whatsapp, on which she keeps herself abreast of her children’s, grand children’s and great children’s and son in law’s shenanigans, but she didn’t. Dutifully, still holding hands they went down to her seat and received her blessings and possibly well hidden secrets to a flock of kids…

I then went to a little secret of my own - A little while before the love birds decided to feather a nest, I found myself in a dilemma.  My daughter, four years younger than the bridegroom, opened a line of conversation that was headed into forbidden territory.  “Dada , I want a sister”, she said.  We were very giving parents, but some things were beyond us.  So I said,  “Tell your brother to find you one. She did, and the rest is history!

I concluded with these words, “It was Michael Leunig who said “Love one another and you will be happy.  It's as simple and as difficult as that”, and  in explanation,  I told them that the longer they held hands, the less chance there was, that the rings would fall off.

They smiled,  but kept holding hands till they had to break apart and shake mine!

The Child in me

 “The Child is the father of the man”, said William Wordsworth centuries ago in his poem “My heart leaps up”.  It is still a universally accepted maxim, because time and Google have tested it. 

This truism becomes evident when man behaves like one, craving for affection, dependent, and subservient to  his partner even is his wildest moments (that’s the politically correct word) - asking for chocolates and getting reprimanded, asking for freedom and sent to the corner, asking for a sleep over and being grounded!

I too have one in me. But I come from a patriarchal family, and I tell him to shut up almost as often as he rears his head. I know what’s best for him and more importantly, me. I've seen life on earth for over half a century, but thanks to the child in me, I like to believe that I don’t have that kind of experienced look on my face!.  There's more to come.

My child is kind of bubbly and rebellious, and the bubbles surface, quite often, when protocol and political correctness demand otherwise. Our dialogue often goes like this, when I come home from office, after what I think is a particularly successful day for me.

“Come on Dad, I want to celebrate. Let’s go out to a restaurant tonight and have fun”.  “I know, I too want to, but Mum is not feeling well and the kids have exams, I say rather disappointedly (this before my wife even tells me that - By now I am attuned to her thinking on various subjects) “Oh Come on dude”.. he starts again, “you've forgotten how to have fun, you are such an old fogey”.

He continues to harangue me. I tell him to shut up. He gets repressed, I get depressed....and the rebellion begins.  I sulk and go quiet - all of a sudden. My wife and kids wonder what’s happened to this guy, who till a moment ago was all smiles and in a good mood – They put it down to mood swings associated with Men when they pause.

Is the child in me,  male or female?  Sometimes I believe it's the opposite gender, when unexpectedly, as I am making a speech that narrates an event of compassion or goodness among human beings, something I value very much, tears well up. People find it strange.  A grown man crying! But let me tell you, I am not prone to it…. My kid is.

It’s happened before, when I gave a farewell speech to my staff as I departed my last employment. There were tears in my eyes, and I had to leave the room in the middle of the speech. People called me emotional, but it was the child in me that egged me on to become a scientist - generate water from nothing.

But it’s good to have a child in you… they tend to keep you young.

They are innocent and guileless, but they have to compete with the adult who is full of guile, guilt and delusions of grandeur, and often it’s no competition. 

3/2/16