I, Poet.

Those who have been to college know how boring some lectures can be. You just need a ways to amuse yourself. Some that I’ve tried are:

1. Playing Sudoku, tic-tac-toe etc.
   
2. Reading a newspaper
   
3. Bugging your bench mate
   
4. Writing a poem
   

The last one used to be my favorite in the third year of college. There was this particularly annoying lecture that was at 8 am daily. No matter how hard I try, I couldn’t get a word of what the lecturer was trying to explain. On second thought, I guess he wasn’t even trying. My first poem was born during such troubled times. No wonder it turned out to be premature. Let me give you a glimpse of what it looked like.

Untitled

Why would one feel so lonely?
When one ain't even a bit homely.
Why should one feel so dead?
When one hasn't even yet felt lead.

This is just to tell ya what's it like,
To be a Gangsta' on the streets full of vice.
How would it feel to know that you've reached the end?
When you haven't even dreamt of reaching the helm.

But then that's not all what our life brews,
You think you've got all the right things when you book a cruise.
Still you feel so hollow inside,
`Coz you know your kids will never lead a normal life.

And then when it all ends in a hurry,
You don’t even get the time to worry.
Was this the death that you always dreamed of?
No one by your side when you are really in need of.

Now you know it was all a mistake,
Something that your son should never partake.
But it was never meant to be so,
As he goes about wielding a gun with a lot of gusto.

As you can see, it’s about a gangster who screws up big time. I agree it was a sorry attempt. All I cared was that every line should rhyme with the next one. In the process, the story telling took a beating. After all, it was all done in about 20 minutes. By the way, I am looking for a title for this piece of crap. Any ideas?

The Myth-buster

The best part about any newspaper is its edit page. You can always find an interesting article in it as the editor makes it a point to include something for (almost) everyone. A day back, I came across a real eye-opener of an article in the edit page of the ‘Times of India’ (that’s the only thing I read now-a-days). And it was rightly titled ‘Myths about English’. The best thing about it was the inclusion of various anecdotes and facts and figures that really gave the true picture.

Though the article was wonderfully done, I would surely want to disagree with the author in some matters. For instance, the author said that learning English, though important, isn’t a must for Indians. It is a must for the development of the country. To support this, he provided the example of Japan stating that very few Japanese know English and yet, they are so developed and are continuing to progress at a steady rate. However, the author fails to see this in the Indian context.

We must understand that India and Japan are two very different nations. Japan, has immense skilled labour and it is known as the ‘Land of the rising sun’ partly because it has contributed in a big way in a whole lot of innovations. Whereas India, on the other hand, has much history and culture to its credit to worry about inventing something that doesn’t cross it shores (no offence to the Japanese, but their products just don’t fit the bill for being recognized worldwide). Also, not learning a world-language serves as a huge handicap as far as global trade and commerce is concerned. And as you know, much employment in India is dependent upon outsourcing. All in all, I think any other country, but India, can do without English.

Nevertheless, the article was most unique and well-written. It even alleged that English proved to be a barrier between the different strata in the society. It also states that by learning English, we are unlearning Hindi amongst various other languages. Last but not the least; the author says that due to the craze of English, Hindi, our national language, has taken a beating as very few Indians, let alone foreigners are keen on learning it. I sincerely hope all that changes and in near future, even this blog is written in Hindi. Amen.

P.S. I can never imagine not giving a link to such a wonderful article. Click here if you have already not done so.