When The Time Comes

Oh! Mother,
You smiled to yourself
You laughed with others
You were beautiful
You were serene
I was in you.

Oh! Mother,
You were warm
You were giving
You taught me feelings
You taught me emotions
I was in you.

Oh! Mother,
You ate for me
You drank for me
You read for me
You listened for me
I was in you.

Oh! Mother
You gave me limbs
You gave me body
You gave me a face
You gave me life
I was in you.

Oh! Mother,
You endured pain
You twisted and turned
You cried out loud
You laughed in pain
Oh! Where am I?

Oh! Mother,
Where am I?
Why am I here?
What did I do?
What did you do?
Answer me!
Oh! Mother!

You are on earth
You are on land,
You can take in food
You can breathe in air,
You are in my heart!
Oh! My child!

You can scale mountains
You can swim upstream
You have your work,
You have to complete
You have my blessings!
Oh! My child!

You have to think
You have to work
You will be given,
What is your due
When the time comes.
Oh! My child!

My Grand Mother Great

No one can ever be like you
No one can do like you did
Dear mother of my mother.

Your rice pot was always full
Feeding as many as they came
How could you and how did you
Wish I had learnt the art from you.

You were the purest of the pure
Clad in white with not a blot
Your lit face with the toothless smile
Could dispel the doubts in any mind.

You were strict, you were stern
You set your rules, you followed them
We dreaded the thought of displeasing you
But towed the line with full of love.

You could see, you could hear
You could walk, you could work
Even as you almost neared
A hundred years, a centurion!

But it was all but two years
You could not see, you were sad
You remembered all, your mind alert
But you were sad, you could not see.

You beseeched God: of your state
You asked him, where you had wronged
He couldn’t answer your fiery quest
But take you with him to his abode.

No one can ever be like you
No one can do like you did
Oh! My dear grandmother.

But before that day you had relaxed your rules.
Once when an outlander visited your home
You left in a huff, to purify yourself
In the holy city, on the festival of lights.

You touched the young, you gave them a pat
You did not mind if they fell on you
You hugged a nun, you allowed a nurse
You taught us in the end, all are same.

No one can ever be like you
No one can do like you did
Oh! Dear great grand mother!

ayam anandaha

Ayam Anandaha

It is a decade and six years

When the world unfolds

Before you.

You are all but sixteen

Sweet sixteen

With dreams unlimited.

The world as we know

Does it allow you

To dream?

You hear of planes that crash

You hear of teens who fall

Into disgrace!

What would you do?

Follow the path, beaten

To conclusion?

Go into a shell

To make a home

Worthless?

Or open up and reveal

To the world

The pearl!

Rise above all

Make your own way

Challenge the world.

You have to decide

Who you are, what you are

-------------------------------

I have decided

Who I am and what I am

Ayam Anandaha!