THE SUCCESSFUL    LOSER.

                                                                                                                                                           The poem  :          You

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The Venue  :         Raj Bhavan .

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The Occasion:      Swearing-in.

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Have you ever seen  maiden, so fair to wear crown ?

So sweet, so lovely, wearing  the  gown ? 

Adorned with grace, beauty, and  usual  tail ? 

The goodly eyes shining like sapphire  trail ?

And the stately majestic head like  ivory tower ?

Have you seen face that  shines like  flower ? 

When lookin' stern, showing a sandal,  he fled  ?

Sure did he fail to notice face  like apple red ? 

But who can withstand her in a straight fight?

Her snowie neck  looked like  marble sight !

And the frame as fresh, straight after  shower;

It's sure that she is born to weild enough power.

Now seen, descending steps to the swearing in place,

Everybody has to admit she has enough grace;

They are sure to be burned in her usual flare,

But barking dogs bark and can seldom dare;

She is filled with heavenly gifts of high order,

She appears as delicate as flower in a holder, 

Much more would you wonder at that sight,

An army and he with her can never fight,

Unspoken faith and timely woman grown,

Such virtues reign in her as  Queen on Throne,

And she can give law and justice alone,

She radiates  atmosphere filled with cologne;

With trembling steps she commeth before our view,

To humble his proud face and make it new,

Behold, before the altar stands she, near the hedge,

Where she is about to take the pledge;

Hearing the Governor that to her speaks,  

Red roses flush up on her cheeks,

Her chorus of friends greet her with lot of sound, 

Her sad eyes longing to see his face not yet found,

With modesty and good manners bound,

She returns to her place in sorrow unfound.     

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Hope she sweat and bask as he has forever for her.

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ON A JUNE AFTERNOON. HER CAR FAILS.

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A girl sweats and basks in the town,

In her dark coat and  with her clown;

She hides her face all smeared in perspiration and heat;

She breathes on her lovely palms; to count the beat,

 She feels fingers hot and burning;

She will go  to her home walking. 

Along the burning straight road,

First heat, the very first of the summer nod

Sun-dried tears glisten on her cheeks;

The first heat of human hurt in weeks.

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 Of the numberless steps, of the ladder to her heart,

 He climbed, perhaps 2 or 3.   

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Tonight, he could write the saddest lines,

He loved her,  she loved him with all love-signs,

How he loved her still eyes that shines!

Tonight he can write the saddest lines!

To think that he did not have her,

To feel that he had forever lost her,

To hear her words in the immense night,

Still more immense without her sight, 

And the verse falls to the soul,

Like dew to the pasture in the bowl, 

What is all this now about her that would matter,

That he could not keep her and shatter, 

The night is shattered and she is not with him!

This is all. In the distance, someone is with him,

His soul is not satisfied that it has lost her!

His eyes searches her as though to go to her!

His heart looks for her, and she is not with him!

He no longer liked her; that's certain for him! 

But how he liked her!  How he attended to her !

His voice tried to find the wind to touch hearing her,

Her voice, her frame, her infinite eyes, were for him,

He no longer liked her, that's certain; for him,

But may be he likes her still; or else who would write for her?

Love was so short, forgetting is so long!  for him, for her?

Though this be the last pain, for him,

That she makes  much suffer; for him,

And these be the last verses he writes for her! 

It proved may be in the end he  liked her!

   

The Meaningful Beauty..

 

Of course, she never denied any of it aloud,

Of course she never agreed to any of it in private.

 

What could he make for his love for her?

He was warned of the dangers of any romantic attachment.

This was his weakness.

He was ignoring the Advice.

He had come for attending a limited issue and go back.

As fate would have it, it lasted 18 years.

 

Quite simply put, the very sight of her, the very sound of her

made him change his resolution.

 

The way she moved, her happiness, her sorrow, all this,

made him love her. 

 

The world was pleasant when she was with him.

He felt the food was delicious. 

He did not feel the mid-day heat.

He felt the mid-day cool and enjoyable.

 

He had heard her voice this very morning.

He had phoned her that he was coming.

He had caught happiness in her voice on hearing this.

Of course she made no comments about it.

He had faith some day she would truly love her.

 

She was an exception. 

She was perhaps the only woman on this earth

who dressed to try to down-play her beauty.

Not that she tried to look ugly but she came to

regard her beauty as dangerous for her profession. 

She dressed pure and simple in full white.

She tried to identify herself with those hundreds of

miserable girls whom mother nature did not bestow beauty.

 

The suppressed grace, the beauty tried to escape from bondage

and reveal to him what really she actually contained in her..

More she concealed, more it was revealed.

  

An Interview.

 

Question.          Hi long time no see?

My answer.      Sort of.

Question.          Where you been?

My answer.      Moving.

Question.          Did U find Valentine?

My answer.      Sort of.

Question.          In USA?

My answer.      Here.

Question.          Here?where?

My answer.      Here.

Question.          Where she live?

My answer.      Here.

Question.          Address.

My answer.      Ashram.

Question.          Ashram? U kidding.

My answer.      Near Asram.

Question.          Which?

My answer.      Near Bank.

Question.          Bank where?

My answer.      Bank there.

Question.          More details.

My answer.     Mehbuba’s lane.

Question.          Fixed?

My answer.      Sort of.

Question.          What is this sort of?

My answer.      Sort of.

Question.          Fix 100%?

My answer.      Fix on my part.

Question.          She agreed?

My answer.      I don’t know.

Question.          Then how U say fix?

My answer.      50% fix.

Question.          Now 50%?

My answer.      100% fix on my part.

Question.          What of her?

My answer.      I don’t know.

Question.          Really U got hit?

My answer.      Like Thunderbolt hit.

Question.          Both roamed together?

My answer.      In dream.

Question.          Then what U see?

My answer.      A glimpse?

Question.          That’s all?

My answer.      That’s all.

Question.          U settled in a glimpse?

My answer.      Sort of.

Question.          R U Crazy?

My answer.      Mad very mad in love.

 

Question.          But when you knew her?

My answer.      Before years.

Question.          Years?

My answer.      Years.

Question.          One?

My answer.      No.

Question.          Two?

My answer.      No.

Question.          Five?

My answer.      No.

Question.          Ten?

My answer.      No.

Question.          Twenty?

My answer.     sort of.

 

Question.          Where U spot her?

My answer.      Here.

Question.          Here where?

My answer.      Here.

Question.          Must be a place no?

My answer.      It is a place.

Question.          What place?

My answer.      Old building.

Question.          Old building where?

My answer.      Old building here.

Question.          On CG road?

My answer.      Near to it.sort of.

Question.          Is it a house?

My answer.      Sort of.

Question.          Is she living in it?

My answer.      No.

Question.          What she doing.

My answer.      Attending.

Question.          What attending?

My answer.      Proceedings.

Question.          Where was She?

My answer.      In the big Hall.

Question.          Big hall?

My answer.      Yes.Big hall.

Question.          What is big hall?

My answer.      Big hall is big hall.

Question.          Must be Sports Club.

My answer.      No.

Question.          No?

My answer.      Yes.No.

Question.          Dinesh hall?

My answer.      No.

Question.          Premabhai hall?

My answer.      Big hall.

Question.          Let it pass.

My answer.      U were almost there.

 

Question.          What was she doing?

My answer.      Sitting.

Question.          Sitting where? On what?

My answer.      Sitting.

Question.          On chair?

My answer       no.

Question.          Sofa?

My answer.      No.

Question.          Then on what?

My answer.      She was sitting.

Question.          Yes, on ground.

My answer.      No.

Question.          Alright let it pass.

My answer.      U were almost there.

Question.          What were U doing?

My answer.      I entered.

Question.          What U did?

My answer.      I found a vacant place.

Question.          Where?

My answer.      Besides her.

Question.          Side by side?

My answer.      No. sort of.

Question.         No and sort of? What is this?

My answer.      It is this.

Question.          U sit on chair?

My answer.      No.

Question.          U standing?

My answer.      No.

Question.          Then U sitting where?

My answer.      Near her.

Question.          Side by side?

My answer.      No.

Question.          Behind her?

My answer.      No.

Question.          In front of her?

My answer.      No.

Question.          For God’s sake,where?

My answer.      Adjacent to her.

Question.          Let it pass.

My answer.      U were almost there.

 

Question.          What U did?

My answer.      I sat.

Question.          What U were doing?

My answer.      Attending.Listening.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I side-glanced.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I looked on my side.

Question           when?

My answer.      After a while.

Question.          How long?

My answer.      After I had settled.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I saw a loveliest glimpse of face.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      Shocked and nervous I moved my head.

Question.          Did she know?

My answer.      Of course.

Question.          U moved head, Where?

My answer.      I looked straight.

Question.          Straight where?

My answer.      Straight there where I had to.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      Nervous, I again glanced at her feet.

Question.          Then?

Question.          Did she know?

My answer.      Of course.

Question.          What she do?

My answer.      She moved her foot.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I stared there.

Question.          You made a pass?

My answer.      Sort of

Question.          Did she know?

My answer.      Yes.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      She was shocked.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      She went red.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      She moved her foot.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I stared and stared.

Question           then?

My answer.      She showed her sandal.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      She raised her foot again and again.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I stared at her lovely ankle.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      She removed sandal.

Question.          How?

My answer.      I don’t know.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I saw her bare foot.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      Pointed at sandal with her foot thumb.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I did not understand.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      Again pointed at the sandal.

Question.          Was it a message?

My answer.      I did not know.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      At first I did not follow.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      Light dawned in me.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I withdrew.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I sat still.

Question.          Was she angry?

My answer.      She had gone red.

Question           Did she slap U?

My answer.      She would have.

Question.          What you mean?

My answer.      She could not.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I sat still.Statue.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I was nervous.

Question.          Then?

My answer.      I listened.

Question.          What she did?

My answer.      She already was listening attentively.

Question.          Which is this place?

My answer.      The Big Hall.

Question.          Big Hall where?

My answer.      In Old Building.

Question.          What was time.

My answer.      Morning.

Question.          Cultural function in morning?

My answer.      It was not cultural function.

Question.          Then what was it?        

My answer.      It is attending.

Question.          What was time?

My answer.      11.30.

Question.          What you did?

My answer.      I sat statue.

Question.          How long?

My answer.      Quite long.

Question.          Was there audience?

My answer.      It is attendance.

Question.          How many?

My answer.      Many.

Question.          Ten?

My answer.      No

Question.          Then how many? Hundred?

My answer.      Sort of.

Question.          How long U sit statue?

My answer.      Quite long.

Question.          One hour?

My answer.      No.

Question.          Two?

My answer.      Sort of.

Question.          Let it pass.

My answer.      U were almost there.

Question.          Tell her name.

My answer.      Her Real Name.

My answer.      It is all imagination.

Question.          My God! All this Fiction?

My answer.      As U like it.

                       (to be Continued…)