KIRTI MANDIR, VADODARA

As persistent drizzles of time
Showered upon the Mandir’s flanks,
The flora embraced me with open arms
Sucking out unconstructiveness
Leaving void behind in the cosmos......

VOUS ALLEZ BIEN?

Hey people !!! I sincerely hope that this post finds you in the best of health and spirits. It’s been a very long time since I’ve updated my blog. Life has become too tremendous lately.

College is going on just fine. The professors are good and very helpful indeed. There’s a lot to learn everyday....

I made a couple of friends. They’re good people to be with and times spent with them are full of fun and frolic.

Rest is all good. I’m carrying on in a way. It can get frustrating sometimes having to deal with classmates who don’t read, discuss or debate, speak in hushed tones when you raise your hand in order to answer, are non participative et al.

French classes are wonderful. Alice madam is a gem of a soul. The class comes alive with her joie de vivre and vivacity.

Deeptha madam is another person who’s a delight to be with. Her classes are enlightening. I’m yet to meet a man as well read as Rajan sir. This man knows way too much and has the unique ability to integrate his life experiences with the topics dealt with in class...

That’s it from me. Take care and all the very best. I’ll keep you posted as and when things happen.

A bientot !!!
Au Revoir

ANANYA....

FAREWELL ADDRESS, VALEDICTORY FUNCTION 2009

12 years ago, as I stood under duress on the other side of the school gate, little was I to know that 12 glorious years later, the time would finally come to bid adieu to my alma mater. Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen. I stand here on behalf of the outgoing batch of 2008-09 to express our deepest gratitude towards our teachers, who have moulded us into what we are today and what we will be tomorrow.

We were indeed an electric lot. We had our share of those with super intelligent brains, the incorrigible back benchers whose jokes and one liners enlivened a particularly dull class, the superstars of the basketball court, the quiet reserved ones and those who were the heart and soul of every function.

Today, we stand on the brink of adulthood, where the skies of success beckon us. Words seem sparse to describe our feelings towards our teachers but the words of Nicholas Rowe come to mind: “Your bounty is without my speaking but though my mouth be dumb my heart shall rank thee true.”

To conclude, I’d like to like to read out a verse from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”:

“The road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can.
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet,
And wither then? I cannot say....”

Thank you.

HAS THE VOICE OF HUMANITY DROWNED?

As I walked along the blood-stained path
Recollecting thoughts and sights I had seen,
Memories of the worst came back to me
From the hell where I had been.

The harsh, cold wind made me heavily shudder.
The horrifying images of women and children
Being made to work mercilessly in factories
And those sold and purchased in slave markets
Bled my heart and made me cry
As I looked onto the celestial abode,
The vast, endless sky.

But no rays of sunshine did I see above,
Of peace, no sight nor scope.
Only dark clouds of hatred and brutality,
Shadowing my hope.

I stared into the vast horizon,
A vast spectre of persecution and viciousness
Lay shrouded in a deathly insipid mist,
Faraway affliction shattering the silence.

Someday, the skies will open up I thought,
The people will get awakened,
The sufferers shall recount and avenge
All the vindictiveness inflicted on them.
So shall dawn the historic day
So shall the Armageddons arise.

The tormented shall rise from their deplorable conditions
To hear their tormentors’ cries.
And so shall end the heart-wrenching brutality
And so shall end the traumatic period of imperialism
Which now lies engulfed in dread.

....AT CROSSROADS

If you stood facing death, what would be one thing, when you look back in those fleeting moments in time, that you would remember the most? The endless fights you had with your childhood friends? The teenage rebellion and aggression which often made you think about the world in disgust? The clueless adulthood which came and went by in a flash? The corporate power plays?

As I stand on the cusp of time and change, embracing limitless possibilities and opportunities, I am reminded of a childhood spent in the most secure environs on the planet. When the mother’s voice seemed like a sparkling stream and the end of the saree when above my head seemed heavenly. When the sound of the ghungroo never ceased to fade and the myriad customs were filled with joys and cries. When the backyard forever buzzed with people and grandparents shared priceless wisdom.

As time passed, all of it had to be forgotten. As I got sucked in the vortex of competition, often straying away from the values imbibed, another face of the world revealed itself. Where everyone waits for a single mistake made by the other only to tear him into shreds; where the world wakes up to the news of terror and tragedy; where people have shielded themselves against the capacity to feel for the downtrodden.....This is how far we have come.

While all of us have had our fair share of both the good and the bad, some memories vividly remembered till yesterday, now seem lost and vaguely remembered. Winnowing the painful from the good has never been an easy task. Vignettes have been interwoven in infinite intricate threads, difficult to conceive them as separate entities.

As I stand at the crossroad facing death, I envision being lowered down to my final resting place where I shall return to the soil of my beloved motherland.