मन जब पतझड़ होता है

एक कोना भर के हरियाली है मेरे घर में,
जब कभी मन पतझड़ होता है यहां चली आती हूं,
सहलाती हूं मनी प्लांट की कोमल पत्तियां,
एरिका पाम को बाहें भर गले लगाती हूं,
मोगरे की कली महकाती है सांसें मेरी,
सफेद गुलाब की कली जगाती है उम्मीद,
एक सुबह वह पूरी खिलेगी,
तुलसी का बस एक ही पौधा तो लगाया था,
साथ के गमलों में दो तीन और जम आए हैं ,
छोटा लगता है अब गमला एलोवेरा का,
कभी लगा लेती हूं चेहरे पर बस यूं ही,
कुछ डंडियां चाइनीज बम्बू की गाड़ दी थीं गमले में,
मर चला था चार दिवारी में, आज नभ निहारता है,
मेरा छोटा सा अजवाइन का पौधा बड़ा हो गया है,
स्वाद बढ़ जाता है इसकी कुछ पत्तियां से परांठों का,
बम्बू के गमले में खरपतवार उग आए,
मैंने भी उगने दिए, सोचा कल निकालूंगी,
अब सोचती हूं, काम का ना सही पर हरा तो है,
छोटे पीले फूल भी खिलते हैं कुछ पल को,
जब कभी मन पतझड़ होता है,
चली आती हूं इस कोने में फिर से हरी होने,
मेरे घर में एक कोना भर के हरियाली है…

Love

Many moons floated in the pool of eyes

Many suns eclipse my Canvas of life

‘WHY’ the question strangled me for years

The endless wait never left my side…

Enough! I said to myself

I tied ‘WHY’ along with all the sorrows

And dumped it into the deepest well

I’m happy; I have learnt to love myself!

©️ charu and potpourri of life.

मैं आज भी गूंगा बैठा हूं

तब भी किस्सा कुर्सी का था
आज भी कुर्सी का है चक्कर
तब भी हिन्दू मुस्लिम में देश बटा
आज भी हिन्दू मुस्लिम का मुद्दा है
मारा गया तब भी मैं था
आज भी मैं ही कत्ल होता हूँ
बटवारा ना तब मैंने था मांगा
ना आज ही मैं चाहता हूं बटना
यह कौन सी आज़ादी है
यह कैसे आए हैं अच्छे दिन
मैं तब भी मूक देखता रहा
मैं आज भी गूंगा बैठा हूँ

तुम करते रहो तय तारीख़ आज़ादी की
मुझे तब भी धर्म जात से जकड़ा था
मैं अब भी धर्म जात में बांधा जाता हूँ
प्यार, शांति, खुशहाली, हो रोज़ ईद और दिवाली
मेरा यह सपना तब भी टूट के बिखरा था
यह सपना आज भी तुमने कुचला है
भव्यता देश की मैं क्या जानू
मैं दो रोटी को भी तरसा हूँ
है व्यर्थ जगमगाते लाख दिए तुम्हारे
जब आग नहीं चूल्हे में मेरे
कैसे मानूं तुम्हें विश्वगुरु जयगान तुम्हारे गाउं
शिक्षा, रोज़गार जब तक ना हर घर में हो

तुम तय करते रहो तारीख आज़ादी की
कुछ पागल मस्ताने थे मां पर जो बलिदान हुए
आज उन बलिदानों को भी  तुम आकते  हो
मुझे गांधी और भगत सिंह में बांटते हो
सत्ता की सभा में तब भी मैं नीलाम हुआ
आज भी सत्ता की शतरंज का मोहरा हूं
मैं तो उस दिन जशन मनाऊंगा
पेट भरा हो, सर पर छत हो, न कलह हो
स्वच्छ हवा हो, निर्मल मन हो, स्वप्न सजा हो
नफ़रत की न फसल उगे, हरा केसरी न रंग बटे

©Charu Gupta and Potpourri of Life

Black or white?

Zebra stripes, crossing lines, and inked pages

Dreams of subconscious minds, nights to days

Morals and sins, parting wrong from right

You hate, you love, you think and you do

Why everything appears black and white!

Look again! A drop of black emerging in white

Can you see the dance of light into the darks

On the horizon, no absolute truth or the perfect lie

People are not monochrome as they look

How can you tell life is black or white!

You insist to see everything in two shades

The dark colour for you maybe my white

Holes in the divider that you ignored

No complete black or spot-less white

Did I tell you? I‘m grey from the inside!

©Charu Gupta and Potpourri of Life

कभी सोचती हूं वो साथ होता तो…

Online To Offline

Received a consent form from my son’s school.

Following the directives of the U.P Government to open schools for physical teaching

keeping the COVID protocols, from Aug. 16, 2021……….. This is being communicated to you, as a compliance to the directives of the State Government……..

Are you willing to send your ward to school from 16th August, 2021?

We filled the form and submitted it the same day. What did we write? Well, I’ll tell you at the end of this post.

Just imagine the happiness of the children going back to school, the classroom, playground, their desks, school bus, and most importantly their friends! That will surely be a moment of euphoria. Of course, it’s not going to be as normal as it was; sanitizer in the pocket, mask on the face, physical distance, and no tiffin breaks. But if you think this is the only change that students are going to deal with…wait, there is much more that has changed.

• They have to face the teacher. Network issues, camera not working, voice is breaking, teacher is not audible all these excuses (real/created) will become inapplicable. 
• They can’t leave or join the class at their convenience or will.
• They won’t be having the privilege to be present in the class and dozing off at the same time.
• Getting up early, bathing (optional), wearing school uniform, and reaching school on time will be the minor changes.
• They will be directly questioned for not submitting the assignments. No more WhatsApp reminders or defaulter’s list. Actually, it had never worked as the phone was always with the child and the Dear Parents were in oblivion. 
• One of the major disadvantages that the children are going to face is ‘No Mobile Phones In The School!’ That means no WhatsApp chatting/ cheating during the class!
• No Google for their rescue! Google had literally become ‘Doraemon’ for these ‘Nobitas’. It has suddenly made an average child a genius who knows the answer to each and every question asked in the exams. And teachers need not spend a lot of mind and time as all answers are identical, copied from google, exactly the same word by word (raising their BP high).

Parents, time will tell whether we have made our children geniuses or handicaps by not keeping supervision or control. I hope we shouldn’t be held guilty in the future for supporting and building a more corrupt nation. 

Now, what was our answer in the consent form?

It was a No. We are not willing to send our child to school before he is fully vaccinated and until we are sure about the safety measures taken by the school. The school has lost a couple of brilliant teachers, many have lost their family members and more than thirty students have lost either one or both of their parents. 

I, as a parent, am very much satisfied by the efforts teachers are taking to provide education online. The onus of a child’s learning lies on both the teachers and the parents. 

We should hurry to vaccinate children rather than opening schools. 

Success ↔️ Failure

The meaning of success is very subjective. It not only means different for different people but also changes its meaning over time for the same person. Everyone wants to be successful in life and for that, work accordingly. How do you perceive success? My success can be a failure in your eyes and your success might mean nothing to some people. 

Success could be synonyms to wealth, fame and luxuries in life. It could also mean a permanent job, great career, well settled children and good health. For a social media influencer, success is a perfect upload, millions of followers and enormous response. 

I question myself, am I successful? I don’t have a conventional career, wealth and fame. Kids are doing good for themselves and my health is okay. Am I successful in life? Yes, I am successful. The parameter of success for me is – I am able to do as I wish without any social pressure or fear. Living without strings is success. The meaning of success has changed for me as I age. Ten years ago, running a rat race and performing better than others was success for me. Making everyone around me happy and working as per others’ acceptances was a success. But now success is not a burden anymore. Living life to the fullest is the success that many do not acknowledge. Being successful is so simple! 

©Charu Gupta and potpourri of life.

Timeline

The journey will conclude

And the travel will end

Standing at the last stop

I will surely look back

The trail I have travelled

Diversions I took, people I met

Some long halts, few rutted rides

Refreshing strolls, racing in time

All that I did, all that I said

Souvenirs I kept, gifts I parted

The last glance on the road

A smile will roll up

My eyes will sparkle

What a voyage it was!

Just to earn that moment                                                                            

I am investing in my timeline…

©Charu Gupta and potpourri of life.

We Are Good Parents!

We are all good parents and we all want our children to be happy, isn’t it?

How to raise a child is a very subjective approach. Different methods and ideologies exist but each parent wants his/her child’s happiness.

There are various categories of parents. Based on my observation I have divided them into two broad groups. Before you read further, keep in mind that we are all good parents.

Group A-  I want to provide all the comforts of life to my child. I want to fulfil all his desires. He should have expensive gadgets, in fact, better than his peer group. Chocolates, chips, pizzas, burgers, colas, Maggie and all the food that he wishes to have should always be at his disposal. Best of dresses and accessories, best school and home for him. A good smartphone with internet should always be available for him (it should be provided as soon as the child is able to hold something in his hand…at the age of one!). I will protect my child from failures and no one can say a word to upset him. I will make sure that each moment should be happy for him.

Group B- I want to provide a comfortable life to my child. I will encourage him to work towards fulfilling his desires and make him understand that it takes time for some wishes to come true. I will provide gadgets according to his age and requirements. I will provide healthy food for his overall development and occasionally/rarely treat him with pizzas, burgers, chips (junk/fast food). I will make my child aware of the ill-effects of these processed foods and will discourage its consumption. Exposure to youtube, whatsapp and other social platforms will be after an appropriate age and it will be under supervision. I will let my child learn from his failures and make him respect others and their views. My child will find his own happiness, and I will be there to support.

There is no right or wrong formula of parenting. 

Hope we are all good parents!