Echo

See the moon and you’ll see time pass by,
Life is moving in a distorted circle.
Take some time to love yourself,
‘cause life gives you more than you can tackle.

Wait for peace to come along,
Peace of mind is not far away.
Don’t rush in; it may be a mirage,
Just like, you don’t see God but you still pray.

Patience is sweet if you want it to be.
You won’t gain a thing if you’re in haste.
Let the sun rise and shine on you.
Then you’ll realize, the time you spent was no waste.

Take it slow as life is short.
Don’t drive along the lone high-way,
You’d mean no one to everyone,
No one would hear you when you have your say

So, what will you do with the time you got?

Do you still want to do the high-way ride?
I’m building mountains of sands and time,
Waiting for you on the other-side.

-Sincerely Yours,
  Death

-n!ckh!l

Gutter-Flower

I could see her walk with pale eyes,
That hidden smile searching its way.
So much and more to strive for,
That little angel survived the day .


I know she feels so powerless
‘cause she doesn’t know where they are.
All locked up inside the fear box,
Within herself everyday she fights a war.


She talks to no one but herself,
But the world is unaware.
She wants to live and not exist,
With a soul to love and care .


The little mind of her is always busy,
What’s running in no one can tell.
Just as the water looks serene on surface,
No matter how deep is the well.


She doesn’t love ‘cause she never got it
But she didn't seem to complain.
We owe her a life and the smiles,
Can’t turn back time to take away her pain.


She is out of love but she doesn't care
‘cause between self and greed we hover.
She isn't bad if not the best
Not a rose but a gutter-flower

-n!ckh!l

(This poem is dedicated to a dear friend [Seema], please don't reproduce without permission)

Random Questions Of A Five Year Old

Albert Einstein said that one should never hesitate to ask questions, and also one should ask questions like a five year old child. He also said that “imagination is more important than knowledge”. Why do you think someone as intelligent as him said something like that? Does it mean intelligence has nothing to do with knowledge? Yes that’s what it means. It means that knowledge is with many but only a few apply that knowledge with intelligence. That application of knowledge comes through intelligence which eventually results in a creation which once actually was the imagination of the creator.



Is intelligence or talent genetic or is it something that one acquires with time? This question is being doing the rounds of the halls of the biggest educational institutions in the world. I believe that intelligence is completely and solely a thing that develops with time and habitat (it’s a term usually used for animals, but it suits us too). It absolutely has nothing to do with genes. For ages when the world wasn’t so heavily populated, son’s used to take up the same profession as their fathers. A doctor’s son becomes a doctor by default and a cobbler’s son becomes a cobbler. This happened all over the world from Asia to Europe to Africa to the Americas. For years, this was the trend of the civilization, so did it mean that ‘it was in the genes’? No it wasn’t, it never was, and it still isn’t. Back in the days there wasn't a competition, at least not like the one today. So every kid chose his dad’s profession as he had seen ‘how it works’ while he was growing up. In many cases the kid’s fell in love with the profession at a very young age, trying to idolize their father. This again worked in the favor of the family. I'm sure there must’ve been cases of young boys running away because they didn’t ‘feel’ like doing what was expected of them from their families, i.e. the family profession/business. So does a good painter’s son become a good painter? Not for sure. But he surely can become a good painter if he works at it with practice and dedication, he’ll always have the fatherly/motherly help. He grew in that habitat, so he would have unknown knowledge, like the one which no one teaches but you excel yourself by figuring out a way which works best for you.


Some things are genetic, but they still aren't clone like. For example, a singer’s son would have better vocal chords than that of a non-singer, but still it never means that a singer’s son can sing in tune. Without practice nothing comes to a man. Someone righty said that, “practice makes a man perfect”


What if you switch children in the hospital when they are just born? One is a son of a professional singer and the other of a gangster. What if they are interchanged? What if the singer takes home the gangster’s son and the gangster takes home the singer’s son. Do you think that the child the singer has now with him will go on to become a gangster? Don’t you think that the child the gangster has will become a gangster when he’s old enough to be one. I don’t know if someone has ever done this crazy experiment but if one did it we’d get a better picture of the nurture vs. nature fight. Or would we?


Why do we fight? Many kids ask this question, I too asked it. But the ‘good’ difference was I didn’t ask it after watching my parents, even if they had an argument I was never aware of it until I was old enough. Many kids see their parents argue, which turns into a verbal death match, with insults ranging from the bad to filthy sometimes. Always remember that kids will only learn what they see and hear and feel around them. I’m no pediatrician or for that matter not even a father but I believe in Einstein’s approach. He obviously didn’t pen down a theory or a formula for it, but he knew how dumb a person could get. He realized it very soon and that’s why he was the one who actually came up with the most ‘complicated theory’, THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY which is even harder to explain. You know why? ‘Cause its relative. The way you understand things are not understood the same way by everyone else and vice-versa. Just like reading this won’t make you or anyone else the same person as me; fortunately we were all created uniquely.


So why do adults fight? Fight for land, fight for money, fight for love, fight for food, fight for religion,  fight for beliefs, fight for god, fight for a better future, fight for existence. We all fight, we don’t realize it but we do. So why do we do what we do? Think of it like it’s a disease which is contagious just by vision. So if one sees two people fighting he too gets affected. Not that he starts picking up a fight then and there but he’s more inspired to fight for his right the next time he has an opportunity to. Fights are like a basic commodity for human beings. Some learn it late, some early, but everybody does learn it. People think before they pick up a fight, unless they are in ‘high spirits’. They think of the opponent’s strength against theirs, if they feel they have an upper hand or even if ‘there’s a chance’ then they pick it up, or else they would just walk away leaving behind some dignity but all the bones intact. If you don’t do any of this before picking up a fight then I think you should; keeps one healthy.


People think of war as a WAR, but in the end it’s a fight. The only beauty of a War is that, it has many faces; the war always looks different when you look at it from different points of view, a fight usually doesn't have more than two points of view or may be a third persons point of view at most. A war means a LOT as it is affecting at a larger field of people, but it’s surprising to see half of the world support it, I don’t say this on the basis of the political views of various countries. But, I say it because I can see it happening, which definitely means that many of them support it. And many has to be really MANY, that could be half of the world or may be one third, as one thirds are fighting amongst themselves. I know people in India who would detest the USA for bombing Afghanistan but would support the war against Pakistan to have administrative and political control over Kashmir. So many of them already ‘died’ ( I know the word is supposed to be ‘sacrificed’) but really, I don’t want to do it because I want people to see them as human beings and not as soldiers who are trained to shoot anything that moves in a hostile foreign land. People who join the forces more often than not do it as it will support their families in future and it’s a sort of a ‘need’ more than it is a ‘passion’. Is it patriotism?


I may disappoint a lot of people, when I say that, fighting for one’s country by being in the forces doesn’t make one more patriotic than anyone else. Patriotism is about loving your country, no where does it say that all other countries are to be hated. But that’s what people do, I still haven’t figured out why. Just not about countries. Even in football, love for one football club automatically generates hate for other rival clubs. Same applies for all other sports too. Why does this happen? Is this patriotism towards the team/player you support or is it a prerequisite?

"Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
                                                                       -Albert Einstein