Wordsmith at work

    I’m trying   I’m trying to look at the bright side Be a happy, positive, cheerful me.   I’m trying to get behind the steering wheel But disaster is all I foresee.   I’m trying to ride on an escalator My nerves simply don’t ride with me.   I’m trying to eat bitter -gourd Though it just doesn’t appeal to me.   I’m trying to save a rupee or two Alas! It just waves goodbye to me.   I tried to write a page a day Sadly,   it did not turn out that way.   Life’s all about trial and error Improving the one You see in the mirror.  

  Dear Kids,                   Truly, exams put you through some very ‘testing times.' You generally have more than one exam to crack in a single year which can be quite challenging. Board exams add to your troubles. There’s special study time table chalked out for you. You speak, read and think in a rarified air of academics, percentages and grades. Your parents already bewildered and harassed with the daily business of living, find their stress levels sky rocketing as they wonder what the future holds for their children. Besides, the syllabus is humongous and very little of it prepares you for the daily grind of life. The results of board exams may make or break your future. So you have to keep your nose to the grindstone.             Well, all exams bring on the heat and you need to keep your cool. Panic isn’t taking you anywhere. My g...

  Blue is a pretty colour. The light and dark of blue is very appealing. It just feels so good gazing up at the daytime blue sky. Travelling down memory lane, my school uniform was a white blouse and a blue pleated skirt. The ocean is a tantalizing deep blue and my ma's favourite colour was blue.There is a genre of music and a mood named after the colour.   Some Interesting facts about Blue. Blue is a relatively new colour and the last colour to be named in the English language.  The Chinese associate colours with the 5 primary elements, the four seasons and directions. Hence they associate blue with wood, east and spring. Blue is a sign of Hope in countries with a high Catholic population. Blue is the fifth colour of the rainbow. According to L. Elizabeth Crawford, a psychology professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, the association of blue with sadness arose from the look of the bo...

  I was rummaging in my overcrowded drawer for a glue stick , when I spotted something long and silvery. I reached for it .It was a pen. Gluestick forgotten, I pulled out the cover and put the pen to paper. My curiosity got the better of me.   I almost died of shock when the pen started moving. I took a chance and asked it to write poems.   Words began appearing on the paper. The words were silver in colour. It wrote two of my favourite poems – The Highwayman and Daffodils.   There were 7 tiny buttons on the pen. Each was a colour of the rainbow. As I pressed each, the pen wrote in that particular colour. There were 15 tiny silver buttons, after the line of coloured buttons. Each button, when activated, displayed a font that the pen could write in.   Again, my joy knew no bounds. I simply said, ‘write’ and it wrote and wrote. Songs, stories, poems, all in a different font. Then I simply placed it down. I asked it to stop writing. At the rate it was writing, ...

  “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”  —Thomas Jefferson, former U.S. president The truth be told, the truth doesn’t go down well with all. Often, people prefer to be told what they want to hear. I don’t always take my husband’s advice but there is one piece of advice that I find valuable. He always urges me to tell the truth. I try to remember that in my day to day dealings. Honesty is the best policy, and that, hubby dear says, will always hold you in good stead. If everybody began telling the truth would it make the world a better place. A  lot of what people don’t want to hear would come out in the open. People would be afraid and uncomfortable. Some would be happy that the truth has finally been told. Telling the truth may get you into hot water, but it would be the best you could do for yourself in the long run.   “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”  —Buddha There are different aspects to telling the ...

  Mom’s the word.   My most favourite person in the world would be my mom. I lost her to a debilating stroke a few days before Christmas last year and I miss her more than words can say. Mom was the third child among nine. She belonged to a middle-class family and was raised by hardworking, God-fearing parents. She did them proud.   She trained as a teacher and taught for over 25 years in various schools. She spent much of her married life in the steel city of Jamshedpur where she raised my brother and me. I wonder now… how she managed to do it all…Cook, teach, tutor, tailor my clothes and generally take care of dad, my brother, and me . Her cooking brought her fame, and dad once said that her every dish was a poem.   Mom was patient, gentle and kind to a fault. She supervised our studies with utmost patience and even completed needlework work for me. Mom signed the bad report cards, while dad was given the honor to sign the good ones. She was happy tending...

  A favourite Book   I found Full House by Irish author Maeve Binchy to be a rather unusual read. Dee and Liam are a happily married couple with 3 grown children who still live with them but contribute nothing to the home's running. Dee loves her children but a house full of grown children? Rosie moved out when she married, but her marriage was seeing some difficult times, so she is back with her parents. Helen is a teacher but doesn’t earn enough to buy a place of her own. Anthony is a songwriter but has not been able to monetize his songwriting. All 3 children happily live at home with their parents without contributing a cent towards the upkeep of the house. Then one day a crisis happens and Dee decides that things must change, irrespective of whether the change is acceptable or unacceptable to the children.  making the changes. The mother wrestles with guilt, but her supportive friends help her go ahead with the changes. Dee subtly makes the changes. Rosie, ...