THE GUNS AND ROSES






Pic.: Ritesh D'Cunha

Today is ‘The Children’s Day’ in India. Well, I have a prayer to make: “Lord, please don’t let the child in us die.”

The child is the last hope. Trust me, it is. If the child in us goes, everything goes… We wouldn’t look up in the night and wonder…We wouldn’t stand before the ocean and feel small… We wouldn’t look at our wrinkles and worry or wouldn’t look  at the squirrel and smile… We wouldn’t fight and kiss again… Our lips wouldn’t shiver when they first touch our beloved’s lips… Death would make our hearts stones… Rain would be plain water… Clouds would be nothing but some useless smoke up there… God wouldn’t exist… And, parents… They are done with. Used and thrown!

Hello, because the child is alive in us, we know what a sincere prayer is, how tears feel… Yes, what it means to dream, cry and say sorry… Flowers are flowers because child in me feels so… A song is a song, because the child in me sings so… The grandparents live again because the little-ones come in their life, once more…  The heart remains tender only, only, only because of the little-one who lives within us…

Paris is mourning today. Guns and grenades have gone up… They have taken away hundreds of innocent lives. Who are these monsters with guns and grenades? Why have they done it? What have they achieved? And, what about the child in them… Is it alive or is it dead?

The world around us abounds with this kind of irony, this kind of contrast… On the one side of the world, some celebrate innocence… holding roses. On the other side, some celebrate bloodshed… holding guns.

Guns and roses… That’s how life seems to be! When the child dies, the roses die… You hear the sounds of the guns… Paris burns!

When I and my brothers were little children, back in our village, we had a lovely cat. My youngest brother, Vivek, was just a little baby and he baptized her with this funny name (whose meaning we would never know!) – ‘JAKEENA’. Vivek continued to be in love with all kinds of pets – Dogs, Cats, Parrots, Turtles, Squirrels, apart from cows and chicken. Here, in Mumbai, his house is known as ‘Chidya Ghar’. Mercifully, his wife and two children, too, are so fond of pets!

What else, other than the innocence in us, is capable of making us all so sensitive in life?

So, in the morning, I saw my brother sharing on FB and Whatsapp, a very old B/W picture… Our mom holding him when, probably, he was a year-old. Within no time, I saw his son, Ritesh, sharing another picture. This one was a colored one… and, it was the latest one. The mother and daughter… ‘JAKEENA AND JINI’… That’s how they have baptized their cats at home!

Is it ‘The Children’s Day’, or is it ‘The Monsters’ Day’?

I pray again: “Lord, please don’t let the child in us die.”

GERALD D’CUNHA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MUTHU KODI KAWARI HADA

Image
Pic.; Ashwin Mohta M y Hindi was always bad. It still is. One reason for this was, that they introduced Hindi for us only in 6 th standard. Or, was it in 8 th ? I don’t remember… I only remember struggling to write and read… leave alone speak! But, I loved Hindi movies, and, strangely, I could understand the dialogues and the lyrics of the songs… I used to sing those songs (of course when no one was around me!) as if I was the lyricist… One of the songs was a very funny one. ‘Muthu Kodi Kawari Hada’. It was from Mehmood’s super-hit comedy – ‘Do Phool’. I was a 15-year-old high-school boy when I had heard that song (not watched the movie). I could grasp the meaning of two words – ‘Muthu Kodi’… which meant ‘Give kiss’… But, what ‘Kawari Hada’ meant, I have no clue till date! It was just like ‘Why this kolaveri di’... Yes, why ask? Simply enjoy the beats… And, the beats are great… The rest... Who cares? Really! So, whatever bit of Hi...
Read more

SELLING MIRRORS IN THE CITY OF THE BLIND

Image
“I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God.” - Kabir T here is a universal human weakness – and it dates back to the days of fallen civilizations – and it is: to place people on pedestal and trying to be smothered by them, feel loved and protected in their company… worship them as mentors, heroes,  gurus, Mahagurus and Satgurus… Make these mortals larger-than-life cut-outs, worship them as flawless, pure and give one’s all… And, then, ‘take’ everything from them blindly as divine… Give everything to them blindly… Eventually, what happens is:  one more dangerous bondage… What was supposed to free you now becomes a new prison… It’s sad to see this happen! T his room, where I am writing this Post, has no image of any deity. I have no image of any Guru or Master around me… My question is: “Am I not able to feel close to Almighty God?  How ...
Read more

"HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS NOT A FAIRY-TALE... IT IS A CHOICE"

Image
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone… It has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” – Ursula K. Le Guin,  The Lathe of Heaven T welve years ago, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got married, the world began to hail the couple as ‘Brangelina’. It became a fashion for couples around us to call themselves so… Norbert and Teresa renamed them as ‘Noresa’…  Amol and Vishaka baptized their relationship as ‘Amoshka’… and, Salman and Nargis became ‘Salgis’! I and my wife, too, got tempted to re-christian our matrimonial relationship as ‘Germa’... That is, Gerald and Anima, to be precise! B efore I proceed any further, let me make it very clear, here… that, I have no business to judge on the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina’ Jolie’s marriage. I have no inclination to go into why, how, what when etc behind it… The couple ‘chose’ to split. And, it’s their choice… Only they know how good or bad… how joyful or pain...
Read more
THE WILD, WAYSIDE FLOWERS
There is, always, something extra-ordinary in the wild, wayside flowers...