लहानपणापासून मिळवलेल्या प्रमाणपत्रांत
बक्षिसं मिळवलेलीही आहेत थोडी फार,
परी सर्वात मोठी ट्रॉफी मिलावाची इच्छा,
अजूनही दडली आहे माझ्या मनात

उघड्या डोळ्यांनी पाहिलेलं स्वप्न,
पूर्ण करण्यासाठी अजूनही लढत आहे,
उंचीवर अस्तित्वाचा झेंडा रोवण्यासाठी,
हळू हळू का होईना एक एक पायरी चढत आहे,

या माझ्या लढाईत आईची मला साथ,
धैर्य देतो मला तिचा पाठीवरचा हाथ,
लोक म्हणतात आम्ही मोठा धोका पत्करलाय,
पण उंचीवर जायचं तर उडावतर लागणार!

देवाची कल्पनाशक्ती

देवा, तुझी कशी हि कल्पनाशक्ती?
अगणित रचना तुला कशा रे सुचती?

प्रत्येकाचा निराळा चेहरा, निराळीच बुद्धी,
भावनाहि प्रत्याकाची इतरांहून निराळी,

कोणी असे शांत अन अबोल,
कोणाच्या रोमा-रोमांत मस्ती,

कोणी रमे मेळाव्यात,
कोणाचा आनंद एकांतात,

कोणाचे मन फुलांहून हळवे,
कोणाचे दणकट पाषाणाप्रमाणे ,

कोणाला रस आकड्यांत,
कोणाचे पाय नाचती तालांत,

कोणी शोधे जादू रासायानांत,
कोणी देई वाद्यांना साथ,

कोणाच्या हातून होई लोकांचे उपचार,
कोणाच्या गळ्यात मधुर आवाज,

इतके वेगळेपण असतनाही,
सर्व एकत्र राहतात जगतात,

तुझ्या अशा निराळ्या कल्पनांना,
सर्व जगताचा सलाम,

प्रत्येकाला अनोखे अस्तित्व दिल्याबद्दल,
तुझे खूप खूप आभार!

Home

“Home”, the term which can be defined in many different ways corresponding to the person, one’s thinking, one’s feelings or one’s personality. For some people home is the place built up with four walls and one roof, for some people it is the place where they or their parents were born or grown up, for some people it is a place where their family and friends are, for some people it is a house where they can live with at most people in the family; but for me “Home” is a place where I can stay happily with the people in house, where I can relax after a long and busy day, where I could have a freedom to do whatever I want unless It is good.
The most senseless meaning of home is to refer a country, state, town or a city as a home. In my opinion a home should be a specified and limited place where person can exactly point out ‘why that place is his home?’ When Indian living in America says that he wants to go home that doesn’t mean that he just want to go to India, but it means that he wants to go where his family stays. It obviously point outs the idea that he wants to go where he feels happy and satisfied. For instance, suppose his family lives in Tamilnadu, the state in South India, and he could go to Delhi, the city in North India, but not to Tamilnadu. So, even if he went to India he would still say that he went to India but not to his home. This clearly says that when he was in America, he was referring whole India as his home; but after going to India, he was still missing home because he did not find the same happiness or satisfaction which he could have got after going to his home where his family and friends are.
Having a good home neither means to have a big apartment in a tall tower with four or five bedrooms, two or three bathrooms, a big kitchen and hall; nor it means five or six couples and plenty of children living in the small apartment under a name of joint family. Sometimes, even in luxurious place person can feel lonely and so exhausted because of not having even a person to share one’s feelings or not having a support of anyone. Whereas having number of people can create circumstances where a person may have to adjust every time or have to face the more people for making small changes in home or may be sometimes it will be hard to stand on their own legs and to make the individual’s decision about one’s career or life.
Home should be a house or apartment which will be able to make a person feels delightful. It’s not only the place where one’s family lives. It can be a small apartment decorated by the things that person likes as I have all my family photos on the wall in my bedroom which gives me courage to face all problems and makes me feel that whatever happens they will always be with me. I have nice flower plants on my windows that make me smile every morning when I wake up. A home should be place where one can come back and relax after a stressful day and can get support to face the challenges and go ahead on another day. A home cannot be made only with the non-living things in it but also people living in it. When I was back in India, I had my mother’s support to deal with all the challenges in my life, my brother to share all my feelings, emotions and to have some fun after long school day. Here I cannot have them but still I have a roommate and my friends not less than that. I share all my feelings with them. We cook together, eat together, care for each other, and give support to each other at difficult times. So, I can say I have two homes. One is in India with all my caring family and another is in America with sweet friends and roommate.
To sum up, home should be a nice, organized place which would be full of joyful things with few but full of loving and caring people living in it.

My Mother

It was Tuesday, I was in my English class and we were about to start discussing a topic to write a description paper. Our teacher handed the prompts written on the paper. I started reading. After all instructions, I saw there were four main prompts on which we can write a paper and as I read the very first one, a clear image came into my mind, A very simple woman with pretty smile on her round face, wearing a simple sari, holding her purse in the left hand and books in the right hand. That’s how I have seen her most of the time. It’s not my professor or my primary teacher I am describing, but that’s how my mother’s image is in my mind. Her thoughts and personality have a strong impact not only on my life but also on her student’s life. Having such a wonderful lady in my life I do not regret that “our first teacher is our mother herself.”
Whenever she starts teaching one feels to listen to her as long as he or she can. When she starts singing poems, it feels like words are floating in the air and her voice is like a chilling breeze dashing through one’s ears. Her smoothing voice and her catchy words always make me to like her poems. I remember singing with her just like swings swing in the wind with no sense of direction. Her first lesson to me which no one can give you is ‘There are so many things in the world. No one expect that you should learn everything, but learn as much as you can.’
I never liked to read books as it was out of my interest. She has a habit to read books which gives some new thoughts and creativity to the reader. Whenever she reads a book she would always share the thoughts of the author and the purpose of the book to me and that would lead me to read that book completely. I remember when I first took a novel to read and I gave up half way on reading it when she said, “Do not give up. Take even the smallest thing as your desire and do not quit until you get it. One thing, always keep in mind, ‘Even an idiot can do the thing he likes to do, the intelligent one is the one who can make everything possible.’
One year has passed, since I have been in US for my studies and I have seen her only through skype while chatting; but I still remember her fragrance. When I am alone I always think of her and as I go into the flashback I can still feel her touch. After listening sweet and gentle voice I forget the whole world and my tensions go away. I would finally get some kind of strength to go on. It was not easy for me to come here as we are not financially strong enough and all my family was opposing me in taking this risk. It was during this time when only my mother was standing by my side and supporting me. The day when I failed my visa interview the second time, she was not with me. She had to go camping. I called her and after hearing my cry she simply said, “Everything will be fine, we will try again.” Frankly, I would not have tried to give interview another time if I had not heard from her relaxing voice.
I am kind an open minded girl in my family. My way of thinking and dreams are a bit higher than the children in my family and there were many times I had to confront my father. My father is not much interested in teaching extra activities to children. I love dancing and so I wanted to learn the Indian classical dance which was not in his budget. My mother is a secondary teacher. She has never opposed to my thinking. She decided to take private tuitions to adjust my dance class fees. I learnt dance, drawing and many other activities even after receiving no support from my father.
18th April 2006 was the day I had an accident. I had my dance practical exam on 26th April 2006. My leg was paining so much. Mom came to the place where I had my accident and took me to the hospital for a checkup. Although I could see the pain she was feeling I did not even see a teardrop in her eyes. The only thing she wanted me to see is the confidence that nothing will happen to her daughter, and eventually she will be alright. As she saw the x-ray of my leg I could feel her mood was totally down, by her shivering lips. The way she was looking at the x-rays was telling me that something had happened. She only dropped me in the car and went back to see the doctor. When she was approaching the car her eyes were full of tears and her hair was messed up. She came inside the car looking down. On the way home, we did not say a word to each other. After settling my leg on the bed she just hugged me tightly. Her soft hands on my forehead were giving me strength to listen to the truth. When her lips touched my cheeks, all my pain and stress disappeared. She just whispered in my ear “oh my dear, you might have to go under little operation; but you will be fine soon.” I cried as I came to know that I would not be able to take my exam or even dance for a year. She just wiped my tears with her smooth hands and again hugged me tightly. She lay down beside me on the bed, and wrapped her arms around me. In her warm arms I fell asleep. Those six months she was taking care of me like a flower in a sage.
My mother’s personality and nature interacts not only me but also all those people around her. Her colleagues and students always praise her for her multiple talent. However hard might be a situation she always would faced it. She will always be there for helping people out and supporting her children and her students. The most of her student are poor people; some of them cannot even afford the school. My mother always shows them sky as the limit of successes and motivates them for not only elementary schooling but also to set some goals in a life and fly like a free bird. May be it’s her effect of her efforts and lessons that I got a power to fly out of the limited world. A shower of her love and care on the children is like a sun rising in the morning. As the sunrise vanishes the darkness of the night and starts putting light in the world, her support and motivation shows new hopes and gives courage to climb high hills.
After coming here, I never felt any tensions about anything. Even if I got any stress because studies, job or even because of small things in a life all flies away after seeing her smiling face on the skype video. The big smile on her face always encourages me to going on the path and makes my heart feel so good.

तूच माझा आधार,
तूच माझ्या विचारांत,
तुझाच रे खांदा मला,
लढताना संकटात,

तुझ्याचसवे हे माझे,
आयुष्य मी जगावे,
तुझ्याच कुशीत रे,
समाधान शोधावे,

तूच माझं जग,
तुझीच मी मग,
पर्वा नसावी जगाची,
संसार माझा तुझ्याशी.

 

स्वप्नांच्या जगतात या,

आज वावरत असताना,

कधी कधी वाटते मला,

बालपणात जावे पुन्हा

बेधुंद होऊन राहावे,

चिंताविरहित जगावे,

मैत्री करावी सर्वांशी,

गैर नसावा कोणाशी

स्वच्छंद आज उडताना,

मुखवटे लोकांचे पाहताना,

वाटते जणू मला,

त्यांच्यात खरेपणाच नसावा

नाट्यरुपी  या जगतात,

शर्कारावगुंठीत लोक राहतात,

चेहऱ्यावर काही दाखवतात,

मनात निराळ्याच भावना जपतात

मान्य आहे मला,

कि सर्वच सारखे नसतात,

पण मग ते दिसत का नाहीत,

जे सत्यात जगतात?

वाटते परतावे भूतकाळात,

आईच्या मायाळू पदरात,

भले होत्या काही मर्यादा,

परी आपुलकीची होती बरसात

अपूर्ण स्वप्न 

बाहुलीशी खेळताना

स्वप्न मी पहिले,

भातुकली मांडताना 

तुझ्यात रे गुंतले,

नकळत स्वप्नात त्या

अस्तित्व तुझे भासले,

डोळ्यात तुझ्या पाहता,

विश्व माझे दिसले,

खेळ तो संपला,

अन मी परतले,

डोळे उघडून पाहता,

सत्य ते गवसले

हातात होती बाहुली,

डोळ्यांमध्ये पाणी,

स्वप्नातल्या जगाची,

कहाणीच निराळी

 

घरात इतरांच्या पाहता भावंड,
डोळ्यांत माझ्या यायची आसवं,
बाळ  तर मला आधीपासूनच आवडायची,
पण आता वाट पाहत होती एखाद घरात यायची,

अशातच एक दिवस जन्माला माझा भाऊ,
अन माझ्या मनातला मोर लागला नाचू,
आईच्या माहेरात दोन बाळ,
एक नक्षीदार अंगठी, अन एक चांदीच नाण,

मामीची परी होती गोरी गोरी पान,
अन भाऊ माझा होता, आईचा 'लाल',
जन्मदिवस त्याचा श्रावणी सोमवार,
म्हणूनच ठेवलं त्याचं नाव ओमकार,

नाव त्याचं त्याला शोभले फार,
दिसायला तो ससा, त्याचे मोठे मोठे कान,
इतर भावंडाप्रमाणे आम्हीही भांडायचो खूप,
तरी एकमेकांना आठवतो असताना दूर,

इथे एकटी राहत असतानाही,
दिवसातून एकदातरी बोलतो आम्ही,
एक वर्ष गेल जरी,
दुरावा आमच्यात आला नाही...

मागितलेली गोष्ट नेहमी मिळतेच असं नाही,

पण म्हणून ती मिळवण्याचा प्रयत्न सोडू नये,

सकाळ झाली कि स्वतःची सावलीहि साथ सोडते,

पण म्हणून रात्र्यच्या कालोख्यायचं जगू नये.

तुझ्यासवेत वाढले,

तुझ्याचसोबती खेळले,

पाहुनी आज तुला,

दिस ते आठवले मला.

बागेत ते हिंडणे,

भातुकली मांडणे,

लहानपण सारे,

गप्पागोष्टींत सरले.

दूरदेशी आज मला,

आठवतो तो मळा,

मामाचं घर,

आणि बाहुलीचा लळा.

अजून तीन वर्ष,

राहायचं आहे परदेशी,

बालपणाच्या आठवणी,

ठेउन उराशी.