Just one spoon of oil ‘cos it’s good for my health,
Being active and happy is my idea of wealth.
We don’t suffer famine or drought, and there’s plenty.
Unfortunately, it just adds layers to my belly. Continue reading
Just one spoon of oil
Tag Archives: poetry
Change the woman, to change the man
I visit my friend and she’s at the table,
Feeding her son who is perfectly able,
To eat on his own. He’s almost a teen!
I wonder why it is that she just can’t see.
With a spoon in her hand and love in her heart,
This is her way of bringing him up.
The sins of their father’s mother
Do women deserve a weekly off, or do they need to pay,
For the sins of their husbands mother,
On that seventh day?
The mother who did what she thought was right,
Who never took a break.
Who was an obedient daughter-in-law, who accepted without a fight. Continue reading
For God’s sake don’t argue, just spend
For God’s sake don’t argue, just spend!
Don’t drive your family round the bend.
Take a rickshaw or take a cab.
Is the saving worth driving your children mad? Continue reading
A space where we both have our say
I want to do for you as you did for your mother,
But we both want to do it our way.
With love and respect for each other,
And space where we both have our say. Continue reading
Kharghar is burning
I wrote the following poem many years ago, when I had 2 years of laryngitis due to the burning of garbage on the roads outside our earlier residence. It was common, so an ENT specialist had her clinic details posted on the society notice board!
Diwali, a festival of new beginnings, is the time I don’t walk down the streets. Firecrackers used to start well in advance of the festival, but this year seems better, and I’m grateful for it.
Still, roads don’t usually get cleaned immediately after Diwali here in Kharghar, and the remains of firecrackers and the strong smell is a health hazard for many. This year seems a little different and people are starting to realise that we need to change and find new, non-polluting ways to enjoy the festival. I hope this trend continues.
Kharghar is burning and nobody cares.
There’s often a strong smell of smoke in the air.
Garbage collection is not a routine,
And waste segregation still is a pipe dream. Continue reading
Start to explode?
The roads there for walking, the streets are for parking,
The footpaths where we sell our wares.
The junction is where we stop to chat,
Though the signal is green and we’re causing a jam. Continue reading
A tale of two families
Husband No 1 :
Nothing to do, nothing to do!
My poor dear wife has nothing to do!
I come home from work and the house is so clean,
She’s sitting around reading a magazine!
The food is all cooked and our ironing is done.
She looks like her day’s been a lot of fun. Continue reading
More on my middle
Hey diddle diddle there’s more on my middle,
I need to go down for a walk!
But when there’s sometime and the weather is fine,
I go meet my friends and we sit down and talk. Continue reading
We have to pay the piper
We have to pay the piper,
For all that we have got.
If we don’t pay up when it’s due,
It’s gonna cost a lot. Continue reading
Till death do us part
Till death do us part, yes that saying is true.
It certainly holds good for me, and these shoes!
They were on their last legs many weeks ago,
And today I’ve given in, and shown them the door.
An ode to my lovely pink shoes. I haven’t been able to get the exact same fit in this colour and am feeling quite sad about it.
The game
I don’t know you so I pass you by,
When I walk past every day.
You start to wish me, with a smile in your eyes,
And I think that you’re friendly and it’s a nice surprise! Continue reading
Not Wonderwoman.
The world will not end if we put up our feet,
For 20 minutes each day.
The world will not end if we eat left overs,
More than once in a way.
The world will not end if we go meet our friends,
And we’re not there to serve you your lunch.
It’s these breaks we take and the time we make,
That help us get time before it’s too late. Continue reading
The pot-stirrer
I could let the dal cook and not give it a look,
Let it stick to the base of the pot.
Then skim off the top, throw the burned part out,
And not worry about the waste, if what’s left suits my taste.
But the bottom of the pot holds the flavour,
That makes the dal taste divine.
And looking away is more labour,
Because scrubbing away the burn takes time.
Pleeease dirty the mat!
A message to all our visitors. It’s about the floor mat that slants diagonally across our doorway during the monsoon, kept that way so everyone has to walk over it to enter our living room.
Sometimes visitors see that it’s clean and try not to dirty it, trailing all dust and the wet from the rains into our home! The funniest is those who can’t bear to see it slant across the grid of our floor tiles and feel compelled to take the trouble to straighten it out!
This poem is for them 🙂
You can step on the mat that lies across my floor.
Wipe your feet as you enter the door.
Don’t try to save me the washing,
‘Cos all it does is increase my mopping. Continue reading
I can sing my own song
I can sing my own song while the music plays loud,
I can sing my own song, of this I am proud.
I can sign loud & clear though it might hurt your ears,
Cos I’m singing a song that’s not playing! Continue reading
I search
I search for the empty that lets me embrace,
The busy that fills me with joy.
I listen for spaces,
For rests that give meaning,
To music that plays to the mood that I’m feeling. Continue reading
The breeze that knocked me over
You’re the breeze that knocked me over,
And I’m lying on the floor.
I struggle to rise, clinging to hope.
I’m in a better place now, but still struggle to cope. Continue reading
My friend for a reason
My friend for a reason,
I thought you were true,
But you ran when you thought I had need.
I was your friend for all time,
And I thought you were mine,
But now things have changed and there’s no going back. Continue reading
That wonderful feeling
That wonderful feeling that you don’t know enough.
It’s what keeps you wanting to study and learn.
To strive to always be better today than you were yesterday.
That feeling that you never fit in.
Because you don’t live by rules imposed by the outside.
You’ve got an internal compass of your own and you’ve learned it’s wise to trust it.
And be comfortable with who you are. Continue reading
