Another Dose of Poverty...

The woman was a sad sight, she was not exactly old but was bending, clad in an old sari. Her eyes seemed to be two pools of darkness, yet through the infinite depths of darkness you could still see a tiny sparkle. The man was in an even worse condition, quite old, toothless, he could hardly walk, and I noticed his hands were shaking. It seemed as if every movement he made was a form of suffering for him.

I went to the bank today with my friend. We had to withdraw some money, and my friend had lost his ATM card ages ago. I gave him my ATM card while I filled out the cash withdrawal slip for him. When he came back, I asked him the amount, and as I finished filling out the slip, a lady I recognized as one of the maids in my hostel, came to us and asked me to fill out the slip for her. She seemed so helpless and unsure about whether we would help her or not. She gave us a booklet which had her details and told us she has to withdraw a thousand rupees. I passed it on to my friend, as I was never very fluent with Hindi, and I did not want to make a mistake. Then she had to sign, so she went and got an ink pad and put her thumb print as her signature on three different spots. She was illiterate.

Then the old man came, looking even more unsure of himself, and meekly asked us if we would fill his too. I had seen him earlier while waiting for my friend, the man was having difficulty tearing out a slip from the stack, and when he got it, he walked out the bank (probably in search of someone who could help him fill it). He had to withdraw two hundred rupees. He kept telling us his details, unsure about whether my friend filled it our properly or not. He could not speak very properly. When it came to signing his signature, he took the slip and walked out the bank again. By then I was feeling really depressed, and to make it worse my friend turned to me and said, "It's really sad. I've lent that man a hundred rupees before, I think he drinks a lot though."

My friend got up to withdraw his money, and I sat there watching everyone in the bank, especially the woman and the old man. I felt like crying.

When I got back to my room, I did cry (I do not mean to be dramatic or anything, but these things make me really sad).

I understand we have come here to study, we are here to get a job or go for higher studies, earn a lot of money, get a few cars, buy a house, support our family, but is that really all that life is about? There's so much poverty, so much illiteracy in this world, in our own college, yet I hardly ever see anyone giving a damn about it. I am not even a good person, but still I notice these people around us, living in animal-like conditions. All you good people out there, what has happened to you? Why do you miss these things when you go places? Why do you miss seeing the kids working in our mess? Why do you not notice those kids at the crossing who do not go to school? Why is it that you see the old working and care not for their heavy burden? Why is it that no one thinks that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to live? Have you ever given candy to a poor child and seen their face light up?

There's more to life than just success, money, and fame. As the literate lucky of this society, I think we should take it up as a responsibility to look after the less fortunate. Everyone deserves a chance to live life.

The Lost People

I'll try something new here, as I do believe it will be a good experiment. I sure hope I don't land up boring people to death instead...

In a ruinous land, far from civilization (and thankfully for that) was a large structure of much importance to the history of the development of mankind. An ancient school, or bath, a public house of the poor, or a meeting place for an ancient government practice, or maybe even a mini city within another. So large and vast was this structure, that even after decades of research one couldn't quite tell what purpose it served, but could only tell that it served one of great importance. Lost was the past in the depths of darkness, and when the light reemerged it was too far submerged, and thus lost forever.

It was rain that poured forth, like the ravings of a madman, threatening to destroy the meaning of life and death. This destructive storm seemed to wash away the sins of man, but in reality all it did was cover up the sins of man in a veil of purity. Thus those who walked the earth, seemingly pure, were in reality the worst of sinners, and those who seemed soiled were the true pure men of the earth. What was the purpose of such a veil on the morality of mankind? What was the reason for living in such a world of deception? Here this tale begins…

It was a time when the intelligent life on our planet depended on the existence of a superior being. Please the Gods, perform ridiculous rituals to make them happy and these Gods would let the rain pelt down to water the crops, or let the sun shine to take away the bitter cold of the winters. It was a time when people believed that there was an entity who had nothing better to do than look over all of mankind, and watched each being perform good or bad deeds, and accordingly reward them or punish them for all that they have done. In those times it was also believed that one could visit a few places and be washed away of all sins, or buy their way into heaven (which was like an afterlife paradise). For the rest of the people, there was hell (where all the sinners were sent to, to be tortured for eternity). They say these Gods were all forgiving, admit your mistake and reform, and you will be forgiven, but for the sins you have committed, you would be sent to burn in hell.

What was even more bizarre was that even at that time, no one agreed on one supreme being, everyone had their own concept of a God, and they kept fighting over who’s concept of a superior entity was better.

It was a strange time, and the consequences of this dependence on a supreme entity were finally burdening the world and its entire population. People were so adamant about their beliefs that they refused to give them up for peace and prosperity. Wars broke out, and there were terrorist attacks widespread in the lands, yet these people refused to understand the importance of giving up their beliefs to save the lives of millions. Some of the more intelligent groups even used this concept called religion (worship of a higher being) to hide their true purpose for spreading chaos, which was mostly economic or political.

What makes it worse is the fact that not only was the Homo sapiens affected, but so were all the other creatures and vegetative life on the planet. Species were going extinct, and as the vegetation on Earth decreased, the temperatures started rising, and strange meteorological phenomenon started to take place. The world became empty of the sources of energy, and no one seemed to care enough to conserve the little they had, nor did they try to find and widely implement other safer forms of energy.

As time went on, people became malicious; the world was no longer a friendly place to live in. Crime rates increased, more people were murdered, raped, more thefts took place, more gangs walked the streets. People were afraid of leaving their houses, poverty increased, the quantity of good people decreased. Soon enough the world was struck with an economic crisis (this of course was unrelated to religion), resulting due to the existence of pseudo-money in many firms. When this scam was uncovered, the world was in a state of disarray, for no one quite knew how to handle the situation. Everyday the few sane people left would have to stop and ask, what is wrong with the world we live in? What is wrong with people? Are sex, drugs, violence, money, and fame, all that people live for these days?

Just when the few intellectuals had given up hope, they found they were right in doing so. These intellectuals were the only ones who called themselves Atheists, those who worshipped no one. They realized that the world depended far too much on this superior God to make the world a better place. They were the only ones who realized that to make the world a safe place to live in every person on the planet had to give up their belief in this God and believe in themselves and work to make the world a better place. They also knew that this religious bane had to be removed so that at least a few of the world’s problems could be solved, and so other important issues could be handled.

They spoke out against this religion rubbish, and tried to make the people see that only they could save the Earth from utter ruin. They told people that half their problems lie in this false belief and that people were much too intelligent for such gibberish, but their voices were suppressed. They were termed the demons out to ruin the peace and prosperity of the world by spreading their lies and corrupting the minds of innocent believers. Luckily at that time, they could not be condemned to death, but were only converted into outcasts of society. They were not allowed to help better the Earth.

They formed a society for all Atheists, to try and find a solution to this virus called religion that had spread throughout the world. They knew that in the world today, there was no space for a Godly being, because man had discovered so much in science in technology that there was no need to explain most strange phenomenon. People already knew what was happening. They knew religion existed in the ancient world because they did not know what was happening, so they created this entity to have an explanation for all that occurred in the world. Sadly the world has always been cruel to those who go against religious preaching; the world has always condemned those who know the truth before their time. Uniqueness and intelligence have never been rewarded.

This society spoke out against what was happening in the world, thinking a large group will be stronger than an individual. They took a stand against injustice, a stand against foolishness, a stand against religion, a stand to make the world a better and smarter place, a stand to remove evils like terrorism and remove prejudice against certain people because of what religious teachings taught other people.

Sadly all the intellects that were a part of this society suddenly disappeared off the face of the Earth, in a so-called “sad accident” involving a terrorist bombing of their station. They had been disbanded. No one cared much to look into the issue, and in fact there was much rejoicing in certain parts of the world for the devil in disguise of Atheists was finally dead. The veil that had fallen on mankind was much too heavy to remove.

Bleak was the future into which the world was thrust. Things did not improve, in fact conditions only worsened. Finally the human race destroyed themselves due to global warming and a nuclear war.

Today mankind is no more, for evolution took a step further out of which we have come to be. To us there is no such thing as a supreme being who controls everything that happens in the world, to us there’s only us and all that nature, science, and technology can give us. We are an evolved race of intellectuals. After finding out so much about the past from where we have come, the only conclusion I can come to about those ruins is that it must have been a place of worship. To us there is no God, which explains why it took us so long to discover the purpose of those ruins. Oh the irony.

Eucalyptus

I hear a whisper in the willows,
The scent of eucalyptus fills the air.
I'm only climbing up the steps right now,
As though you were never really there.

I feel myself flying, touching the treetops.
I can still hear the screaming in my head.
A cold breeze catches me and sends me soaring,
As the earth shrinks into an insignificant thread.

I'm walking by your side now,
As you decide to lead the way.
I can feel the awkward silence,
But I can't make it go away.

I'm too busy looking happy,
Too lost in believing everything's alright.
Then again I hear the screaming,
And this time it gives me quite a fright.

You pretend as if you're happy,
But I can see it in your eyes.
You wish for things to be so different,
Though you believe you're paying back the price.

We're feeding the brown ducks now,
It's no longer something we can hide.
There's this sadness on your face
Which desperately makes me want to cry.

I want to hug you and tell you I admire you,
I want to see you laugh.
But there again I hear the screaming,
And I lose the courage to do anything like that.

We're heading back home now,
I really don't want to go.
I'm terribly afraid of the screaming.
More than that, I don't want to see you low.

As I step through the door of destruction,
I think of the day of which I just had a share,
But there's only one thing that I remember:
I really love the scent of eucalyptus in the air...

I wrote this a couple of years ago, and it has now become one of my favorites.