Sigh...

Its a strange phenomena! Being exposed to the misery of another, depletes one of his or her own energy. It is actually physically weakening. You are considerate and accommodating to the troubles of others, you wish to solve their problem for them, you wish to take away their pain and anguish…and you do to some extent. But...at the end of it all you actually end up depleting your own energy.

Is this a natural or am I being difficult, one often wonders. Am I being practical in believing that this is how the universe functions or am I missing out on something...How much can one give in solace and understanding. How much will be the desire and the necessity in situations such as this. Who will determine what needs to be done. And who will decide that enough has been done.
How is one to ascertain whether what you give is taken in the right spirit. How does one determine whether the issue is genuine and deserving of attention. And how will the other party be convinced that what you give is being sufficiently understood. What if it is not. What if it is looked upon as a pretense, an act. Would this challenge trust. And what if it is challenging trust. Does this one incident then, become a reckoner for future association.
Years and years of togetherness and belief in another to crumble with just one incident, would be harsh would it not, for the association. Or would it still survive despite everything. And if it did, who would give the greater understanding. Who would be required to bend first and why.

I am perplexed in thought. A thought which I have hypothetically built to illustrate an inconceivable example. There is no cause for it. There is no burning problem. And neither is any one in anguish or pain. Just…a thought...And may it remain just that...a thought…

मुसीबत पड़ी
तो रोया था ;
ज्यादा मुसीबत पड़ी
तो चुप हो गया था ;
बहुत ज्यादा मुसीबत पड़ी है
तो हँसता हूँ ,
आखिर दुनिया में बसता हूँ  .

When trials, trouble and tribulations came upon me,
I cried
When they increased,
I had become quiet;
When they increased even more,
I began to laugh,
After all I am a resident of this world….

Sometimes it is important to be reflective. Sometimes it  is important not to be too far away from the realities of life. Sometimes it is important to understand that being cynical is not a human deficiency. Sometimes it is important to accept that a utopian existence may never exist. Sometimes it is important to succumb to our frailties. Sometimes it is important to know that we are human.

We are weak and open to temptation. We are gullible and open to the point of deceit. We are afraid of our own disability and hide it behind masks. We are honest to ourselves when we are with ourselves. We lament misery on others and belie similar misery on us. We are we and they are they.. and the twain shall never meet.

Adieuz

The White Man's Burden

In rememberance of all all the people who lived, struggled, fought, died and survived through this pain of Whites and Coloreds.


History has a lot to tell us about the sorrowful lives of our ancestors....and the sacrifices they made to make our lives better.

Rudyard Kipling, an Englishman born in India, wrote this poem in 1899.

Take up the White Man's burden -
Send forth the best ye breed -
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild -
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half - devil and hald-child.

Take up the White Man's burden -
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror,
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
And hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden -
The savage wars of peace -
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness ceasel
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take yo the White Man's burden -
No tawdry rule of kings
But toil of serf and sweeper -
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
Go mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden -
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better;
The hate of those ye guard -
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) towards the light:-
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"


Take up the White Man's burden -
Ye dare not stoop too less-
Nor call too loud on freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your Gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden -
Have done with childish days -
The lightly proffered laurel,
The easy ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!