Her karvachauth.

It is often a chosen few days of the year, such as one’s birthday, that make one feel different somehow. One of such days in the lives of many Indian women in North India, is the day of Karvachauth, celebrated each year with renewed faith in a lot of things and forces I may not be the right person to talk about. But the positivity and fervour that the day instils in these women (and as I see it, some men too!), adds a brilliant shade to the otherwise mostly- black & white, palate of life. I discussed this festival and also wrote about it last year, so for those of you needing a background, here’s where you go –https://expressedd.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/karvachauth/

Thoughts in my head this year around..

Ah you sweet dear beautiful moon!
She competes with you every Karvachauth to look prettier and nice.
And when she finally sees you in the dark sky, after waiting for what seems like decades each year,
She resigns with a smile, to your beauty, as her beau resigns to hers.
A festival celebrating love and rituals, hopes and promises,
The fervour leaving in the hearts that love, a feeling of ‘HAPPILY COMMITTED EVER AFTER’.

– Stuti

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Only when you do.

And while there was light and bright all around,
And glitter and shimmer too,
The moon up there felt a little lonely.

For it was only its territory,
To light up the dark skies each night,
And bring light and hope to those lost on the roads.

So it looked around for signs of the old days,
Still full of its light and brilliance,
And still ready to show off its beauty to the admirers.

When suddenly, it noticed a couple down there,
Enjoying a simple date under the moon lit sky, smiling and lost in beautiful thoughts,
Moon- light gleaming in their eyes, and light tears of happiness just around there.

Only then did it dawn that there will always be some extra light and fancy all around,
But you must shine no matter,
For it will nonetheless matter to a few, who smile ONLY WHEN YOU DO!

– Stuti

Karvachauth.

Before I present today’s poem, a little background on the theme.. Karvachauth is a celebrated festival in India and is celebrated with a feverish zeal by married Indian women all across. Popularly, the festival is about the wives fasting the whole day, without consuming any water or food, all for the well being and long life of their husband.  At day end, they break their fast, only after seeing a pretty full moon in the sky, and praying for the lives of their husbands to be as long as that of the moon. I feel, that interestingly enough, the moon on this particular day, looks even more beautiful than the other days 🙂 Now here I write today, a poem on this warm sentiment, that somehow renews the faith and bond of these couples.

Pretty as she is,
She gets ready in the morning, like any other morning.
But today is special they say,
For it’s the day she will dress up and fast all day, for him.

With a zeal she shares with no other day she fasts on,
She wears her favourite reds-
Nail paint, saree, lip colour, and finally, on her head,
A red line of that vermillion powder called sindoor.

Patiently, she spends her day fasting,
Blushing every once in a while,
Cursing the next moment out of hunger,
And then suddenly again, smiling at her own self and plight!

It’s evening, and now she begins to get impatient,
Enjoying it nonetheless, she waits eagerly for the moon to show itself,
And enchant her with its beauty,
For it’s the moon that she will pray to, for his long life.

At half past ten that night, when she finally does see it there in the sky,
She can’t but stop looking at this orange white beauty.
When suddenly she is very aware of her husband looking at her,
Admiring her beauty in turn, appreciating her dedication, smiling lovingly.

Forgetting everything and anything unpleasant, if any,
He makes her drink her first drop of water in the day,
And then makes her eat her first morsel in the day,
And so ends the day, faith renewed somehow, LOVE STRENGTHENED IN ITS OWN BEAUTIFUL WAY.

– Stuti

Fear.

She fears the stars,
For they are too bright for her eyes.
She fears the moon,
For it seems too calm to be true.

She fears the smile on her lips,
For it means happiness, and joy.
She fears tears in her eyes,
For they said, it means unhappy notes.

She fears death,
For they would be gone forever after that.
She fears birth too,
For they will be competition and responsibility soon.

She fears beauty,
For it can fool the world.
She fears the not- so- beautiful,
For they do not see the beautiful in themselves.

So she fears this, and she fears that,
She fights it all, pacifies her heart.
She’s told that fear’s no big, its all only in the head,
Yet she fears fear, hoping that she FARES WELL.

– Stuti

A smile.

The woods so pretty,
The city traffic ruckus.
The faint smell of fresh flowers,
Some grit, some city dust.

The high rising waves,
As if wanting to make a conversation with the moon.
A traffic light jumped,
A green light turning red, a little too soon.

She loves it at both these places,
She’s lived it both- small and grand.
The woods, the city, the lights,
Some owned, some hired, some calculated, some unplanned.

Some phases swallowed her a bit,
And it was an effort to bounce back, but she did.
That thing though, that makes her survive and enjoy it all,
Is ‘SMILE’- a blessing plain and simple, NO WIT!

– Stuti

The shadow..

There under the sun, she waited for the moon to come,

Her eyes trying to stare directly at the scorching treat.

And then she turned around and started walking away,

only to see her shadow also retreat.

In a playful mood, she began to run,

as if to make her shadow separate from herself.

She twisted, turned and then started walking fast,

but the shadow just wouldn’t leave her cast.

But finally she was struck with a way of sending it away from her,

she walked into her room and put the light on-

and lo and behold, the shadow was gone.

Her eyes widened at the realisation that,

in life she did not need a super solution to treat things,

What was needed was only a little light and all the problems would take WINGS.

-Stuti