On The Verge Of Breakdown…

Nature: Ambience at every step

 

Nature’s Cry

Too benign in her ambient harmony she is
but like most other women, she is
overworked and underpaid

She takes it all with a smile
and continues to serve and oblige
bestow food, water, shelter, respite

She bears it quietly, but at times
retaliates, blows tornadoes
fumes volcanoes, warms up too much
goes bitterly cold; she goes on strike

But merciful mother nature that she is
she quickly forgives her spoilt children
hoping her wayward brats will learn
one day soon; hope not after it’s too late

© 2017 Alka.

♣~♣~♣~ ♣~♣~♣~♣

Nature, like most women, is so calm and giving…provides free fresh air, food, water, and of course a feast of breathtaking beauty to everyone. But in return she is being taxed. Too exposed, vulnerable and defenseless in the hands of humans who are using it.

Industrial pollution has changed air composition and that of rivers.
Fossil fuel consumption, greenhouse gases are a reality.
Trees are being cut down via deforestation.
Genetic engineering and genetically modified crops are toxic for the wild life.
Ozone layer is getting depleted due to industrial gases. Global warming is looming large.
Resources are not just getting polluted but also depleted, while overpopulation means we are going to need more and more.

There are many more causes of natural and environmental breakdown…but what can we do? Can we change it?
Look around. We all can do our tiny bit, within our own community.

After all, looking after nature as also the women in your life, will  prove beneficial for the family…our world family of living beings as well as our own family and home.

~ alka ~

Be A Winner, This NewYear

Congratulations!!  You have been so amazing
You there! Yes you…you are a bona fide winner

You have made it till the end of one lifeshaping year
You’re all set and geared, for another bountiful year

You could glide smooth through this long dicey year
You bravely overcame all your big and small fears

Your going got tough, but how you evolved even tougher
You did not permit the icy turmoils to make you shiver

You faced lethal demons, that were so hard to beat
You never knew you had it in you, but see…you did

You understood life’s all about stealing joyful moments
You learnt to be grateful for the life’s very existence

You made some friends, but you sure lost some
You got some love, and you did lose some

You took mindful steps towards the betterment of self
You perpetually endeavored to achieve your best

You dived headlong, reached out to grasp a fuller life
You were resolved to work towards a blessed family life

You lost some, but then you did gain some
You made it through, aren’t you just awesome?

You can do it all again, all this and much more
You have it in you, and you always will forevermore

You’ll be blessed by God, in this brand new roller-coaster
You’ll emerge out stronger, year after year, year after year.

© 2016 Alka Girdhar

 

Three Sisters – Blue Mountains Katoomba – timeless resilient mounts

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Wish you all lovely readers and dear followers of my blog, a very HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017!!

May your  new year be better than the one that you are leaving behind.
Did you have a great 2016, or not so good? Hang in there.
As you can still keep your hopes alive in 2017.

Looking Up & Around…

This week, I happened to visit a nearby suburb after almost a year and a half. As we entered its periphery, the roads there seemed busier than ever before and we had to push our way through the erratic traffic.

Later as we walked along the pavement, there was no usual order in things. Actually there were precautionary boards all along the roads, while construction guys stood with their vans all over the place.

?

?

?

Obviously this hub of activity was a bit of a nuisance to pedestrians as well as those looking for a parking place. In the late

Never Say Die

~ Ornamental flowers and Dandelion weeds in the same yard ~

 

Never Say Die

Soaked alike in golden sun
Who looks better?
the flowers or the weeds
the accepted or the rejected
the adored or the detested

Side-by-side in their race
for life. Who wins better?
the docile or the aggressive
the frail or the hardy
the shy or the pushy

Hated by the natives, the
resilient all-pervading wilds
stay on, though stomped and razed
shine on, with their heads raised
Indefatigable and unrelenting
thick-skinned stubborns, absorb
nicks and kicks, to unashamedly
survive and thrive; never say die

©2016 Alka

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For: The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge Opposites

Joy Dispensed

                          ~When in full bloom~

How delightfully, they
Doled out bounteous happiness!
Ethereal beauty and surges of fragrance
Now time for them to take leave
For they have done their bit

          ~ Same flowers now short-lived fading beauties~

 

© 2016 Alka Girdhar

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For: Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge – Flowers

Selfie-less Girl

“Mom, why is it that we never take selfies?”, little Ivana ranted as she stomped behind her mother from one room to the other.

“Honey! We do take sometimes”, replied Savita, albeit a bit indifferently, for she was too engrossed thinking about her work project.

“Nooo…but they’re just photos. They are not selfieeees!!” Ivana’s words dragged in rebellion while her mouth pouted.

“That means the same”

“Nooo Mom! As if I don’t know!!” Then after pausing for a while to think, Ivana asked “OK! Do we ever do like this in our pictures?”  She came in front of her mom and pursed her lips out in a pout, to make a duck-face. But the mom was amused.

Catty Face

 

Catty face! Catty face!!
Don’t stare at me like this
You petrified, or scaring me?
Standing there frozen still
In my home, on my driveway
It’s my territory, my pathway
You the prowler, go away!!

It’s ok! Let it be
Here I open the door
Please come inside
Play with me for a while
Have tea with me
But dear! Make sure
You come regularly

Hey!! What happened?
Why you running away??
Wait! Wait!! Wait!!!
Let me come with you
Will you? But you won’t
For you’re an impish kitty
Catty face, frisky and sneaky!

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The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge Face is so interesting, that I could think of so many of them, but this light post came by easy as I saw this prowling cat. Do you also get some regular visitor like this one?

Also for One Word Photo Challenge – Cat

© 2016 Alka Girdhar

These Grounded Earthlings…

They feel rooted
Only if they immerse
In the soil of nurturing earth
Or sprout from its womb
As a young sapling

**

They love pecking
The bare warm earth
Replete with little bounties
Of their daily food
That they love eating

**

They love earthing
To lush green earth
The oh-so-soft cushioned carpet
That caresses and soothes
Their bare skin

**

Farmer setting fire to Amazon

Amazon forests burning

They love setting fire
To their Mother Earth’s
Sprawling fertile forests
And possess its vast lands
They then call their own

(Now, deforestation is not just due to human malpractices or ill intentions of using forest land for businesses like cattle-ranching; as fires are also due to drought and overall climate change. But then again humans are the only species who ought to know how to save earth’s assets rather than cut them down or burn them for selfish reasons. Our verdant earth’s forests are home to so many species.)

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All pictures self-clicked except for the last two (for obvious reasons). Source

For The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge Earth

WPC: Half-Light

 

Half Light

 

When darkness hasn’t yet engulfed
Things that bright light had once touched
It’s a reign of hazy twilight…

This shadowy light that
Like some half-baked truth
Reveals enough, hides enough…

For raw truth often hurts
And so do blatant lies
Neither black nor white, have grey

Hugging these truthful-lies…
Feeling the fleeting vibes
Of dreamy glow, that isn’t here to stay

It will ebb away, at the blink of an eye
But what a feast for our thirsty eyes
This half-lit half-light!

© Alka Girdhar

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In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge:
Half-Light
Share a photo inspired by a poem, verse, song lyric or story.

The header of my blog itself represents half-light.

Her Photo Studio – a flash fiction

Her Photo Studio – short story

In this era of selfies, my 90 year old Nanna refuses to be clicked by some ‘weird little box’. That’s what she calls my rather big smartphone, the biggest I ever had.

But if I needed her photograph for her passport, what could I do? I had to approach her for a picture.

Once inside her room, where she spends most of her time, I told her to get ready for the picture. She eyed my ‘little box’ strangely and got up. Soon she stepped out of her dressing-room wearing her lovely cream jacquard suit with satiny rims, and dainty heels. I knew she was in her special mood. I had last seen her wearing this attire on her 50^th wedding anniversary. Soon after that grandpa had passed away.

She told me she wants to go out for getting her photograph clicked. Her enthusiasm was catchy. I agreed, picked up my mobile phone and drove her to her favorite park. I assumed that’s where she wants her picture taken, but she instructed with her hand, “Not here. There!!”.

Soon we reached a shop front. While she stood waiting, I walked up to a quaint door and checked the rusty board. It was a photographer’s shop all right. She had not brought me to a wrong place. Only that the board said:

“Closed since 1990”

The studio-type photography businesses could probably not survive the technical boom.

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My story in response to: Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers

Photo prompt by Uday