Meenas Poems
Hate to go out mostly,
Find solace at home,
The incessant chatter disillusions,
The irrelevant gossip disenchants,
The eagle like stare penetrates,
The stinging words pierce,
The sharp sneer kills,
Cause not like to get out,
Cause stay at home renders peace.
Counting is difficult for a child,
Accounting becomes hard for the rich,
Yet the child has to do it mild,
And the rich have to set right all sides,
The little one learns it in a testy ride,
The wealthy settle the accounts all wide,
The ascending and descending orders collide,
The accounted and unaccounted generally divide,
The kid ,as time passes ,gets along with the tide,
The affluent ,as practice goes, succeed in the hide,
The innocence assimilate the lesson with a guide,
The imperious amass wealth without a slide.
The child acquires knowledge with the aid,
The rich hoard money also with the aid.
Study and fortune revolve round in a lovely glide.
Waters do meet in the ocean,
Lands do track down in a traction,
Wind do blow in a friction,
Men do set themselves in a session,
Captioning it as a delightful Conviction.
Rivers have a natural flow,
Lands generally have lovely row,
Winds usually have a gentle blow,
Men hardly go about in a toe.
Deleting justice to an ultimate slow.
Waters flood once a while,
Lands slips during the rainy file
Winds storm in occasional trial,
Men exhibit guile all the while,
Seeking to challenge truth in a vile.
Nature takes on the cyclic course,
In no mean terms, though with force,
Men go for back stabs in a morose,
Oh! they are the actors with high resource.
,
Is winning laurels an achievement?
Yes, it is a rightful assumption,
Is becoming sixty years an attainment?
No,it is a misconceived conception.
Celebrating the sixtieth birthday is a fashion,
Holding feasts and revelry in honour of the day.
Attributing it to the stars and zodiac signs is the reason
Spending hundred thousands in one single day.
Well ,that is each one’s wish is the defense,
Right ,is it not there a limit?
I stand out from the crowd which is an offence,
Yet,I will never admit.
To me, aging is a natural process,
Everyone born undergoes,
To me ,it does not bear any success,
It is only a natural recourse.
Oh! it was a big celebration people acclaim,
Oh! there was a huge gathering,all proclaim
Oh! the food was delicious the crowd claims,
Oh! what a colossal waste, 
I exclaim!
Mind you it is another day,
Not different from any day,
Mind you it is a usual wake up,
Not very different from other get ups.
Mind you it is going about the normal way,
Buying grocery at the sub way,
Holding a while in the mad traffic,
Exhausting the energy quick.
Mind you it is another page of your life,
Quickly turned reflecting the hurried strife,
It is a fresh leaf out in the lease,
Cautiously straightened for a release.
Mind you age rolls out in brisk speed,
Withering the face to a wrinkled seed,
Customs break the beauty to an antique calm,
Sagging muscles detonate the exuding charm.
Mind you life flows on like a river,
Years move on in a quiver,
Bringing cheer and sadness together,
Well, that is how another day gathers.
| Article first published as The Malaysian Formula for Racial Harmony on Blogcritics. |
Living in Malaysia is thoroughly exciting. You have a Chinese person living beside you in the left, a Malay in the right, and an Indian on the opposite side. It is real fun. The light-skinned Chinese with little eyes works with the dark-colored well-built Indian in an office where the brown-tinged softspoken Malay walks in as a customer.
In Malaysia you find no racial discrimination. 
You can find no derogatory reference to color. You hear no illicit remarks against customs. You perceive only fusion. You experience the adaptability of the three races. You have to appreciate the perfect blend, admire the harmonious living, and applaud the efforts of the government in enabling the possibility of co-existence.
The Malaysian conglomerate has three dimensions. The native Malays, or Bumiputras, as they are called, hold key positions in governance. The 1969 riots started because the Malays felt that the Chinese controlled the economy. To raise the share of national wealth held by Malays and indigenous groups, the government extended cheap housing, priority for college enrollment, government contracts, and shares of publicly traded companies to the Malays.
These policies have been in place for years keeping peace. But if they are continued it will impede the growth of the national economy in the long term. China with its fast-track policies has attracted investments that would have otherwise come to Malaysia. Singapore has wooed multinationals aggressively and outstripped Malaysia in growth. The present government has started to dismantle the policies that favour the ethnic majority Malays, making it easier for foreigners to invest.
Malays have become prosperous. Their standard of living has risen. Their lifestyle has changed considerably, approaching one very much similar to the West. They drive expensive cars, travel extensively, send their wards abroad for higher education, and secure coveted jobs in government and in both private and public sector companies. They invariably enjoy priority in every field, education, career, and amenities.
Yet the Chinese command the economy still. Their work ethic is unbelievable. They are smart, outgoing, and intelligent. They are a more homogeneous and a more united society than Indians. Their women are working everywhere. They are CEOs, actresses, waitresses, sales girls, anchors. There are criticisms of the Chinese as well: there are common complaints that they are egotistical, communal, and run a closed shop. They ape the west but know little English.
The Indian community, which is 8% of the Malaysian population, are mainly plantation labourers. The Tamil schools in the estates do not provide competent education. They are mere apologies. The Punjabis from North India are frequently in the police force. The Gujaratis and the Sindhis manage textile businesses, while the Tamils do estate work.
They are peace-loving people hard-hit economically, and of late there is an awakening among the Indians. They want to rehabilitate their lifestyle by educating themselves and refining their wayward behaviour.
Every day at the same time we can hear the Muslim call for prayers, hear the Hindu Temple bells ringing signalling the worship time, and see the Chinese congregations in the Buddhist temples. The children acquire a smattering of knowledge of all the three languages and become familiar with the customs of all three races. They grow up in the most preferable state of communion.
Indeed Malaysia has set a precedent for racial harmony. Distinctions of colour and creed are deliberately prevalent in the UK and Australia and nonchalantly in U.S. Let the world learn the lesson from this tiny peninsula in the South China sea.
Read more: http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/the-malaysian-formula-for-racial-harmony/#ixzz1fHBYji50
I sat near a window,
Looked down below,
I saw heads many,
Some with hair black,
Others shining bald.
I peeped out of the window,
Looked down below,
I saw figures in clones
Some a bag of bones,
Others a mountain of fleshy tones.
I stared through the window,
Looked down below,
I saw movements apart
Some making a hurried depart,
Others entering from various parts.
I gazed through the window,
Looking down below,
I saw interactions varied,
Some gesturing torrid,
Others gesticulating horrid.
I bent towards the window,
Looking down below,
I saw the world in a shadow ,
Enacting a beautiful tableau,
Proposing a calibre pseudo.
Announcements are never easy ,
Unless they aim to be crazy,
Announcements are never late,
Unless they focus on something great,
Announcements are never slight,
Unless they target on things bright,
Announcements are never possible,
Unless they center round the plausible,
Announcements are never dogmatic,
Unless they go around anything pragmatic.
Announcements are always a formality,
As they appear to be a credibility,
Announcements are always a procedure,
As they start-up an adventure,
Announcements are always a buoyancy,
As they instill a substantial relevancy
Announcements are always an anticipation,
As they instigate a suspension,
Announcements should always be absolute,
As they convey directions resolute.
Enriching oneself all along ,
Has been the way so long,
Now tables have turned ,
Attitudes have changed,
Releasing an uncomfortable strong.
Acquiring richness was a pride,
Involving a comprehensive ride,
That include all the qualities best,
Power, Money, Grace and Poise to a test,
Signifying a glow and a bliss along side
Connotations differ in recent times,
With wealth in the form of dime,
Allows those in authority to track resource,
In the guise of licences and insider trading recourse,
Gaining in enormous resultant income for the rest of times.
So far so good as the excitement lasts,
The luxury and fame have been cast,
Suddenly eyebrows get raised,
Suspicion looms large in manner phased,
Leading to an investigation fast.
So much so the suspension laps up,
Fingers point to the man at the top,
The less powerful go to the prison quick,
The most powerful dodge the judge to blink,
Delaying their entry by negotiating a tie up.
One by one they go in a disciplined row,
The minister, the secretary, the executive all toe,
The jail overflows with billionaires illegal
Hitherto it hosted only criminals legal,
Streams of greed, impudence, and cheat converge in a flow.
The coin flew up in the air,
All eyes got stuck in a glare,
Head cried the majority ,
Tail whimpered the minority,
The coin slowly landed in a glide effortlessly.
All hearts thumped fast,
All eyelids fluttered very fast,
The coin descended slowly,
It fell on the ground very slowly.
It could be head or tail obviously.
Lo! the coin was smudged badly,
No head or tail in it really,
The head got disfigured in the damage,
The tail got erased in the rummage
It was a faceless coin. with no image.
The anticipation died down,
Every visage had a visible frown,
That which arouses expectation more,
Falters in disappointment all the more,
A bitter lesson hard to comprehend evermore.
Meenas Poems 