6 Jun 2006

Eternal Holiday


Waiting for the summer holidays
Ah! Time to start playing now
My sister and I made two long lines
Dividing all our toy utensils somehow

She gets the Kadhai, I get the saucepan
But alas there is only one tiny stove
So I set out to gather little twigs
And make a cute bonfire with love

A teddy bear is made to sit
On the tri-cycle to act as husband
With a wave and a push, he is sent to office
Leaving us queens of our land

A 'chunni' hanging on a string
Separates both our houses
Sometimes we even put on sarees
And struggle with oversized blouses

Then the cooking starts, with strange concoctions
Some edible, some certainly not
But they are both equally important
For the concentrating tiny tot!

We wash the tiny clothes as well
And iron them, nice and straight
Then dress the dolls posing as babies
And comb their hair into a plait

The whole morning passes in play
But note! we call it 'play',
It is similar to what I do now,
But I call it 'work' today

So now its work to grumble about,
The never ending cooking and cleaning 
Oh this is just play, cant I see?
Its up to me to give activity its meaning!

This is 'Maya' operating full swing,
In our illusion it keeps us wrapped,
The mind that construes 'play' as 'work'
Causes natural energy to be sapped

Whoever called it the 'veil of maya'
Got it ever so completely right
For a veil it is that hides the light
Of reality from our sight

A make believe world we all live in
Some days we choose to smile
Some days we ourselves construct an image
That makes us shed tears for a while

No different is my life now
Than the easy days of childhood play
But what I then did as a make believe game
I do, with pretense of reality, today!

If I could only constantly see
The 'play' that makes up each day
I would have today my childhood energy,
And live forever, my summer holiday!

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