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!