A ROYAL BIRTH AND AN EARLY DEMISE

   

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A 2000 RUPEE NOTE          

Every birth in nature, a gift to see the universe and enjoy,

World  welcomes every creature with glee and a blessing,

Inanimate, common to all factory born, so too yours truly,

Royal gestation and a tumultuous delivery, all bemusing.

 

Older discarded siblings , all despising me with a wry  grin,

Ignorant of their fate, or their sudden and untimely death,

Some razed by the fire, some never saw the world again ,

All the rest in an unknown terrain, yet I wasn’t dejected.

 

Hailed as a blemish less monarch, Oh I was on cloud nine,

Proud of my frenzied beauty, soon I hated my cousins’ ilk.

All rushing  to caress me, fondling me, every now and then,

Ecstasy  blinding my vision, poor cousins  in a jealous blink.

 

Rejoicing  an exalted status, despite warnings from within.

My ilk declined in number, handling  becoming a  burden,

Affluent continued to pile me, easier to handle me in bulk;

The poor hated me daily, all preferring my poorer cousins,

 

My toddler life was rosy, infancy and childhood all thorny ,

A life threatening fall in sight, all my cousins are laughing;

Immortal becomes a mortal, a fatal and a contagious one,

Asylum is the remedy, treatment of isolation in full swing.

 

My royal life and status cut short, amidst huge hue and cry

The rich, all awe struck. the poor unmoved, in a silent laugh,

My  cousins over joyous and celebrating my premature exit ,

Underdogs  now the rulers, my stocks now in a  fast tumble

 

With the rich, all my unseen populace explore a safer room,

Unsure of the  source, the rich  researching  my  exchange,

My days are numbered, so too of my  populace for the doom,

Pride goes before a fall, the proverb still  ringing in my ears,

 

 

            A SPECTACULAR SPECTACLE

        A Niagara  Experience  

 

                                                                                    

Water a solvent for many a liquid drug  to save a life,

Best medicine for many an ailment in many a show, 

Quenching the thirst in summer, soothes us in winter, 

When it pours  down, it is called rains, falls or snow.

Rains do hamper, snows disturb the movement, 

Falling  from a height, a sight oft fascinating,

Many a time a hard rock overlies a soft rock beneath, 

Creates an erosion  time and again  forming  a step.

Repeated erosions undermine the softer rocks below, 

Flow of water speeds the force in height and width,

Year after year this creates a wonderful spectacle, 

 A natural wonder we see and enjoy  as water falls.

One such falls straddles two countries, so strange,                 

Glaciers, great lakes, and the retreat of ice sheets, 

Tens of thousands of  years enabled its present show,

Spilling six million cubic feet every minute, a wonder,                                   

                                                                              

Sandwiched between cities of Ontario and  Niagara,

A sight to behold, three offspring’s  contained within; 

Horse shoe Falls, highlights the Canadian  domain,

American Falls, Bridal Veil  share the American pride,

Tourist far and wide, swarm to witness a great show,

More one watches this delight oft in stunned silence.

More are we proud of  the nature’s splendid wonder,

Such gifts of nature  linger in our memory  for ages.