IT’S NOT YOUR JOB!

All life a man strives for a girlfriend or a wife,
Who’s enticing enough to embellish his life.

But you know one day this will make a difference,
Perhaps, in your future daughter’s life a hindrance.

When she’ll inquire, “Dad, am I pretty or not?”,
Your heart will die a hundred deaths with your stomach in many a knots!

“You don’t have to be so,
Just for the sake of following the mob.
If that isn’t what your heart craves for,
Then it’s not your job!”

Or you might go standard and quote,
“Of course you’re! Your facial charm is after all what makes me sail my life’s boat”.

Both might sound right,
Right now in your head.
But your momentary words,
Will make her develop a perception which the world won’t be able to behead.

She’ll anyway learn the patriarchal truth one day,
But what she’s taught till that time is what for a lifetime will stay.

The former quote will preach her,
That it’s okay to earn a few bucks less and aim for a real life encore of Mary Kom;
Than to just play it on screen,
Accumulate huge wealth and set the theater on storm.

It obviously, for her, won’t be easy,
To unlearn sexism while embarking the journey as a novel herald.
But your daughter by then won’t be all breezy,
Who just cares about lips glossy and haute couture of the world.

I hope you start making a choice different from today,
Such that later, in pride your heart and mind would endlessly lay.
-D. Sharma

BE THE FEW

We’re all stars learning people’s names,
Whose light shall not be blown off as extinguishing flames.

People will do every little thing to put you in shame,
Only because you gave heart to your passion when they succumbed to disdain.

Not undermining the fact that being an engineer or a doctor is a task uphill,
You win at life when you walk away from such stereotyped goals which are against your will.

Most of us will try settling for fine,
Which would include a sedan car, an embellished house and a luxurious place to dine.
But some will set the voyage for the new,
That would only afford a decent car, a tiny flat and dinners with dishes few.

The former would most assuredly win you fans for your lifestyle,
And the latter, hopefully followers for a lifetime.
So whenever the paradigm sets in you,
Remember, that you’ve to be the few,
Be the few!

-D. Sharma