God is Fast Asleep

God is Fast Asleep

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Shhh.......

God is fast asleep—

Unable to recall

What made Him bestow

So much on one

And so miniscule on the others,

Glisten, the green fronds

Awash with the maiden showers,

The waves lap against the shores

to return requited

humming merrily its sibilant whispers,

The silver surf, the golden sand

So very cool, copious and captivating

Busy celebrating their togetherness,

The undulating landscape

of the red earth and the flowing streams
Everything...

Everything to one but so less to the other,

Not a blade of grass raises its head

The other side, the craggy terrain, the floating sands

The dry beds of a prehistoric stream;

God is fast asleep—

Confused: how one smiles when he’s angry

How one prays without surrender

How one offers so much claiming that his own

How the words and sense travel in parallel

Never to meet, never to be believed

but to be repeated on and on

just for the sake of a rhythmless rhyme

like a chewing gum bereft of sweetness,  

How one thinks himself more intelligent

Than the other eating from the same plate

Sniffing the same breeze and gazing at the same sky;

God is fast asleep—

Clueless: what precious little he can do now

To make them appreciate the obvious meaning

The sun is sun and the stars are stars

The equals they are at a theoretical level

sharing the same firmament

and emitting the same rays,

How to preserve the pleasure of giving

When the dignity of expecting is so forgotten,

How to stop the competition

Nay, the ogling match of the naughty children

To make the others cry while himself smirking,

How to rein in the ambition...and the greed

There’s only so much space on the road

How to let everybody
Run so mindlessly fast;

God is asleep though—

But before going to sleep

He had hit upon an idea

His own little idea

He could not act upon it though

So facilely, the sleep did overpower Him

How to take the frogs out of the well

Rehabilitate, recalibrate them at thinking level

Making them face the world

And see for themselves what the world looks like

And make them know

what the world thinks of them;

Nay, even He is not confident:

Taking the frog out of well

May as well turn a flop show,

Who knows?

There is this second thought though

Even after taking the frogs out of the well

Showing them the Eiffel Tower

Where is the guarantee that they would think sense

And admit that there are object on this earth

Taller than them.

Oh God!

I’ve a suggestion

Suggestion to you the clueless

Still sleeping and dreaming a way out,

One day

You should bring the Himalayas here

And let your children taste

and know for themselves

How distance is measured not in kilometres

But in days and months,

Sweat refuses to trickle while tears flow so facile,

 Sorrows are made to fly

Afar, to the mountain passes past the trails of ravines

Along the lilt of the melody

Wafting past them and beyond

Leaving the souls awash, clean and sparkling,

How muscles dissipate to keep in rhythm

The priceless gift of breath and life,

How belief precedes the prayer

Not the outpouring of greed,

How respect begets love and love the respect

How your bounty is matched

By gratitude, prayer and hope.

Oh God!

Wake up and bring the Himalayas here

Now, at this moment, before it’s too late

The frogs will automatically

Spring out of the water

And make a beeline to the summit

No need to sleep for aeons on end

Just thinking and thinking and abdicating

An ounce of action worth a ton of dreaming.

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By

A. N. Nanda

Kollam

20-06-2015

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