Some everyday woes

I’m sure you'll agree it isn't fun
waking up daily with the rising sun
but oh the other everyday woes
that a person like me undergoes!

After waking I step on my weighing scale
and sure enough let out a horrible wail
after which i nearly begin to weep
why can't some weight be lost in sleep?

I summon strength, run a hot shower
emerging with effort after an hour
post which I am left tearing my hair
trying to decide what clothes to wear!

Finally when am ready, I reach my car
have to look for my key both near and far
When I find them and switch the engine on
it seems that the battery is almost gone.

Somehow I make it to the office gate
but by then I am already late
try to log onto the server but fail
account's overflowing with Spam mail!

The evening however should be great
I have an appointment with a hot date
keeping count as the minutes drag by
when can I leave, I think with a sigh.

Guess what - just as I am about to leave
Call from a new client I do receive
"an urgent meeting - please drop by
brand sales are down, we don’t know why!"

The meeting ends late after midnight
my hot date by then is sleeping tight
there’s nothing for dinner everything’s shut
I seriously feel like kicking my butt.

Tired enough to just drop dead
angry and hungry I go to bed
so imagine my state when next I see
my weighing scale is up by 1 kg!!!!

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- And to think that Scarlett's immortal lines of hope were - "After all...tomorrow is another day!"...ouch!!

A matter of life and death

Terri Schiavo lies dying in her hospital bed amidst the tug of war between Michael Schiavo (her husband cum guardian) vs. Bob and Mary Schindler (her parents).

This much-publicized incident has rocked the world. People have been taking sides based on faith, politics, human rights and what not. Criticisms are flying thick and fast. As for me, I am just wondering about some of the issues that Terri’s case has brought about in its wake.

1. Should we hold onto a terminally ill patient for years, waiting in hope for a miraculous cure or should we let them go? Like it or not, there are considerations at work here

• The helplessness, pain and frustration of the patient and his/her caregivers. Those who have had to take care of a terminally ill patient clearly know how frustrating it can be to see a loved one suffering day after day as we pray on in the hope of a miracle. What horrors the patients themselves go through i cannot even begin to fathom.
  
• The sheer economics of providing such long term medical care (over 15years in Terri’s case). In poorer countries, this would have been deemed a luxury that very few could afford
  

2. I feel that the right to die is as important as the right to live. However, in the absence of a living will, should another person’s word be considered absolute proof of a patient’s will to die? Or, should the fact that the body is not giving in so easily be seen as a will to live? I do not know the answer but I am sure this case will prompt more people to work out living wills so that there is no scope for debate and suspicion at a later date

3. Many terminally ill patients have sought out death. However, does death have to be such a slow, long drawn process as in Terri’s case, where starvation has been the chosen route? The doctors seem divided over the issue whether lack of food and water is causing Terri any pain. On the one hand, medical analogies are being cited to say there cannot be pain but on the other hand, morphine doses are being given to alleviate the pain if any. So what is it? Can anyone really know? And what must it be like to be in her parent’s shoes to sit helplessly by her bedside watching her slipping away in bits, not knowing…?

4. Should a person’s guardianship rest solely with a spouse, while the parents are still alive? Parents who have given Terri life only to watch helplessly as it is taken away by the State at another’s insistence? Can anyone blame them for accusing Michael who has anyway moved on in life – made a home with another woman and even started a family of his own, a family that will not be legitimate until Terri dies? But then again I am left wondering if it can all be so simplistic. Why would a man who has found love again not simply move on by divorcing an ailing wife and returning her to her parents’ custody? Why live through the accusations that the world is heaping on him and maybe on his family as well? Why would a man who at one point had taken the pains to study nursing so that he could care for his wife now fight the world to let her go? Is it really about money and gaining freedom as his accusers point out? And then, is it totally unthinkable that parents (knowingly or unknowingly) do not always know/act in the best interest of their child and that someone else may understand that person much better?

5. How much should a government and its legalities intrude into the lives of people, especially when no crime has been committed? Should they have the last say in matters that are entirely personal in nature or should they restrict their jurisdiction to more global and societal matters, leaving people to run their individual lives in peace under the shelter and safety net that a government provides?

And last but not the least I am left stunned by the irony of fate. An eating disorder has brought Terri where she is today. And to think that her death should come about by withdrawal of food and water makes me wonder...really wonder...

A candle in the wind

A candle burning in the wind
Like hope in human breast
At times its dim when in a trough
Or brightened in a crest

If snuffed out against the night
A wisp of smoke is seen
Reminder of some earlier time
Or a passion that has been

So let the candle melt down fully
My friend can you not see
'Tis better to meet a flaming end
Than to let life unlived be

Optimism

Today…
Bumped my car on the parking wall
Lost my purse in a shopping mall

Drove over the yellow line
Ended up paying a traffic fine

Received a huge credit card bill
Then realized my bank account was nil

At work my computer crashed
All hopes of meeting deadline dashed

Caught my finger in the door
Slipped up on the bathroom floor

Dropped hot coffee on my file
And yet, believe me all the while

I said to myself, all is not lost...

…Yet! :-)

Arranged marriage

Ever since Avi posted Gambit's Pawn on AKN, it has spawned a humorous exchange on arranged marriages. Here are two verses that offer the perspective of the bride and father of the bride. The intention is to look at the institution of arranged marriage in a lighter vein.

The setting...an unsuspecting man has been lured by family to visit the house of a prospective bride. There a family album is thrust before him and through innuendos, the family tries to persuade him to give a positive feedback regarding the match. The man calls it an attempt to fix his marriage "by stealth."

Now read on...

Scene 1

The face in the album was pretty

and before he could blink

an aunt turned towards the kitchen door

and summoned with a wink.

No longer a mere face in the album

soon the entire person appeared

with tray laden with tea and samosas

It was just as the poor chap feared!

He knew he was outnumbered

by mistresses of the game

He had a sinking feeling and

hoped she was feeling the same

But she was perfectly calm and cool

pouring tea with steady hand

and a little voice warned in his head

"Ab tera to baj gaya band!!"**

And all the while the pretty face

was thinking how she must

soon write to cousins and tell them

"Another bachelor bites the dust!"

Scene 2 :a wedding toast...

Whether check or stalemate

The bachelor’s fate

Was sealed on that trip

And all watched his blood drip

As he was led on a halter

To the sacrificial alter

And ‘just married’ chimed the bong

At the wedding meal

The bride's father with zeal

Raised a toast to the pair

And said - "I’d like to share

A momentous feeling

From which I am reeling

Coz’ to hide it would be wrong

After all these years

I have finally managed my dears

To take my lovely girl’s hand

On which shines the wedding band

And move it from MY PURSE TO HIS

I cannot fully express my bliss

For this I have waited so long!!"

(**Tr: 'you have been done for')

A game of chess

Since the beginning of dawn
It has always been the pawn
Who dies at the front
While facing the brunt
Of a king’s pep talk

And the horse and its hooves
Makes the most moves
But only sometimes finds glory
In a legendary story
That’s passed down the ages

The bishop and the rook
Play by the book
And despite their strength
They go to great length
To avoid any leap of faith

So perhaps now we can guess
Why in the history of chess
It is accepted and seen fit
That it’s the 'Queen’s Gambit'
Which opens a world of possibilities...

Inspired by Avi's post - Gambit's pawn on AKN

Amazing grace

Browsing through Amit's photo gallery I came upon this picture. The grace and majesty of the swan brought to my mind a poem by Rilke, read not so long ago...

This difficult living, laboring through
that which has been left undone,
is like the awkward walk of the swan.

And dying, this slipping away from the
ground upon which we stand every day,
is the anxious swan letting himself fall --

into waters, which receive him gently
and which, as though with reverence
and joy,draw back under him wave
after wave; while the swan, now infinitely
calm and self-assured, in his full majesty
allows himself to glide on.