Beauty of Choice

Choice in our life, is a luxury.

Enticed with options, so many

choose we do, sans any worry;

about people, planet or prosperity!

Choice we have, for our lifestyle.

To wake up with a bright smile,

Treat roads like the winding Nile,

Laceup and jog for a mile.

Choice we have on food we eat.

We debate the good in rice over wheat,

Proteins we search in greens and meat,

Farm we do till resources deplete.

Choice we have for clothes we wear.

Civilized to be, so not to bare.

Fashion we call no shelf to spare,

Decompose it won't; ozone we tear!

Choice, when comes to essential

Our minds get into denial.

Care then we do; for survival

life too, gets an emotional upheaval.

Choice, when comes to survival

What we do determines revival.

If our choice be wise & responsible

Life too, will be one big carnival!

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© Balaji Palanidurai

The girl in this picture is my daughter. It was a candid click while shooting her DIY video that she worked on for Parent Circle magazine during this lockdown.

These are words from the bottom of my heart. Each paragraph is inspired by a news item or post I saw regarding the state of our world in the times of COVID 19.

This piece of work is dedicated to 

- that daily wage labourers for whom my daughter and I bought essentials from the grocery store in my neighbourhood. COVID lockdown had forced her to beg for survival

- to my children who have been a sport throughout this tough period and making wise choices on food and clothes to wear etc

- the humans who flocked to buy meat and fish when the butcher opened after 3 weeks

- all lives we lost due to this pandemic 

Learn or churn

We all have an equal right to education
To learn from it, one needs determination
Education for all can be simple, yet priceless
Let's not complicate it and make it worthless

Mother nature was the source for it in primitive days
Learn we did by experiencing it in multiple ways
Apply, learning, we did, to domesticate and settle
Multiply we did, yet, thrived with little

With passage of time we moved into civilization
Learning too, kept its pace sans any realization
To industries we went to work and earn
Schools we created for our children to learn

To spread it far and wide it got standardized
In that process did learning get compromised?
Industry it became and many built an empire

A factory that churned out victims of despair

Among them, lived a few known for their philanthropy 

Shared they did their learning and philosophy

Business, it was not for them; our right to education

Lead by example they did for the next generation 

Education for all, now, comes at a price

If you want nature in it, expect a steep rise
Education for all can be simple, yet priceless
Why complicate it and make it worthless?

We are born with creativity and imagination
Let's explore more and upskill for innovation
Choice we have to either learn or churn
Let's follow our passion, till comes our turn.

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©Balaji Palanidurai

This poem is inspired by events over last few weeks where I have been engaged in various discussion about the state of current education system and how the standardized approach is churning our graduates who find themselves lacking in employable skills!

Education now is a big industry and in developing countries this is big business. I was stunned by fees some school charge for kinder garden and more in the name of nature trips and studies! Is it really worth it? But, what is the alternative? In a nuclear family that has both parents aspiring to excel in life they decide to send their kids to schools to be churned out along with million others.

If a small percentage of those parents chose to home school their children and coach them to pursue a passion - in sports, arts or even farming, I am sure life will be very rewarding for them and their children will love them for that freedom. 

The last line of the poem was inspired by the Gully boy (#gullyboy) movie I happened to see over the weekend "Apna time ayega..."