Why my father is my Inspiration!

This boy had shifted to the city for the first time in his life, he was in grade six technically spending all his live in a village..

It was the first day of new school when during the english lesson his teacher asked him to stand up and read out an application.. The young boy had no clue about what he was being asked to do and all the knowledge he had of english started reading out " A B C .. Z " and a few more english words he had memorized, whole class burst into laughters and so did the teacher.

"What do you want to become when you grow up?" The teacher asked.

"I will become a doctor." He replied.

Another pause and the whole class along with the teacher laughs again.

"You and a doctor? you will be lucky enough if you pass Matric exams". The teacher replied back.

Couple years passed and he wasn't the most gifted one. Biology wasn't the easiest of subjects for him, with all the english and the alien terms used. he bought a dictionary, started studying with the book infront and it usually took him 3 hours just to cover one page of the book, but he never lost hope and he kept on working hard.

By the end of the year his vocabulary had improved considerably and he could now read one page in 45 minutes. His uncle, who was a doctor told him if he wanted to be a doctor he should cover one page in 10 minutes with all the understanding. 

He worked more harder and harder.. now just before his Matric exams, was able to cover a page in 30 minutes... After the result was out, he had topped in his school.

First thing he did was to take his result card to that teacher, handed it to him and stood silently!

The teacher wrote his name with the initials of DR. before it with best wishes!

That boy is indeed a doctor now, working at the second biggest hospital in Asia. His name is Dr. Ashraf Awan and he is my father :)

An Orange Day

It was an orange day. I don’t know why but it was one of those rare days I classified as orange. Days can be easily classified using colours; my mind automatically arranges them for me – yellow when I am bright, white when I am calm, black when I am mournful and so on. Every hue carries a message and my intuition said today was orange. Something special was destined today.

In Mumbai, it does not rain, it pours. During the last hour of college, it was pouring madly. We requested our lecturer to leave early; he denied permission. Everything seemed just as usual. Afterall, heavy rains aren’t unusual phenomena in Mumbai.

When the college bell rang, we moved down the staircase that took us to the front gate, but we were stopped short by the sight before us. The rain gods had gone berserk and the pouring looked plain catastrophic. Cell phones beeped wildly and the verdict was out – No moving out of here! All rail routes, road routes were closed.

The next few hours were spent discussing gossiping about our "favourite" lecturers. I did not know that Emily was going out with Muthu Kumar! What a combination - two of the most hated lecturers! We cracked jokes on what would they name their kid. “Artificially intelligent”, came Armaan’s prompt reply while someone said it should be “Network failure”. Emily taught us Computer Networks, Muthu Artificial Intelligence.

Few hours passed and the rain subdued a little. The more adventurous lot started moving out of college. Heading home was impossible but people were trying to go to places of people known to them living nearby. Seeing the college getting emptier, I decided to go to a cousin’s place living some blocks away.

While I was still waiting for the orange spark, it dazzled brilliantly through the grey alley I was moving in. She asked me if I could help her under my umbrella. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was beautiful, elegant, graceful. It was her eyes I couldn’t take mine off from. Dark jet black – incomparable beauty! I felt a deep connection. I felt something about her that I had never felt before. I felt as if my heart had close for any other woman on earth. It was unusual but a moment to be revered for life.

“Excuse me?” I got back to my senses. “Sorry”, I mumbled. “You can get under the umbrella. But I don’t know how well this would be able to protect us both.” She got under the umbrella. She smelt of sandalwood – pure and holy. “Thanks”. I was wondering if she felt the same clinking of metals within her, the same current running under her skin as was running through me.

I tried controlling myself but blurted out, "You are so beautiful." How can you ever say this to a girl when you have only just met her? What will she think about me - would she find me desperate? But she smiled. "I know and I am glad you can see it too". Glad that I saw it too? Does this mean other people did not see her as beautiful? I was confounded.

It suddenly started pouring madly. The water in the lane we were now walking in was already above waist-level. Luckily, I noticed that an electricity pole dangling dangerously around the corner of the lane. If the pole fell down, it would electrify us both to our deaths. I caught her hand and asked her to run. The pole could collapse any moment and we had to hurry. But, she did not move - out of fear or shock I do not know. "What? Do you want to die?", I asked. She said, "Nobody wants to die. But we all have to." Wow! This wasn’t time for philosophy! But she continued, "People find death ugly for it takes them by shock. But, there are few who understand the beauty in it. Death is transformation. Can you imagine how would it be to just live on and on with this body ageing but there being no death. How ugly would that kind of immortality be?" I thought she was crazy. 

I left her hand to run away but she held my hand tightly and I just couldn’t move. I was mesmerized. She continued, "People see in death what they are. You saw beauty in me. Since you are beautiful! You will pass into a newer life without any pain, or trouble. You deserve a beautiful transition". Till I could grasp what these words meant, the pole collapsed. A strong current ran through my body and I smiled. Life had passed in the time my lips had curled. It was surely an orange day - the last of this lifetime.

Tarun

Unsaid Words.

And the evil momentum passed by,
taking away it's blues;
rose amongst the faded shades,
Sun amongst the darkest hues.

And the one who should've waited left,
ot wondering what was to happen now,
They were all the same,
faces of slander, wrath and brawl.


The part of me that he took away,
killed out the left one,
and all that marked its presence,
was a loud shreak of silence.

From lefts to rights,
every curve gave away it's facade;
and crushed out the feel of pain,
the left outs were just a broth of vain.

Everything went back to nothing,
and took off with the filths of wonder.
And I was left by,
within nowhere to ponder.

Context:
Test of time is something everyone goes through, those times add shades of blue to our lives. We give up to grow up and take those memories to write our memoirs of hope.
And sonner or later, we rise again either with it or without it.