Ruefully

Ruefully

She sits alone by the window,

Her skin wrinkled and aged,

A cup of cold tea in her hand,

Forever trapped in her self-made cage.

Looking out at the sugared world behind her,

She feels a deep sense of regret

Of all those times she could have enjoyed herself

Rather than doing maths and the alphabet.

She had always enjoyed being the genius,

The good girl, the bookworm,

But now that she’s old and wasted,

She wonders if her studies ought to have been so firm.

For despite all her scholarships and rewards,

There is one that matters more,

One that she was never able to reach,

The joy of being a child outdoors.

In the Dark

IN THE DARK

My hands out in front of me,

Groping into a black void,

For some form of familiarity,

In the midst of what is already destroyed,

The cool breeze in my hair,

Feels like a raging gale,

And with every step I take,

I am unable to exhale,

Plunging deeper into the dark,

Trying to find the light,

But only finding darkness,

Darker than the night,

Fighting back fear for the unknown,

Trying to stay strong,

But the black is seeping through my crevices,

Filling me with wrong,

All the while insecurities,

Lingering in my heart,

Spread to my body like cancer,

Threatening to tear me apart.

The Ocean

The ocean has many characters

For one is not enough

To describe the timeless sea

That’s calming and that’s rough.

It can be an unfortunate sailor’s plight,

In the darkness of the storm,

It can be a wild and untamed beast

More powerful than any life form.

But it is also the calm and soothing friend

To get you through life’s hurdles,

And will always be by your side,

A friendship that’s eternal.

It’s the last sound

That you hear when you sleep,

It’s the only thing

That goes in time with your heartbeat.

Its storms reflect our troubles,

Its gentle waves reflect peace,

So let us have a gentle sea,

And let the troubles cease.

Mumma's Poem

Whenever you need a break from life

From school or work or friends,

There’s a figure that everyone thinks of at first,

To get away from life’s confusing bends.

The person who will always love you,

Never stopping and never will,

The person who remembers all your favorite things,

Or feeds you soup when you are ill.

The characters in movies,

Shout MOMMY! when they are scared,

They do this because they know,

That their mother will always be there.

I don’t want to sound cliche,

Or repeat others before me,

So I’ll try to speak from my heart,

As my mother has always taught me to be.

It’s true, I get mad sometimes

At the things my mother says

And sometimes I want to lock myself in my room

So I won’t have to see her again.

But when I do this, I do it

As a way of fleeing from the facts

Because I become blind

To what my mother has taught me in the past.

Pushing problems farther

Only make them tougher to conquer,

And only when you face them,

Is when you start to ponder,

The reality of your problems,

And why you are scared of them,

And one by one, you find you can

Finally uproot them by the stem.

But this is all done with someone you know you can trust,

The one who shares her every with you,

Who aspires for you to have the best life you possibly can,

Who else would it be? Your mother, who will love you through and through.

Summary of Dangal by Swecha Agarwal

 In the movie Dangal, a man from India, Mahavir Phogat, wishes to fulfill his dream of earning a gold medal for India in wrestling, but gave up on his dream because India offered no support or gratitude for their wrestlers, only fame and medals. He eventually had to quit because he had no money. In his new life as a businessman with a wife, he decides that he will live his dream through his son when he gets one. Unfortunately, after many vain attempts, he is not able to acquire a son and believes that it is the end of his career in wrestling. However, when his two eldest girls, Geeta and Babita, show promise when beating up 2 boys for taunting them, he realizes that he doesn’t need a son to continue wrestling. The two girls are then subjected to extreme training sessions and consequences, which they hate. They draw the line when their father makes them cut their hair like a boy’s. Their friend opens their eyes by telling them what a normal girl’s life really is-to learn household chores and make food, and when she turns 14, marry her off to raise children. It inspires the girls to embrace this opportunity to prove themselves, and they start becoming champions by beating boys and bringing home trophies and medals. The time comes when Geeta has to go train with another coach for the internationals instead of her father coaching her like he did all these years. Geeta lets loose more and more and starts to embrace her girly side, which interferes with her wrestling skills. She loses many times and India loses faith in her. Geeta realizes that she needs her father, and through a turmoil of events and mini episodes, she is able to get coaching from her father, who directs her on the right path after her original coach led her astray. The original coach tries many times to ensure that Geeta listens to only him, even though he can clearly see that Geeta is playing extremely well with her father’s advice. In spite of his extreme attempts, like locking him in a room at the far end of the building, Geeta wins based on her father’s advice from before. She becomes the first Indian ever to win a gold medal in the internationals, and Mr. Phogat’s dream comes true. The movie is told from the nephew’s point of view, who accompanies the girls on their journey to success, giving an innocent perspective of the story. Dangal has two prominent morals- that you can only be the best at something by sticking to that routine, and if you don’t, you will be farther away from that goal than you ever imagined, and that no matter if you are a boy or girl, the same element needs to be there for both to achieve a goal-hard work and effort.