I am and I am not

PC: mpmuseum.org

I am not the uniform that I am made to wear.

I am not the tie that hangs around my neck.
I am not the blazer that sweats me in summer.
I am not the nameplate that boasts my rank.

I am neither the wrinkles on my attire,
Nor am I the scars on my wooden face.
I am neither how upright I stand and stare,
Nor am I how mild or aggressive I sound.

There is more to me than that meets the eye,
Like all, I too am human and have emotions,

Thoughts and feelings, beliefs and prejudices,

Strengths and weaknesses, instincts and reasons.

I could be a refined gentleman, a savage beast,
An impractical idealist, an intellectual nihilist,
A reasonable realist, shrewd strategist, neo-narcissist
I could be none of these, yet more than their aggregate.
To fit me into groups, classify into classes is futility;
For, I am no exception away from this eternal evolution.

Gift of democracy!

   

Whom to curse as I am made to wait?? (PC: Myself)

  

"The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting." - Charles Bukowski

     The citizen looked blank because he knew not whom to curse. He was waiting for change and reform since the day they were promised to him.  When he explained his predicament, I too was perplexed and shared his confusion. If it was an autocracy or an anarchy or something of that sort, we could have cursed someone specific. But damn it, this was democracy!!

     He clearly knew he was a citizen, a part of the public; he had to find a public servant in a public office to attend to his problems. Irrespective of being part of a major or minor socio-religious group from which he derived a sense of identity, his existence as an individual citizen had bestowed on him the right to demand for the redressal of his grievances.

    But all that the much hyped and promised democracy offered was a government with its ministers and officers. The guarded government spaces, the rigid bureaucratic structures and the erudite officer elite who manned them! Among these government officers where were the public servants the citizen had to approach? Whom was he to fight with for justice? Whom was he to curse for his plight? Had the public sphere vanished into thin air as the reach and spread of the government had widened by leaps and bounds?

        Has it always been a struggle for the survival of the 'public' at the mercy of the 'government'? Or is it the modern 'gift of democracy'!?

Remains of love

PC: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs10/i/2006/136/a/f/Walking_away____by_alikafaythe.jpg

Never are you only my own, 

                                 never a mere possession.
If ever has it troubled you, 

                                  do pardon the obsession.
I shall work on the subtleties 

                              to groom the emotion.
But what remains of love, 

                       if not for passion?

To and not to.

PC: Myself

 

To strive not to let emotions blind reason.
To know my strengths and respect my limitations.
To understand from the mistakes of the past,
To remember the truths that time has taught.

Not to blindly follow the crowd or yield to my peer,
Not to get carried away by the lure of the moment,
Not to have an opinion without adequate knowledge,
Not to grandstand at the slightest chance to do so.