The Balancing Act

The fine lines and wrinkles Dwindling eyesight and silver hair Faltering steps , hazy mind Holding on to the words so kind Warmth of your sturdy hands Steadying grip Am I the result of my preceding years The scoldings and stand outs The arguments and silences The tears ,then the hugs The realization, the distance The calls, the letters You are so lucky you can walk back Put your hands around and hug But what about the wheel That only moves and provides No hugs , no warmth , no affection Only a thread of duty, The remains of a severed cord Invisible, still throbbing with life Waiting, tear stained cheeks In anticipation of the loving lap The fragrance of love ….never to be For time has travelled away No comebacks here… only the invisible cord. tied on one end ... still alive ..throbbing..invisible............

The day before yesterday my daughter was quite excited , she was one of the selected few of her class who were being taken by the school to visit an old age home. She made a handmade card , got us buy eatables for all the naanis and daadis she was going to meet, she even wanted me to cook halwa for them, but since this idea dawned on her in the morning when there was only 10 minutes left for the school bus to arrive we could not do anything about it, she also had plans to buy a few saris for them and so on… I was quite happy to see that my daughter actually looked forward to this and wanted to really spend time with the old age home naanis, may be it’s all the good effect of being with her grandparents during the day,  I thought.  In the afternoon I gave a call to her, as usual, to ask her how was the day, what did she do at school etc.( for that day at the old age home),  from the other side the voice that came was quite a sad one, all the enthusiasm...