So aged he is, but still so zealous for his job.
It feels like he has only known his rickshaw.
The ancient bard in him tells Punjabi poems.
He belies his wrinkles as he pedals his ride.
Just putting to shame his fellow rickshaw pullers.
None remembers or even cares to know his name.
He just pedals and remembers his deceased wife.

He told me a Punjabi tale of partition...

"We were really happy when it happened,
I was 16 and married to my beautiful wife,
But then he pressed for a separate Pakistan,
Just so much wicked was this demand of his,
Punjab was alight due to some people's doing,
We were to cross river Ravi en route to Amritsar,
In Lahore my childhood home was burnt to ashes,
My beautiful wife was still so young at that time,
She was ***** on the banks of river Ravi & killed,
In no cloth was she draped as they burnt her body,
After pouring whiskey all over her lifeless body."

His voice broke and a stream of tears escaped,
Down his eyes they flowed like the river Ravi,
"In front of my two eyes the men had ***** her,
Her mistake? Looking at them once & smiling,
Sin as great to be punished by such brutal drab?
What God, Ishwar or Allah did they follow?
I have known all & none advocates ****,
To which parents could they born?
Must be the devil & the witch."

By now his nose was red and his sobs audible.
He said, "She was not just *****, she was also killed,"
The ancient rickshaw puller gasped for breath as he said,
"Would the high heavens thank them for killing my wife,
She was a Hindu and an idolater with my mangalsootra,
Why they spared my life I have no idea but just remorse,
Will their Allah or God spare them on Doomsday?"

==============

Unleash your inner creativity
Where the mind and heart
Yearns to sketch the exuberance
Of the beauty of so many feelings
The soft inaudible utterances
Of the ink that flows through you
Becomes audible in murmurs
Louder and louder, they flow
Almost at the brink of insanity
Giving inspiration to creativity
Turmoil so revolutionary
Creativity is sometimes unsettling
Yet, so encompassing and revealing
Truth does find its way

In this world run by lies
Learn to be wise;
Some may look nice
But they may be otherwise.
Sounds innocent when they speak
But it may just be all part of the trick;
Dare not to believe
Coz their inner motive is to deceive.

What Matters*

It don't matter what you want
It don't matter what you need
It don't matter what you feel
It don't matter what you think

It don't matter what you like
It don't matter what you do
It don't matter what you have
It don't matter what you choose

There is one thing that matters
What you did it matters
You need to know what matters most
Is you no longer matter now to me

It don't matter what you make
It don't matter what you take
It don't matter what you see
It don't matter what you say

It don't matter where you work
It don't matter where you play
It don't matter where you go
It don't matter where you stay

There is one thing that matters
What you did it mattered
So you need to know what matters
Is you no longer matter now to me

It don't matter if you're glad
It don't matter if your sad
It don't matter if you lie
It don't matter if you cry

There is one thing that matters
What you did it mattered
So you need to know what matters
Is you no longer matter now to me

Now it no longer matters
Who, What, When, Where Or Why
As a matter of fact
You no longer matter now to me*

Song by: Carl Joseph Roberts