Specially to Dear Visitors to People n Places

1. Catalonia , Northern Spain

With flower bouquets, And thank you notes  

To all my Friends I have always wished

Darling Spain, you are a dear

In my heart you shall always reign

First Guest to my humble site

May you touch the greatest heights

2. The Non-Aligned Movement was founded in Belgrade;

 Principle founders, during the Brijuni Islands summit in 

Yugoslavia (1953); left to right: Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia,

Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Jawaharlal Nehru of India.

Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, China Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina  Love to each, each one of you  May our bonds be tighter sewed 3. Serene River Danube, Bulgaria  Canada, Malaysia, Tanzania, Australia  From Polar North to Temperate South To entertain you further I hereby  vow And will rack my brain to do it how 4. Rainbow on Land, Tanzania  Sweden, Taiwan, Japan, Spain I am sure you never much lacked in rain Thanks for visits, Friends I have gained Thanks dear US and thanks my near UAE  Atlantic in between yet United You are High profile Netherlands though country low-lying * My sincere thanks  for visitors being To Singapore, where Malacca** roars To Peru, my visitor new To Israel, Biblical  Promised Land 5. Peru is  famous for creative handicrafts such as      musical instruments, jewelry,  wall carpets,  handmade     pullovers,  wood carvings,  traditional clothing etc.  United Kingdom with its Royal ring And to Italy always ready to sing With a bow I thank you all 6. People singing and playing instruments  at Harvest Festival, Rapagnano, Marche Region, Italy Last of all, I  thank my motherland*** For nourishing me, with so loving a hand          How dare I forget, The Almighty One         Thank You Lord, for all that You have done. Please get me more  bouquets and a camera too To welcome Guernsey and Ukraine too 7. Guernsey Guernsey small, although you are But, from your existence, Wisdom showers Evidences of Global warming on you And plucked off from mainland****,  You have been through Hold on dear Guernsey Soon help comes to thee Promise to protect the environment we In very near future do wait and see ________________________________________    *About 25% of its area and 21% of its population is located below sea level. **At Phillips Channel close to the south of Singapore, the Strait of Malacca narrows to 2.8 km (1.5 nautical miles) wide. *** Land of Sages now Modern India ****Rising sea levels caused by prehistoric global warming transformed Guernsey from being the tip of a peninsula jutting out into the emergent English Channel around 6000 BC, into an island when it was cut off from continental Europe. Although Guernsey is geographically closer to the Normandy coast than to the south coast  of England it is a dependency of the British Crown Thus it is one of UK's three "Crown Dependencies" along with Jersey and the Isle of Man. Pictorial Sources  1. hookedoncycling.co.uk  2. en.wikipedia.org      Belgrade is the capital of Serbia 3.  britannica.com danube 4.  trekkertime.com 5. blog.hotelclub.com 6. superstock.co.uk 7. offshorebankingtoday.com  Note: Some unique, fascinating destinations in Tanzania         are Mount Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti          Game Reserve, and beach Islands like Zanzibar.

Long Lived Walter Breuning* (World's Oldest Man)

1. I am below the cross can you see
With my classmates of 1907

2. World War II (1939 to 1945)**

So long had lived dear Walter Breuning              

I wonder how many times he must have blinked

Imagine a century for a seasoned cricketer

Or  a 6 upon 6 for the best of bowler

 But to live through three centuries

 Through times of war and of peace

                                                                                         

Heard childhood  tales of the US Civil War

As an adult faced the deadly  World Wars

                                                                                                  

3. American soldier having meal

During World War 1 (1914 to1918)

                                                    
                                                    
                                      Is remarkable and an enduring feat

                                      The changing landscapes his eyes did  meet

                                                                        

4. Late 19th Century American Landscape

                                                                          

    

                                                                                                                                                                                      

5. Mid 20th Century American Town

                                                                              
       

6. Who else but  Hitler

 Great Depression he lived through

 Nazi period too he viewed

Could easily praise and criticize
To powerful Bush from Roosevelt wise

An autumn born and dead in spring
Had plenty to say before took wing

      
Embrace change, no matter the case
For good it is though slaps you in face

Eat no more than two meals per day
Is all that we need he did say

But help in abundance he did preach
To remain in shape he did teach

Nothing is better than work he said
And that's all he did until his death

                                          
                                           Long Lived  Walter Breuning!

7. Suited booted at 113
A year before my death

*Walter Breuning (September 21, 1896 – April 14, 2011)
 was an American Super centenarian 

8. On My Last Birthday 

**On September 1^st    a Nazi German battleship opened
 fire on a Polish fort on the Baltic Sea, and World War II
 began. It claimed 50 million lives, including six million 
Jews who perished in the Holocaust. 


Pictorial Sources:
1. Wikipedia
2. brilliantstudent.com
3. old-photos.blogspot.com
4. adolphmenzel.org
5. aliraqi.org
6. greenwayknit.com           
7. zimbio.com
8. dailylife.com

Kerala- Long Lost Journeys*

1) Thrissur railway station

Taxi ride from the station
Looking out in admiration
Coconut trees and paddy fields
Everything in plenty Kerala yields


       


       

2) Lush Lush Lush Green
Have you ever seen

   
     

                     

     

3) Tiled roof -actually a cow shed

    


Winding roads, postcard hamlets

Time stands still for all ages

Haystacks and tiled roofs

Life it seems slowly moves        

                                                                                           
                                                                                             

                                                                                                           

                                                                                   Ancient temples along the way 

                                                                                   Quaint churches, huge mosques

                                                                                   Here it feels, reigns all the peace 

                                                                                   For a child of ten, so it seems

4) Vadakkumnatha temple along the way

              
              

         

     


            
                                                                                                          

Grandpa's village we reached so soon             

Well in time for lunch at noon

Grandma made plentiful fish

Never had so tasty a dish

5) St. John's Church, Parappur
Here Grandpa Grandma  Now Taking Rest

                                      
                                         
                                       










                                       


 Long lost journeys, long lost journeys
 Memories only left of thee
 Am grateful both to God and parents 
 For leaving such thoughts forever with me
  
                                           Long Lost Journeys, No Longer Lost
________________________________________
* These journeys specially pertain to the 70's
 Though of course Kerala has changed quite a bit since then
 But still one can glimpse the golden past in the modern present
 The poem started out with a worry that such journeys are long lost
 But by the end of it the truth is Nothing is Lost
Pictorial sources
1) qwiki.com
2) flickr.com
3) Back Home in Peravaloor
4) flickr.com
5) viewphotos.org 

A Man's Longing for a Son

A man came visiting late last night
Who told of his sorry plight


He had a wife whose ex-hub died
First wife he sent he said with a sigh
On corruption charges he did say
His present wife's son then made his day
But soon taken by mom's kith and kin
For property makes one fill with sin


                  Wiped a tear and carried on
                  Of how his second bore a son
                  But a deadly disease captured him
                  Which made his life all so dim
                  No more sons his wife did bore
                  Only daughters born to his sore


Took the third from the city
Painted red, but had no pity
Weary of being badly ditched
Wound of his she did not stitch
Made him work for her other kids 
And carried not one for him


                  Soon he left and yearned for second
                  But neither she his hurt could mend
                  One daughter more to the list
                  Filled his eyes with a hazy mist
                  Fights soon brew since depressed both
                  Pledged first was best with an oath


His blood did curl 
When lashes she hurled
To my son I would go
Since lost their son he filled with woe
Last of all he spoke of thus 
How four in a bed instead of two* 
           (This made me want to have  a laugh
             To be captured in a poem thought)
                      
                  Soon now wishes to marry again
                  Black or white she still will reign
                  For four in a bed he cannot bear
                  No longer with an ex he would like to share
                  Please hunt for me he said at last
                  Then reached the gate so very fast


*As each immersed in the thoughts of the first. 


____________________________
This poem was written around 6 years back, but now the man
has a son from his second wife and of course  a whole brood
of daughters too. But he is still ready to marry again. 
So son was just an excuse 
Will he marry again? 
Time will tell

Solid ground beneath our feet.We ask of you we badly need (Honshu's* Struggle-7th April, 2011)

Last night
Did I hear it right
    
      With pulse racing
      With thoughts rushing
      With eyes glistening
      With hands shaking
      With trembling legs
      With voice breaking                                                                  

Mercy Lord

Asked the kids to switch to news
And with a mournful sigh
Knew of Honshu's plight
But at 7.4 they hold on tight

Whereas others would have lost all hope

To see their sobriety and their grit
Is enough for me to bend my knees
Lord have mercy upon us, Please
Let all the shaking from now cease.

       Solid ground beneath our feet
       We ask of you we badly need

*Japan, We love you. We need you.

  Show the world what you still can do.

       All our prayers are for you

                                                                                                                  

                                                                                                           

                                                                               

Collision With Pollution*

Pollution level on the rise
With cough and cold we are tied
Dispensary doctors really troubled
For stream of patients on the double

Pollution in Delhi

            
                 Our turn came after an hour or so
                 Heat and waiting had made us sour
                 Yet we entered with a smile
                 Of our cough told in a while

He then advised us to take
Buy an inhaler for heaven's sake
Home we reached with a pile of pills
Together put would make a hill

                One by one we had our dose
                Youngest one with a smile he rose
                We did realize, that by mistake
                Medicines of his, we did not take

Back to hospital, my husband said
Took me along with a face so red
Reached the counter well in time
Please do explain we did mime

               All the medicines he had given
               But by mistake daughter given
               Double the dose which not was hers
               But do not worry he did pert

Home we reached with a sigh
Medicines divided with not a why
For each knew of folly done
Now sit with inhaler for cough be shunned

               All sat huddled beneath a sheet
               Inhaling, sweating and bearing heat
               Out of sheet, our faces shining
               Steam on face now wet and flowing

Made me remember of humid days**
When through the fields we made our way
Breathing fast with not a care
Of future fresh air to be scarce
-------------------------------------------

*Yes it is a real life experience around 2000. But when one  has five kids

and all sick then such things do happen. Delhi's pollution level is very high

as we all know and respiratory problems aggravates in spring, what with

no rain and too much dust in the air and the presence of pollen grains and

of course the smoke and other pollutants from various sources.

St. Thomas Church Mattom, Kerala***

 

** Here I am  remembering my childhood days when dad use to take

the whole lot of us (we are seven sisters and 3 brothers) to Kerala for

summer holidays and we used to go to Mattom, a small pilgrimage 

centre in Thrissur district.This place was around 5 kms from my

grandfather's house in Parappur village and we used to walk the whole

distance through paddy fields and reach Mattom church on the top of 

a hill with a panoramic view of the typical Kerala countryside........

"Those were the Days, my friend",  as Mary Hopkins sings
"We thought they will never end".

1. Mary Hopkins born 3rd May 1950 is a 
Welsh folk singer best known  for her
1968 UK number
"Those were the days"

*** Mattom, a quaint village in Thrissur district, has a Catholic tradition of
nearly1870 years. It is believed that St. Thomas church Mattom was
established in 140 AD. It is situated on a hillock abundantly blessed by Nature


1. ayamnael7elwa.net
                                                           Love you folks!

Herodotus - Father of History

Besides being the first and foremost Historian, 
He avidly contributed to Geography due to his wide travels.
A Verse to his Fame                               
                    Herodotus

My Scroll and staff is with me
Didn't you know how far I see

In yonder times Herodotus shined
For travels and observations which he signed
           
                  From Italy, Greece in the west
                  Went to Colchis, Susa in the east


And to Egypt, Libya in the south
But knew not much about the north
_____________________________________


All this Greek is black and white
With all this history at my site
          Here do take a welcome break 
          Sorry, I will try to arrange a cake
Drink to health and have a laugh
This tale*, you can tell your staff
          Let them too break into a smile
          Make someone's day by doing this a while
 ____________________________________
                       
                  Drink to Health
Lighten your body, a glass of lemonade with
                         or
Boost up your spirits, a cup of coffee with
                   *Are you ready for a tale 
                                         or 
                     Are you running to the sale
New post will reach your postbox soon
                     I promise 
But my piano awaits a new tune
                     With laughter and tears days go by
                     Let me end this note with a bye