Stop to Think and Linger a Bit

Stop to think and linger a bit

Why  am I rushing so

Where am I going to

.

Linger a bit and see environ not hit

Do we not care, only for self 

And do we not care, only for family

That environ not hit, how do I do my bit?

A bit less of smoking and more of jogging

A  bit less of driving and more of walking

How do I do my bit and yet be a hit?

Early morning yoga and some music drill

Flex your muscles and show your skill

Now that I am hit, but what if mind is bit?

With bloated head because of fame 

And run around with a number of dames

What if mind is bit then won't self be badly hit?

Remedy for all there is around

A dash of spirituality keeps you sound

Then Free from thoughts not so sound

Stop to think and linger a bit

Soon back to pavilion we have to hit

Traveling from Delhi to Mussoorie

                                                                             

1. On the way

                                                                                                               

                                                                               

2.  Mussoorie in my dreams

Travelling by car from Delhi to Mussoorie*                  

Sights and sounds all for free

Rumbling horse carts, trudging bullock carts

All things sold on the road, from spare parts to papri chats**

3. Bullock Cart side by side
 with modern traffic

                                                                                       

4.  Traffic congestion and on the
 road celebrations

5. Peaceful as I can be
Lakhnauca Chowk, near Deoband, UP

                                                 

Thatched houses, rest houses                                                        

Cycles vendors and tourist buses

7. Dusk is here,
 night soon follows

The most enjoyable ride 

Our hearts bursting with pride

                                                

                             

Children bathing in passing streams
Roads laden with fallen trees***
Rumble strips and brick filled trolleys
Rushing maruti's, tractor trolleys



Various places we pass through
Modinagar, Muzaffarnagar through we move
Roorkee, Purkazi, Biharigarh
Chutmulpur, Sherpur, Mohand



Bundles of firewood, burden of children
Wayside dhabas, scattered brick kilns
Ganga dhaba with huge chimneys
Farm houses and maternity houses

8.  Colorful wayside
     feast to the eyes
Mohand, UP 

Peaceful towns with stout jawans
British bungalows and bougainvilleas
Cow dung mounds and sugar mills
Grazing cattle on undulating hills

9. Roorkee it is, eyes do behold 

Travelling by car from Delhi to Mussoorie

Sights and sounds all for free...................

10. Winding road tells of  home around the corner

11. Destination Mussoorie

 Notes:
*Come summer holidays for children and we used to move to the
 alpine haven for 2 months.  The journey mentioned pertains to the
 period 1995-2005.
**Papri chats is a delicacy sold in north India. Crispy round papri's
are eaten with curd, tamarind chutney, sweet chutney, coriander chutney
 and what not.  But ultimately the end result is just awesome and in the
 end you wash it down with green (totaly herbal-finely ground coriander
 leaves and mint), sour, chilly water all spicy and hot.
***The day the poem was written we were travelling seeing the aftereffects
 of  a thunder storm very common in summers in North India. Many trees
 both young and old  were uprooted and seen lying on the road obstructing
 traffic, but giving ample fun to the village kids.


Pictorial sources:
1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 from mary's archive
2 I will tell u soon
3. flickr.com
9. same as 2
11.same as 2  

To All Dear Guests to People and Places

1. India bids younger brother
 Pakistan Adieu in 1947*

Welcome one and welcome all                 

I would have exclaimed, if in a hall                                                    

But smell the Floral, Rose Bouquets 

And hear the Thundering Loud Applause  

My heart does give, to all of  thee

I'm grateful  Dear Friends, for visiting me.   

                                        

Pakistan, Bangladesh, India's Wings 

2. Sand as far as eyes can see

Thank you for visits, I joyfully sing

Home of sands and vacant lands
Yet Saudi Arabia, a true treasure land**

                                                                                                            

3. Baalbeck (Heliopolis) Lebanon***

                                                        

Lebanon, Turkey, westward me

Each a delight, tourists do see

Hong Kong, Philippines, Pacific darlings

Enchanting both with maritime rings

Thanks for visits, my soul does say

Be safe, come often, my lips do pray

                                                                                                

4. All green and blue is Philippines 

                                                                      

Landlocked Czech,  European country

I salute you dear, for  high HD****                                                                                                                                                                        

With your hard work, the world has been lit

Do accept my thanks, for your kindly visits

                                   

                                                                                                      

5.Castle Karlstejn is one of the most fairy
 tale castles in The Czech Republic  

Bartholomeu, Mandela, Gandhi  in sight 

They touched, in South Africa,  eminent heights

Land of Gold and land of Diamonds******

Thanks for visits and Jai Hindh 

6. An ancient monument to Bartolomeu Dias***** 
at the Cape of Good Hope

Pictorial Sources:
1 exoticans.blog.co.in
2 scottragsdale.com 
3 habeeb.com 
4 hayatalk.org
5 citypictures.org
6 factoidz.com 


Notes: 

 *Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White from Khushwant Singh’s book 

   Train to Pakistan, Roli Books.


**Saudi Arabia has the world's largest oil  reserves  and is the world's largest oil exporter.

***Baalbek is a town in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon at an altitude  3,840 ft,
   situated east of the Litani River It is famous for its exquisite temple ruins
   of the Roman period, when Baalbek was then known as Heliopolis 
   It is Lebanon's greatest Roman treasure, and it can be counted
   among the wonders of the ancient world


****HD here means  Human Development and The Human Development  Index (2009),
     ranks Czech republic as a "Very High Human Development" nation.

*****Bartholomeu Dias is famous as the first European to lead a 1487 voyage 
  around the Cape of Good Hope on the Southern most tip of South Africa.
 1497:  Dias accompanied the expedition led by Vasco da Gama to India
 1500: May 24: Bartolomeu Dias dies in a violent storm in the Cape of Good Hope


******Diamond and gold discoveries played an important part in the growth of the early
 South African Republic. Diamond first discovered on the banks of the Orange River in
 1867  by Erasmus Jacobs. Gold was discovered in the area known as Witwatersrand,
 which led to the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886. South Africa holds the world's
 largest natural reserves of gold (40 percent according to South Africa Yearbook 2009/10)


Roses from allindiaflorist.com

Environment - Nature Has Yet To Care

1. Though Simla
 Welcomes Me

2. And  Mussoorie
Beckons Me

3. But Crowded Simla
 Now Wakes Me

    

Morning night. What a sight!

Mighty mountains. What a height!                                               

Valley deep with sides so steep

Rain doth fall as Heaven weeps

                                                                                           

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                        
                                                              

4. Mt. Abu* Just
Reminded Me

                                                                

Fallen trees, trampled pastures

Hill stations, closed chapters

Dense settlements man does make

Nature forbids, still not wakes

Rumbling traffic, multistory

Yearly landslides, what a gory?

Rising pollution, darkened waters

Raising alarm, no more laughter

      
         All things man makes takes no time
         But nature takes its own time
        
         If creator man cannot be
         Destroyer he hath no right to be

For one generation to the next 

Nature has yet to care

5. Its Time To Reflect Upon       

* Mt. Abu is situated at a height of 5,650 ft and is the highest peak in the Aravalli Range
  of Rajasthan state in western India. If one compares its vegetation to eastern part of Africa
  specially Ethiopia and Eritrea one would be astonished to find the sheer similarity between

  the two. And Alfred Wegener's Continental Drift Theory comes alive once again!

Pictorial Sources

1 to 5 from Mary's Archive