Hoping a New Hope

 Hoping a new hope,

Wishing a new wish;

Empty words out of a hollow mind,

Or aimless wanderings of a lost soul?

Departed, skewed, 

Tortured, brutalized,

Lie the insides of my being;

The earnestness of youth fatally wounded by the jarring world...

Lost in merriment

lie the ignorant, wretched;

The curse of knowledge, awareness 

Meanwhile bun the hopeful alive

The cruelty of life,

Its meaninglessness;

Buried in the ashes,

Hopes & Dreams.

Ashen, Disheveled, 

Dirty, Grimy

Tear-soaked with matted hair

The future of my land lies awash

A stale meeting of minds

Finds its fate in an untethered chain

Binding souls in unholy matrimony

Slaying the dragons of joy and love

Cries of help seldom heard

Give way to a plethora of excuses

No place where the mind is without fear or the head held high

Seeking shelter in a coward's refuge

These demons of my mind

thwart my light

choke my sound

kill me slowly and

eat away my soul

Escapism , Naivete

Tomfoolery, Kindness

Leisure kills and leisure soothes

These torrid passions of my placid mind-jail

A cursed existence or a tense life?

A pressed desire or a wild goose chase?

Many of life's questions and not a single answer!

Oh, what pity! Death is the only answer. 

Wandering Souls and Aimless Minds

The nights of emptiness,
Nights of Pollution,
Sound, Light, Dirt, Gunk;
Dark, Gory, respiratory responsibilities,
Puff of a smoke or last breath out of an Oxygen mask?

The will to live, to fight, to survive;
Or the undeniable question -
Why are we here?
Existential dread, Loneliness and Mist
Clouding the emotions or just let it bleed?

Masking, mirroring, greetings of love
Dreading, trudging the path to love
Grim and gory flights of fancy
Disconnectedness that brings harmony
Stupidity or Chivalry? Clairvoyance or Traditions? Path-breaker or Path seeker?

The wild unknown and mysticism aplenty
Gritty nuttiness and splendor trendy
Trident fork in the road
Apathy and diarrhea
The road to my thoughts or words of my lunacy?

Magick and Revelry

Friends, Synchronicity, Harmony and Peace - sustenance for life or life itself? A reversal of fortunes illuminates the need. Leading the way is loneliness. Thoughts wander and the mind becomes a cage. "Is there no way out of the mind?" Sylvia cried! Inevitable dread and drudgery creep in. Nostalgia fuels insomnia. A world around us and yet no one. It is the death's kiss.

What then does enjoyment of solitude mean? Synchronicity is sought within. Soul, Mind, Body, Heart - are all these one in an individual entity? The perplexing mind versus brain phenomenon ensues and we are left searching for answers. Complexity mirrors perception. Once again, stuck inside our minds. The plight is indescribable. What then does love thyself stand for?  The rest of our lives are starting now and we hold the magick pen to make it happen. When the idea takes permanence self love begins.

Dancing to life's beck and call and never following our tune. Not knowing is the greatest curse. Social Media - Check, News - Check, Gossip - Check. Soul check? Check in with oneself? Blank. Mindfulness is pioneering. Dependability declines and reliance steeps. Exponential graphs mirroring reality and decoding economics aside, productivity makes a splendid comeback.

The truth inextricably intertwined with luxury and privilege makes one an armchair intellectual. Discernment is layered. Gray areas abound. Who's truth is it anyway? That humanity lost its sense of justice a long time back is a well established fact. Then again Rumi says, "Beyond the fields of good and bad there is a field. I will meet you there." Subjectivity and our unwitting inability to comprehend it.

After sighs and pause comes the pregnant times. Ideas get thrown around. Action is attempted. On ground reality? It varies. It's myriad. My reality clashes with yours and our petty egos are crushed. Communication stops. Faces are ignored. Tonality affects psychic transactions. Transactional frequency goes for a toss only to find itself replaced by seeds of hatred. Lo and behold! A monster is created. Frankenstein or worse?

Catapulted into irreverent humor, cascading into freshness the ways roll out. One-by-one like soldiers or all at once like a Tsunami. A hurricane once told a mortal it fears the force of a powerful idea. Mortal laughed, disempowered. Hurricane triumphed. Human misery rocks on. Revelry continues too - living a happy life as a giant. It creeps in hollow, unsuspecting minds devoid of ideas. Where there is no place for resistance, irrational traditions create homes. These gnomes never leave. They are known to plague generations for centuries. They, too, are fatal.

Pivotal point or historic moments are few and far between. Distress and duress are ants manufacturing miles long hills exactly like the capitalists. Exaggerated realities and post truths dominate. Ours is a fractures universe yet we are all somehow criminals. Wisdom and the wise are fools nonetheless. In this dog-eat-dog universe none's the wiser. Let's throw our arms in the air, cry foul and quit. What's the point? Aren't we all just hamsters on a treadmill anyway?

LET'S MOVE!

Shall we eat cash then?
Or burn it to keep our bodies warm?
Should we plant oxygen -
somewhere on this barren planet -
Or farm it in space?

'Save Planet' says the pla-card
But killing animals is legal,
We are all in this together,
Isn't hypocrisy fun?

And how awesome does plastic feel?
Wrapped around a turtle's neck, deep in the ocean
What about the dead corals?
Washed out colors are still art

Burn a hole in our pockets
or burn the forests to the ground?
Suffer fools in elitism
or revert back to community?

Fake, Shallow, Empty minds
Corrupted by Capitalism
Pseudo-Intellectual Hippies
with Arm-Chair Activism

Beach bodies yet no beach
Yoga camps with no mental peace
Plastic bottles in an environmental protest
"I can't stand a dirty lizard, please tame the beast"

Hoarding tendencies and Social Media Stars,
Haul Videos and Influencers,
Can we make-up the environment?
Put a filter and make it pretty, please.

The aesthetics just don't work,
How can we shoot a video here?
No greens, no flowers, no colors left on Earth!
This just can't go on YouTube like this. Let's move to another planet?

Thoughts From Mental Wilderness

Lush green dewy leaves,
Moss covered floors,
Wilderness in my mind and
an ache in my heart

Did you hear?
The lungs are dead!
Did you feel?

The humanity die out

My spirit flies

through the ebbs and flows

Rites, Rituals, Prayers, Faith

Ashes on the ground

Are we writing herstory or is herstory writing herself?

The blank pages of time

Ruffled with crimes

Bespectacled audience jeering on

We are the circus,

We are the clowns,

Hello, Circus!
Hello, Clowns!

The flame gives way,

And darkness transcends,

Gory, gritty, edgy;

The world moves on

Dead, dying, decayed

All coming together

For the ultimate reckoning,

The ultimate fun

Judgment Day or Halloween?
Fact or Fiction?

Jury decides - At last!

Humanity is a crime.

A LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF

Dear Younger Self,

I am unaware of what happy coincidence brought you here but I am so glad you are reading this. First things first, I want to begin with telling you something you need to tell yourself everyday: I love you. I love me. There is nothing more empowering, positive or important than being completely in love with yourself and being aware of and accepting all your flaws as an extension of your unique self. Know that you are imperfectly perfect and that is your biggest strength. It is what makes you who you are. As a kid or a teenager it is often hard to find love, acceptance and understanding and I have learnt that the key is to love yourself firstly and lastly. Once your love becomes intrinsic, there is little else you need in the world to feel confident and do better.

As your mid-twenties version stumbling through the wilderness of adulting and sometimes getting it right, there are some crucial life lessons that I wish to impart. These are life lessons and hacks I wish I was told when I was your age. I guess it is unfair to expect these lessons from our traditional parents who still seem to struggle with a lot in the world. Technological progress has been exponential over the past decade which has radically and irrevocably changed the world as you know it and hence, no self-help book in your era was prepared to tell you this. I hope these help you in navigating through those precious years leading up to your adulthood and for all times to come. Here goes:

1. Do NOT be a "Good" Girl:

Break rules. Show that anger. Don't gulp it down. Do not be sorry for how you feel or how an adult made you feel. Do not listen to teachers, parents, elders all the time. The notion of being a "good girl" is a patriarchal and sexist social construct. The sooner you get out of it the better. As you may be aware, there is a lot of politics that goes on in this world surrounding women. They want to control you. They want to turn you into a property with no voice meant to be transferred from one man to another at the time of marriage. You are better than that. You deserve so much better. It is okay to not be an obedient girl. In fact, what I want most for you is to not be that nice, sweet, stereotypical homely girl which you were never born as. My darling, you know you were born this way and that you are meant to stand out. Don't be shy. Don't be afraid. Be exactly who you are for it is pretty awesome.

2. Never apologize for being Ambitious:

You have always been a high achiever and you know it. In fact, the only times you have not been able to achieve exactly what you want is when you were made to feel bad for being your true self - a smart, driven, charismatic and ambitious girl. Remember what I told you earlier, they are only trying to control you so that you don't outshine them. They are angry, jealous, frustrated and coming unhinged because of how awesome you are. Yes, even your so-called well-meaning parents and teachers. Never be sorry for being ambitious. It is your life and you gotta own it. At the end of the day you only need to check if the person in the mirror is happy with you. That person is the only one that truly matters. No one knows you like you. No one loves you like you. Most importantly, no one else gets to live your life no matter how close they are to you. So, if a close family member is asking you to stop being ambitious and help out with household chores because you are a girl, do not feel obliged to listen to them for they definitely do not have your best interests at heart even when they say they do. Be ambitious. Be super ambitious. Do not limit your dreams or your self-confidence based on the societal parameters. More importantly, do not judge yourself. You are doing your best in spite of being trapped in a highly toxic and patriarchal home environment.

3. Never try to hide your evolving Sexual Self:

You are a young woman growing up. Sexuality is a huge part of it. Never be shy, embarrassed or afraid of your sexuality. It will take you time to understand it so, be patient with and kind to yourself. Sometimes you will feel it growing exponentially and at times you would be like any other kid. It is okay. It is completely normal to go through that range of not being aware of your sexual side to feeling like an active sexual being in a matter of days. Do not let the society dictate who you are meant to be sexually. Do not let the society's ancient standards of sexuality in teenagers rule your life. This needs to be reiterated here: Do not let your parents, teachers, friends judge you for being a sexual or asexual being. You are not answerable to the society. Your sexuality is your personal choice and no one gets to have any opinion on that. If they do, let them go to hell along with their opinions and judgments. When it comes to your sexual self, others simply do not matter.

4. Wear whatever you want:

Women's bodies have been the unfortunate target of policing and politicizing since time immemorial. Make sure it stops with you. Do not be afraid to wear exactly what you want. Do not let anybody body-shame you. Be strong. Screw the moral police. They are societal vermin - the worst of the worst. This moral police could include your close family and friends, sometimes your favorite teachers but remember they are societal vermin at the end of the day and their opinion of your body and what clothes you should be wearing is a reflection of their sick mindset. Sadly, it is a disease which can not be cured. Even if it could be cured, you are not responsible for curing it as a young girl. You are only responsible for yourself and that is one responsibility you must take very seriously. Your clothes are an expression of who you are and that must never be compromised on. Do not wield in to peer pressure and wear what makes you feel comfortable. It is okay to experiment with your style. It is okay to not be sure of exactly who you are and how you want to represent yourself to the world. You are growing up and there's a lot of time to decide. Most importantly, remember your worth is not determined by your clothes just like your character is not decided by the length of your skirt. Never let this moronic society tell you otherwise.

5. Be Selfish:

The patriarchal universe thrives on weakening the position of women using a double-edged sword. Women are meant to be sacrificing and are then shamed for being stupid enough to make sacrifices for others. For instance, a home-maker is revered for making the supreme sacrifice of her career for the sake of building a family and is simultaneously shamed for not having a career. As you grow up you shall see how the patriarchal universe is nothing but a double-edged maze meant for women to fail. You do not have to be any part of this universe. Rise above. Be selfish. This involves not being affected by "well-meaning" lectures from your father on how a woman must behave. This mindset belongs in the gutter. Do not feel any guilt when it comes to choosing your studies or extra-curricular activities over family time. Do not be shamed into doing chores when you need to rest or indulge in self-care. Your privacy is equally important. Shut that door when you need to. Do not listen to your yelling parents. They don't understand you because they never tried to. Do not blame yourself for not having good relationship with them anymore. It is entirely their fault and as adults and parents, it is their responsibility to fix that and care for you no matter what. Parents should provide children with unconditional love and when they don't you must not blame yourself as the child. You are golden and they are blind. Choose yourself. Every single time. You are more important than anybody else in your life. Never compromise. You deserve the best.

6. Be Rebellious:

In a patriarchal society a woman being unapologetically herself is the greatest act of rebellion. Never be afraid to question authority. You may be punished for raising your voice and speaking your truth but do it anyway. Most of these authority figures who do not want anything more for you than to become an obedient doormat are the ones who are threatened by your divine presence. They simply can't handle that much awesomeoness. They are also the ones who have never succeeded in being good human beings. In short, they are not worth listening to. Do away with their voices in your head. Rebel against injustice. Rebel against treating adults nicely no matter how evil they are. Rebel against the shaming silence around sexual abuse. Rebel against casual sexism. Rebel against the unquestioned superiority of men especially, in your family. In a world full of blind sheep be the visionary leader. Be the voice of reason for it might be the only one. As the one gifted with the ability to see through and cut through world's bullshit it is your duty to rebel. It is your gift to the world.

7. Be Thick-Skinned:There is nothing this world loves more than a woman who lets everything that people say get under her skin. Do not give them that satisfaction. You are better than that. Don't let people's stupid words affect you. You are wise, intelligent and clever beyond your years. You always have been. There is no reason for someone as smart as you to listen to someone as dumb as them - irrespective of their job titles or position of authority in the society. Remember this society is a big circus run by clowns of the highest order. Don't expect them to become better. Just don't join the circus. Don't be like the rest of them, Darling! Be thick-skinned. Be the woman who dares. Be the woman who doesn't give a damn about her bad reputation or the society's opinions of her. Be the woman who may be damaged, broken, severely imperfect but refuses to be judged by this pathetic society's sexist standards. Don't let anyone get under your skin. You deserve only the best and such people can only pull you back. Don't take it personally if your parents and teachers judge you as per the sick societal standards and you do not measure up. You were never meant to measure up. They haven't come up with any yardstick that could measure you or how terrific you truly are. Don't take your sexist upbringing to your heart and worry about not being perfect. You are perfect beyond measure. Your perfection is unfathomable by these small minds. Let them be. You are not here to improve them. As adults it is their responsibility to work on themselves and if they can't just walk away from them. Remove yourself emotionally and mentally from your toxic home environment and don't feel guilty about it. Be impervious to the patriarchal norms being sold to women in the name of "values". Screw tradition for it promotes sexism. Be thick-skinned enough to be different and own it. I know you have it in you!

8. To Hell with those Sexist, Patriarchal and Misogynistic Monsters who call themselves your Relatives:

Repeat with me: Our Relative are THE Worst. They are not just clowns, they are the entire circus. I am in my mid-twenties and I have gone through hell and back - met all kinds of monsters in this life and yet none quite measure up to the monsters that our relatives are. They are the most sickening people I have ever come across. Screw these people! If the religious sentiment is any solace, these people will burn in hell for all eternity for the horrors they made us go through in life. They do not deserve a place in your wonderful life. Do not let your parents or sibling to make you care about what they think about you. Remember your parents and sibling are equally guilty of being sexist and patriarchal and simply can not rise above. They are not blessed with that ability. However, you are gifted tremendously. You are rare, unique and very different from everyone in your family. Don't feel the pressure to fit in. You were never meant to fit into this disgusting group of people who somehow got the privilege to call you family. They do not deserve you. You deserve a family which is at least a zillion times better than the one you were given. May be in the next life! For this life, do not let these insane, inhuman being bully you into fitting into any standards. None of them - I repeat, not a single one - has any good intentions for you whatsoever. They are highly toxic, selfish people who are immensely self-serving. They have no talents, intelligence or career and will try their best to ruin yours. Why, you may ask? Simply because you are a woman with a world of difference. For the first time they have encountered a woman who they can't control and their sexist, patriarchal selves are beyond themselves with worry. Such people deserve the highest form of karmic punishment and it is coming for them. Your family is the most toxic thing about your life. Make sure you do not let it ruin you. Take away its power. Do not yield into any form of familial control. They do not know what they are doing. It's the same for authoritarian teachers and jealous friends.

9. Be Your Hero:

I don't even need to speak this out loud. No caped superheroes, no knights in shining armor, you are your Hero. Save yourself and Choose yourself first every time. Don't wait for anyone to swoop in and help you. It's self reliance first and always for you. Live your ideal self out. Don't restrict yourself. Don't compromise on those big dreams you have. Know that you can reach them with patience and perseverance. Be your headstrong, stubborn self and don't let any circumstance take your authenticity away from you. Own your power. Live life on your terms. Don't give in to authoritarians and take back what is rightfully yours.

My precious, you have the most wonderful life waiting for you if you remember not to be ruled by this God awful society. You will battle sexism and patriarchy every step along the way. Be strong. Be bold. Be courageous. At times, you will be wrongfully punished for being a woman who dares and at other times, you will find that your closest people have turned against you for the same reason. Rebel against it and remember you aren't in the wrong here. Be confident no matter what the society tells you. The world is your oyster and you are beyond the understanding of small, incapable minds. You are unique and truly rare. No one has any credentials with which to judge you. People only talk about you so much because they are obsessed with you. Let them talk or talk back - choose whichever with zero fear. You are immensely worthy of being loved, valued, talked about, obsessed over and so much more. They, however, are not. There is a singular key to achieve all this: Self Love. Going back to what I started this letter with: I love you and so should you. Love yourself immeasurably and irrevocably. Love yourself first and last. No one and nothing else matters. You are the only 'true love' you shall ever need.

With all the love in the world,
Your Future Self

A Serious Mental Disease

Love that dies,
Writhing in pain
Of my lonesome existence
Of your pretense
The hatred that nulls under the surface
Lost wings
Lost trails
Of heaven and hell
Within our heads
True beauty of loss
Acceptance of anguish
Stars of the sky
Take the mighty fall
Existential dread
Captivating paths
Starry nights
Walks into the wilderness
Path to obscurity
Sense of an ending
Finding one's way back
Then cutting off again
Getting lost and never be found again
Far away from the madding crowd
Rum Diaries and vodka Islands
Crushed hearts and split personalities
Abhorrent weather of my heart
Hurt I felt but never expressed
All the words left unsaid
Crazy pursuit of perfection
Adamance for materialistic success
Running after a mirage
Falling down once, getting up twice
Of cryptic messages and marathons into abyss
Clouds of doubt over pessimism of love
Drenched in sighs
The nights of lovers
Keeping it together for the sake of sanity
Cocaine lines are drugs of choice
Love is my poison
Your voice my kryptonite
Kill me once or kill me twice
Rip apart my bleeding heart
From my seething chest
Pull me apart
And put me back together
You are my heaven
Your pain, my hell
Dying this death of eternal shame
The guilty pleasure of falling from top of a building
Ending the crusade of life
Hanging up the boots,
My time has come
I see my spirit soaring high
In death, at least, I m free to be
Free to fly above the rest
Give me peace,
Let me die once and for all
I leave behind no legacy
No fame or dime
I m all you had, I am all I had
And now, I am gone

Lost and Found

An eternity is a long time particularly if one has lost the will to live. The cast away shadows of one's minds and the angelic realms of banal existence have many ramifications. To dwell on the past is to fill oneself with nostalgia for even the saddest of events for one is bound to romanticize the past and memories are meant to mislead. Overpowering surge of emotions would drive logic away rendering one impotent of creative thought and action. Curse of survival is a strong thing. It can force you to take on more than you can chew while maintaining a state of high-on-life. The constant duality of good and evil, success and failure, joy and sorrow, overwhelms and sabotages. Life as we know it allures and deceives.  Perplexing endeavours are taken and contrived to suit the contours and meninges of our gray matter. Limited perspectives give rise to conflicts and peacemaking is a tough task. Beauty and flow of life is such that it does not usually provide us with time to stand and stare. Unusually kind strangers swipe us off our feet and make us realize there is still good in this world. When we are not good at handling rejection and neither is the universe too kind to offer redemption, where do we go? What source of happiness do we look for? Where do we go if not here? We hope our tomorrows will be more colorful than today yet we do little to change the small things that bind us to who we are today. Inside that beautiful mind of ours is a world of  chaos and uncertainty. We don't know what we want yet feel pulled by the siren call of all that isn't ours and can never belong to us. Do things matter that much? Or is it just a reminiscent corollary of generations past? What is, what will be and what never can happen coincide. Or perhaps these dreams die inside us causing great pain and causing internal catastrophe. What then is the world if filled with rainbow and sunshine. Alternatively, we can build castles in the air only to have them crumbling down upon us. Reality creeps up on us when we least suspect it and our worlds of wonder are lost forever. What we have lost always has a way of coming back to us or so I read in my thick copy of Harry Potter. A theory goes that the past, present and future co-exist in the same moment. We were, are and will be. Together. Is there any way of moving back? Running away or turning time? Perhaps. But how that will be advantageous remains to be seen. An adventure is not an adventure unless it is spontaneous. Often people describing themselves as "travellers" on social media do the opposite of travelling. They plan it out, chalk every last detail of the plan well in advance and kill the suspense for themselves. Their days are counted, their purpose is established and the age old tradition of travelling so as to get lost in a new place is lost in translation. We travel to show off on social media or to write travelogues which would pay. No one dives deep into the rich experience that is travelling. Inherently, mingling with the locals is either restricted or orchestrated in this form of traveling. Do we acknowledge our mistake? Absolutly not. We are having way too much fun getting the likes. Our egos are being fed at the rate of several reactions per second. Our achievements are being measured by the dimensions of our LinkedIn professional networks and connections. In such a limited space, how will the mind grow? Is it just the external environment that is to be blamed? What about our lack of concentration and poor focus? For how long can a book sustain our attention? What is the attention span of a modern human being reduced to? "Is there a way out of the mind" said Sylvia Plath. Getting trapped inside one's head is the worst fate. Some call it madness, some self-obsession. The gruelling pace of life and the cruel world keep us on our toes at all times. Do we exit the stage of life with a grand bow or do we free fall hence ending our role on the stage at once? "All's the world a stage" and I am looking for a way out. My frustrated brain knows that, my heart knows that but no human being does. I lost my will to live, my zealous enthusiasm to pursue my dreams, the fire in my belly and the fighter spirit. The 'Lost and Found' section blatantly refused coming across even one such thing anywhere on the college campus.  

NOSTANTIA

The other night
I felt perfect
Perfectly loved, Perfectly desired
Like the whole world
Stood still
As our bodies melted together
In passion, In desire

Your tenderness, Your care
The beautiful strands of your short hair
Reminded me of a love long lost

Your gentle touch, the taste of your lips
Invoked a dozen thoughts like memorabilia

I remember feeling crushed
Under the ebbs and troughs of intense desire
The unparalleled pleasure of long foreplay,
Delayed gratification
Beautifully coming together
When we just couldn't resist anymore!

The essence of your being
Wonderfully illuminating my own
The long drawn breaths, the fast paced pulse,
The moments our eyes met
In pregnant silence.

The warmth my cold feet derived
From your warm legs
And the warmth my thighs generated
Upon your magic, electric touch

The euphoria of moments
Anticipating potent orgasms
The drill, the weight,
Of those fated moments
The world losing its meaning
Reverting to just me, just us.

The reverberating sensation
Of your scintillating touch
As your fingers linger
On just the right spots
The accidental brush of your tongue
The moments of pure ecstasy
I silently thank the noir stars
For bringing you to me,
For bringing me to you.

The warmth of your chest
In which I bury my dizzy head
Calls me to stay and be
Peace befalls us
As we lay under the shimmering fairy lights-
Yellow and Red.

You write my name
With your gentle fingers
On my sensitive back
Suggesting moving further
Like you want me more
Your smile, your mouth,
Eroding my insides with pleasure.

And as we embrace
One last time
To depart and meet some other time
To sleep next to each other
For what was left of the night
With the first signs of dawn
Breaking through half-opened blinds
The fluidity of the moment
And its lyrical beauty
Breaks us
We give in to the temptation
And resume right where we left off.

An Ode To A University

In a world of GOLDen lies,
Injustice and Oppression,
An Innocent Student Cries,
with the Pain of Shattered Dreams and Subjugation.

There seems to be no way,
"Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

Be Polite, Humble and Meek,
An Ideal Student should be like a Sheep,
Say Sorry and look Weak,
Don't let your Self Worth peep.

Internally you may Weep,
But "Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

Feed their egos,
Do as they say,
Go against your ethos,
Else they will cancel your degree, as they may.

Put on a show instead of a good fight,
"Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

"We care about our students,
They are our number one Priority"
Dean Ma'am, save these lines for your advertisements,
Spare the innocent your tone of authority.

Their actions contrast their words,
"Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

"We know you deserve it,
But we can't give you the Gold Medal.
There is a rule and we blindly serve it,
Can't you see, we put our Founder President on a pedestal?"

Nerve-wrecked, Broken and Devastated is the student
But "Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

They don't understand,
No one thus far had worked hard enough and wanted it as much,
And Time was slipping away like sand,
There was no solution as such.

The student felt utterly powerless yet
"Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

One week before D-Day,
There was seemingly no ray of hope,
The cold university showed no response, remorse, repentance or way,
The student sent an email again to widen the scope.

All hell broke loose for the student from then on
But "Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

The mention of the word "Media" became her undoing,
Threatened she was with legal consequences grave,
The Big Bad Wolf was called to do the University's cooing,
Her maligned reputation she now had no way to save.

The student was in heart-wrenching pain and
"Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

Nobody knows that Deep inside the fighting student,
Is a little girl who just wanted to make her parents proud,
In her desperate last minute fight to win she let go of what was prudent,
She wanted the University to hear her demands out loud.

The little girl was hurt and betrayed,
But "Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

All that little girl ever dreamt of was seeing her parents on stage,
In limelight, glowing with pride,
To receive an award she won fair and square with no outrage,
Alas! The University crushed her spirit, her well-deserved prize unjustly denied.

Little Girl, Don't be Brave!
"Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

The rule was Unjust, Illogical, Unfair and Stupid,
But calling it so made the student a Traitor,
Uncomprehending Dean took it personally and ran after her rabid,
And the University refused to wake up from its Stupor.

A bright student they lost that way,
But "Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

Called out was the student in public,
Dean filled with rage created quite a ruckus,
She attacked the student defying all rubric,
Her behavior denying any decency and moving freely towards excess.

Dean ended her attack in the following way,
"Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

Dean Ma'am, Stop yelling at the teachers,
It's not their fault,
The University is using them like inhuman creatures,
Making them work day and night without a halt.

Their Teachers suffer more than students,
"Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

Dean Ma'am, the student shall never forgive you,
You made her very dear HOI cry,
Tears in the HOI's eyes - did they not rile you?
The student's spirit shook at their sight and she heaved out a sigh.

The HOI cried and so did the student,
But "Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

Her dreams shattered, career on line,
The unyielding University committed the worst crime,
They forbid a high achiever to shine,
And where there was once respect, now only hatred and anger entwine.

They sow seeds of hopelessness in her young heart and,
"Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"

They marred her soul,
Eternal is the damage,
Ruthlessly punctured her life and left a gaping hole,
Bleeding profusely is her wound savage.

A huge part of her is broken and dying,
But "Smile", they say,
"After all, Convocation is your day!"