Have You Lost Your Way? Welcome to Nagaland!!

Some of the few milestones along roads in Nagaland should surely carry "Where Roads end Nagaland begins" OR " If you think you are lost, you have reached Nagaland"...

Well the roads in nagaland , if they can be called so, leave a bad taste in the mouth whenever one traverses through them. And the comfort that one receives when one pulls over these rr...roads is one to cherish!!

Hang on...before you put on that moral robe and start a blasphemy criticizing all and sundry, it may be politely declared that everyone has a share of blame for this sorry state of affairs. The powers of the day alone are not a party to this melee, though of course the largest share of blame may be conveniently heaved upon them; there is no less contribution from all sections of the society to this inflated problem.

The Civic classes in the schools have not proved handy in this department for the nagas. Everyone is gleefully unloading and dumping all sorts of wastes on the roadsides and into the drainages. Wherever human settlements exist, the roads are worse. This is an interesting but terrible observation I have been masticating with great difficulty to digest.

The poor quality of workmanship is one thing and we do not have room to condone wretches behind such works. Nonetheless, it will be gracious enough to admit the dynamics of the society and the system at play. The push of the holy land-owners for an 'adjustment' here and the pulls of the 'national' cuts rounding up to incredible percentages there; the humble but deceptive local leader slicing for some crumbs and the routine visit of the community' s young peoples' representatives to the contractor's...the list is rather endless!

Eventually, the man behind the show lands up precariously unstable both financially and mentally and the whole project becomes a non-starter. This completes the cycle and brings us back to where we all started... taking us to the Road to Perdition!!   

(Un) Christian Model of Nagaland

I was in my Sunday best. Life was seeming colourfully pleasant and meticulously designed. Then I tripped!!

Thank God it was a notional fall...

Nagas have placed themselves on a very high moral pedestal - namely ' Nagaland A Christian State' or something, I cannot exactly remember the unforgettable slogan!!

Anyway it is about time, way high time, we stepped down from this towering title we have embossed upon ourselves and start to learn the basics. In other words, let us stop being hypocrites and fraudsters who fool no one else but ourselves.

I am rationally amazed at the way we project ourselves as the last community of hallowed, sanctified and pious beings around. The theatrical mannerisms and the way we conduct ourselves as respectable Christians is a unique skill limitedly endowed upon a few sections of people called the Nagas I could safely conclude.

The proverbial story of a Zebra hopping around disguised in the stripes of aTiger comes to mind immediately at this stage. No prizes for guessing who the Zebra here is.

Well for a start, let us delink ourselves from the age old motto 'Nagaland...something' which to me is a remarkable phenomenon of double standard characteristics. If we wish to claim ourselves as good Christians, let us live as one.

The insatiable love for wealth; the stone-dry sympathy for neighbours; the immovable laziness to work and earn and the parasitic approach to life are unmistakably not the virtues of a Christian model.

Let us wake...let us go.

MAMMOTH MAMMONISM!

Mammonism has become an extremely prominent, and worse, is increasingly becoming a revered philosophy for many today. Indeed, there’s no debate about the fact that every individual has needs in life. However, the issue becomes problematic when needs become larger than life; when the line between needs and wants blur and wants become the sole goal in life. And the end of wants, as we all know, is like an enormous bottle with a tiny perforation at the bottom. It just doesn’t hold water!

Well some may contend that the philosophy of each individual need not be made a subject of public discourse and left to each to cling to his own. Admittedly, that is a valid proposition. Yet, the intention here is not about taking a high moral-ground and dictate classes of virtuosity to the ‘messy’ world. It is about a larger challenge we face in our lives day in and day out; an invasion that seems to be threatening to take over the very systemic values upon which our humaneness prevail. And when any philosophy becomes conveniently well established disturbing the standing values and meaning of equality and fairness, then doesn’t it become a grave social issue and does not remain a ‘personal thing’ anymore?

Why the madness? Why the craze? Why the insatiability at the skinning cost of fellow beings? Pausing for a moment and asking oneself where one is rushing appears to be a highly-timely mission at this point in time!

FLOODS IN THE DRY STATE!

The veriest travesty of being a ‘dry State’ is displayed in prolific extravaganza in no other place on earth than in this remote north-eastern Indian State of Nagaland. The flow of Indian Made Foreign Liquor into this part of the world is a matter of routine drill despite the statutory blanket ban since a little over two decades ago. Huge volumes of “alcoholic beverages” make their way into the State with effortless ease. At least a dozen times every twelve months you hear of seizure of huge consignments of such beverages en-route the State from the neighboring State of A***M! And we are not even talking about the un-intercepted passage of consignments that make it through, in smaller quantities ofcourse, in no less frequency nonetheless.

The issue is not about the moral outlook anymore, as it was when it initially came to head in the late 80s. The matter has become a grave social issue today. This has become, perhaps, one of the biggest challenges impinging upon the people of the State at large and several families in particular.

Coming as it does, the illicit nature of this sector has made it a huge business for black-marketing. The price of quality ‘products’, to begin with, multiplies many-fold by the time the consignment reaches the target group! Hence, the economic dent it has wheedled out of the innumerable family pockets in general cannot be conveniently ignored. In fact, this has made it imaginably unaffordable for the common people.

However, the bigger concern is different and very very serious too. The business has taken an immeasurable damage-profile in the sense that owing to the constraints of availability and the sky-rocketing cost, peoples’ frustration has reached summit levels where they have taken to any kind and quality of drinks so long as they are cheap and available. This has induced menacing trends where cheap and spurious liquor are being ‘tailor-manufactured’ solely for the people of the State entailing disastrous socio-health implications and irreparable consequences.

At this rate, the cycle is taking a hazardous trajectory threatening to spin out of control unless tackled fast and quick. The stakes are too high involving the fate of entire generations to come. There is an urgent need to seriously debate this growing issue of social concern and arrive to some kind of understanding or better evolve and quickly put in place a workable arrangement.

Rigidity is not the solution. Finding ways and means to a solution is the key. All stakeholders need to dialogue to hammer out this daunting challenge that is threatening to jeopardize the very progress and prospect of our entire society!

DRAINAGE - The Way Forward, Not Roads.

The focus on good roads has always been a concern for the public who travel on them on a daily basis. The urgency can not be overemphasized here.

Crores and crores of rupees have been spent on construction of roads in the State till date. While this is an assumptuous figure, there is no dispute about the fact that we have invested a huge amount of money in the road sector but without much result. Well one may partly blame it on the terrain not to mention the quality of workmanship. Be that as it may, our State is not the only State with the topography that it has. The world over, there are regions with far more difficult terrains and yet they make lasting and world-class quality roads that are pliable throughout the year.

Well it is about time we realized the core issues in this sector. The issue is not so much about the quality, though of course I am not completely ignoring that factor by any stretch of imagination. The point is, even poor quality roads can last for a long time when we have in place sound and well planned drainage systems. The early civilizations, the Indus valley for instance, had had well designed drainage systems which speak volumes of their ingenuity and deep perception of planning.

Unfortunately today, situations become pretty messy in our State owing to heavy downpour and rains during the monsoons. Our roads turn into nullahs and some of them effectively transform into rivers jeopardizing the passage of even the most adventurous characters of our society.

The issue I opine is basically about setting our priorities wrong. The problem is really about focusing on the wrong areas of investment. What we need to do is to reprioritize our investment sectors. Years of management have failed to produce satisfactory results. We need to drastically re-orient our policy towards constructing sound and well designed drainage systems when we lay our roads.

Our terrains do not suit four-laners or five-laners. What matters is not quite the size, it is the quality of road that we seek! And good quality roads do not appear without fine drainage.

What we need to understand and understand fast is that unless we start to invest in road drainage, all our investments and efforts in laying roads is going to go down the drain! The day we begin to invest crores of rupees not on roads but on road-drainage, only then can we expect to see some change.

Poor road is perhaps the biggest challenge confronting us today and big challenges demand drastic measures too. Instead of constructing more roads and cutting new ones, we really need to be investing on the drainage systems of the roads and highways that are lying abandoned for years together.

The day we realize this vague but potentially critical factor, the quintessential road condition in our State will see a revolutionary episode. So long as we continue with the present set of rules and standards, any prospect of improving our road conditions will never ever come to pass.

As I travel across the State, I come across highway-stones reading ‘Roads are the symbol of progress and development’. Indeed, roads are the symbol of progress...

... and sound drainage that of vision and wisdom! The moot question is, are we wise enough?

Religious Verbosity!

The implausible consistency of some peoples' pleasure for wordiness and their loquacious behaviour is indeed note-worthy. The love of being chatty is definitely not a rare phenomenon though as is evidently exhibited at almost all times, irrespective of social and cultural variations! In short, this is a behaviour transcending cultural and political demarcations making the ‘virtue’ of verbosity a pan-global phenomenon! Well virtue or nuisance is a different debate requiring a different platform for deliberation.

For now, I shall simply pull my attention towards the nature of effusive characters found in no less numbers all around us. The ability of certain people to go on and on without much difficulty has always fascinated my person. Fascinated because of their aptitude to say things (talk) without giving much attention as to whether the audience is least attentive or worse interested at all. The revolutionary leader of the Carribean’s Cuba, Fidel Castro comes to mind in this category of chatty personalities! Ofcourse, the ideology of the same does not constitute our course of discussion presently. And it may also be clarified that there is ground for a distinction between world leaders and the laymen. And ofcourse here we are largely interested in the people who form part and parcel of our daily lives. People who just love talking without much restraint and inhibition. There is no attempt to smear such characters with any prejudice; this initiative is simply a general observation and ofcourse my fascination with their voluble abilities that I lack indeed!!

It does require a serious knack and habit to go on and on talking (yapping, some extremists would vehemently claim!). Such habits are preferably infused in the formative years of an individual when he/she is least prepared to take it. The young mind (orifice) then takes it upon itself as a moral obligation to function relentlessly without respite. These early lessons then gradually take shape and become established habits that come very naturally at later stages of a person’s life without much effort! The flow just comes whenever an opportunity is offered or when it doesn’t is seized, whichever is applicable! They can really talk and talk and talk an audience to death. And whoever survives is perpetually plagued or worse psychologically handicapped by the verbal onslaught of the esteemed speaker!! Well verbosity has always been and will always be an asset for some, a habit for others, and a perpetual threat to few others!

Dedicated to one and all for whom the audience is God and chattering is a religion…!!!

SECURITY BANDOBAST!

As the “VVIP” lollopped his way out of the stage, curtains came down on yet another play, another show. The Chief’s gone and so has the katzenjammeric effect that had entailed his arrival. As the Lal Batti (LB) wanes its way into a distance, the same LB culture continues to create havoc in our rustic (euphemistically for dusty!) land. Just when you thought one has left, the other makes its way right onto your footrest. What is left of you is a column of air to float or dangle upon whichever is applicable! Atleast a dozen cars driving down behind the VIP’s MUV, leaving behind a long and towering trail of dust essentially turning passers-by into brown standing structures!!

And ofcourse the loyal khaki friends are kept on their toes until they see the back of the ‘VVIP’ (emphasis on the double v) and receive stand down orders. Security arrangement is always a tall order whenever “State leaders” visit places. And yes, the tension across the rank and file of the security machinery in such times is a reality and a grim picture to witness! Any hitch and you have it. No snag and no one really bother- a mammoth task indeed bandobasting ‘VVIP’ security!!

VILLAGE IDENTITY

The root of every Naga lies deep in the countryside. The identity of any Naga hangs long on his Village. Every Naga, no matter where he lives, reveres moments of the good old times when life was blithe and carefree - the fields, the farms, the hills, the hays…every one almost unexceptionally affixes this landscape with an emotional attachment.

…that old stone still unmoved, that old gate still standing, that tall tree still growing but looking less intimidating. Fond memories rebuff to die away. The simple village life, the broad smiles along every shelter you pass by, the smell of the village soil… "certain things money can’t buy!”

With such deep associations, the identity of a Naga rests profoundly on the village he belongs. And people get charged when it comes to ‘the village’. There’s a peculiar pride attached with village sentiments - an effort to identify oneself with the Village, an attempt to establish oneself with village lore. A unique appreciation for people with traditional teachings and a particular liking for folks who share a common village. After all there’s a serious esteem for one’s village and the values that abound there!

Villages are where grandparents have left a mark, villages are where parents live and where friends of old times wait. Naturally, deep roots remain too dear for any human to sever links with.

The Village is where it all begins and there it ends too. The mortals wish to be laid on the proud soil where they spent “their best times”; the land of the opera of chirping birds, the howls of blissful children all around and the deafening sound of peace- the scenery they spot in every dream!

Rustic People!!

Life’s tough in that part of the world. The sun’s blazing hot at noon as you’d expect in high hilly regions; the atmosphere’s thin in these places. But the spirits are high and the hearts unreservedly big. Every day’s a struggle, the people struggle their way and manage to live on somehow; go on in life! The wind is chilly once dusk sets in. There doesn’t seem to be much clothing to protect from the cold air that develops quickly as the temperature plummets drastically at night in places located high above sea level. Yet nature seems to be reasonable to those who have a big heart to lend.

Hospitality is a virtue to possess to keep the docs at bay (mind the term)! These are people who have never seen the clinic as we know, yet they are fit and perpetually in the pink! They have natural medicines that they pluck along as they make their way to the fields. They do not know the office that you and I would imagine. Yet they work overtime and are sound professionals of sorts. They ain’t troubled when crude prices sky-rocket $200 a barrel. Automobile is one possession they could never comprehend. Bearish trends and bouts in the stock markets are of little concern, currency transactions are a thing they deal with most seldom. Catastrophes are not of great concern. When tremors come, they do not worry, for they live in huts of leaves and branches, not skyscrapers or marble-plated structures. They possess very little to lose in the first place anyway. Sleep takes over as they lie down after a hard long day; there is no time to flip and turn.

They are skillful and know the tricks of life or rather the tips to survival. And this is perhaps the reason of that smile, the smile they wear every time you look into their tired eyes. Is that really a smile sometimes I wonder? Perhaps they cackle at me, perhaps they see my plight. Should there be a situation of survival, perhaps they know who’ll stand and who’ll snap!

BRAVE SOULS!!

The night’s been long or so it seemed,

Dawn is slowly breaking, I can see the beam

Life’s taut and the going’s rough,

Oh they alone know how tough!

Watching on the lawns as friends play,

Jubilant and elated the whole day.

Wishing they too could jump someday

At that thought they laugh away!

Life’s tough but they don’t mourn,

Oh what brave souls they all own!

Each day’s a challenge for them to settle

And they do like warriors in battle.

The day seemed short or so it was

The laughs, the smiles wilt like they must

Oh the familiar end as day fades to dusk

The familiar question ‘Why am I different?’ they do ask!

(dedicated to all the differently-abled people with a salute)

''NORTH EAST'': A COMIC MISNOMER!

The phrase 'North-East India' makes a geographically fitting terminology; politically it doesn’t. By the slapdash use of this term one cannot help but be reminded of the by-gone days half a century ago when all the South-Indians in the country were preposterously clubbed as Madrasis!

The cultural and social awakening in the country has been rather ethnocentric I reckon. The horizon of consciousness of cultures and peoples has been narrow and confined to one’s own social well if I may! This is more so in terms of the outlook of the people at large, with exceptions I readily admit, from mainland India towards traditions and cultures of the ‘strange looking’ people living in the northeastern part of the country.

Anyway without getting emotional and going too deep into the way our “consciousness” has matured, let me focus on the point I’m trying to drive home! The term ‘North-east’ is used so liberally and conveniently in every possible context by one and all but without giving much thought to the political and cultural shade of the terminology.

For the record, politically and culturally, North-east India as a naturally fitting coalition does not exist. Very few countrymen are meaningfully aware that the ethos, customs and politics of the region beyond the waters of river Brahmaputra are not one and the same thing!

“Floods have gripped the North East” is a freely used news item flashed very often in the national media. The irony is that certain States in the region have never experienced floods for generations together! Similarly, to many people, North East India means Assam and Assam is North-East India! Well, it may be enlightening to know that Assam herself is a unique State embracing a wide diversity both in space and culture not to talk about the amazingly huge multiplicity of the peoples across the region. Arunachal Pradesh is a State endowed with enticing range of ethnicities that one-time exploration trips do not permit time enough to pick every different social group living within the State. Again, Tripura is entirely unrelated in many ways with any of the neighbouring States for the exception that it is a part of the region by geography. (By the way, very few countrymen are sure about the capital of Tripura!). There are other States like Manipur which has an exclusive and peculiar history of a great Kingdom the traces of which have by and large survived till today. Then you have States like Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim which are an assortment of inconceivable shades of peoples, traditions, practices and institutions inhabiting an insignificant space on the eastern wings of the Country.

The issue at point is simple but twofold- one, the knowledge about the region and the people living there is rather shallow and superficial; and two, the term ‘North East’ is technically a terminology too simple and erroneously unpalatable to be used to describe a sea of humanity that has an incredibly immense multiplicity of cultures, politics and geography.

The expression 'North-east' is indeed a comic misnomer in that sense of the term!

Circles are Round!

Geometrically speaking!

I remember my arithmetic teacher from school trying to draw a circle which looked more like a square. Talk about squaring a circle! Well I’m not trying to asses his skills in art; he was a geometry teacher anyway. The point I’m trying to drive home is on a different plane - the fact that invariably, the circle of life completes its bizarre but inevitable cycle.

The roller-coaster (as some would say) of life is a unique phenomenon that appears to follow an intangible trajectory which strangely but certainly reaches its end-point or whatever point you call it.

Everyone quests for a better life. Those with a simple life want a bigger one; the poor wants to get rich, the rich wants to get richer; the cobbler wants to be an engineer, the engineer wants to be a millionaire; the millionaire wants to be a billionaire, the billionaire wants a simple and happy life.

The matrix of life is beautiful indeed. And life, as we all must have realized, is a great leveler. Nature has a particular way of treating her subjects. Every individual gets an opportunity to make a life, rather live a life.

And once is all we get, make it or wreck it! Some do make it and others, well they just miss it altogether. Whatever be the situation, the lesson is always the same- make sure your life is worth living. And a life worth living is priceless.

Luxury is desirable and wealth is superior but upright living is virtuous prosperity. The ghosts of fallen warriors bear the torch of honour and they often slay the deceitful it seems. In life, it all comes back!

The Law of Inactia!

Scientifically speaking!

The Law of inertia, or more commonly, Newton's First law of Motion has a fundamental commonality with the First (and often the only) Law of many of us which I’d call the Law of inaction. To suit my convenience, I'd prefer to phrase it the Law of Inactia! Anyway my convenience apart, Newton’s Law talks about maintaining a net balance of motion unless acted upon by an external force; the Law of inactia would explain that human tendency disproportionately leans on net balance of inaction unless poked by an external agency!

The Law of inactia stems from the thesis that inaction is a common attribute found in the genotype of individuals with impossibly rare exception. Anywhere we turn to, whichever direction we look, we come across this all too familiar phenomenon of inaction. The government establishments attending to every other system but public delivery systems; the civil society taking up every other issue but social causes; the media unfolding all irresponsible actions without adequate responsibility; the netas talking every noble principle but failing to walk the talk; the teachers attending every other institution but the school; the engineers making every little calculation but that of quality; the list goes on and on.

Closely related to and emanating from the phenomenon of inaction is the unmistakable trait of ‘passing the buck’ from one court to the other. Inaction invariably entails accountability and accountability whips up the Game of Joy- the Blame Game! The soaring ‘estates’ then point their imperial fingers at one another but not sure why.

Grave social concerns and issues litter our worlds. We need to act and act fast. Understanding their gravity and working upon them is vital. Changing the whole big world is not the slogan; changing your own little world is.

Inaction is the perfect recipe for human disaster; collapse of society is an inevitable finale. "Action" is the key and everyone has a role.

SoUring High!

Reelistically speaking!

A theatrical entry of a Tom Cruise in MI drawing down from the ceiling, with crafty precision, with a cord strapped to the ankle can be best appreciated only if we understand the logic behind the stunt. It’d be quite a different story if he’d fastened himself to the neck and made the eternal descent!

The heroes of real and reel life are often matched up to by one and all. We are all so conveniently judgmental in our own ways. Looking at people with one’s own value-lenses is one art many of us have mastered even without adequate training! People are just okay with themselves; the way they are. Everyone’s just perfect in his or her own valuation-test; all others are fools, at best.

I am emotionally reminded of a man who thought his wife was going deaf and went to see the doctor. The doc told him to conduct a simple test. When the man reached the front door of his home, he called out, “Darling, is dinner ready?” Hearing no response, he walked inside and repeated himself. There was still no reply. On the third attempt, when he had walked close to her, he finally heard her say, “For the third time, yes!”

This is an all too familiar experience for many I’d reckon. But how often do we really look back and see where we stand. Jumping tall where one needs to dive can be fatal. The amount of time we squander in weighing up people around us can be best invested in nurturing one-self. Those who do are the real heroes indeed.

Having a towering esteem of oneself is one thing, misplacing one’s own self and persona is a different thing altogether. Soaring high on counterfeit feathers can meet with exceptionally sour experiences in sum!

Mission Success!

Bluntly speaking!

The mantra of success, they say, is to maintain one’s cool in times of impossibly difficult turbulence in life. This is a guaranteed approach and is said to effortlessly work well for both professional and personal life alike (the tele-shopping way!).

The success gurus always seem to be in a rush to develop novel models that work for all and sundry- One size fits all approach, if you like. There are manifold schools of thought on this subject matter though. And every such stratagem has come about from years of research and first-hand experiences, they all claim.

Anyway all such models apart, success in life does come through hard work and a pinch of luck, accept it or not. Slogging it out is the key, no matter what the shape or size of the lock is! In other words, there is no easy way to achievement. Success does not come by often to pay a visit. It hardly does in fact. But if it does come, one has to grab it not only with both hands but also, if possible, wrap it with both legs as well. Can’t take a chance with life, can we?

So as they say, nothing succeeds like success. But success has a compromise value tagged to it. One may scale the Mt. Everest or dive to the bottom of Mariana Trench, success may still elude us. One may make a living- room on the moon or drill down a few thousand layers beneath the earth’s crust and lay a tunnel connecting Oslo and Canberra, yet achievement may still appear out of reach. What then is success really? Is success for real? Is it like you get it and ‘live happily ever after’ kind of a thing? What really is success? This question, it appears, is in some way turning out to be a dilemma for many.

What are we after really? Where are we heading? Whom are we following? Do we even know the course we have taken for this long expedition to success? Where did we start in the first place? All these uncertainties baffle every time I pick a discourse on the ‘road to success’ and related subject! The answers are there somewhere; I would love to think so atleast.

Anyway the point is, in our zeal to achieve something novel, something different, we have lost our way somewhere. We have lost relationships, we have lost our decency, we have let down dear ones, we have lost our integrity, and we have lost ourselves- being human. We have in fact failed to attain the greatest feat any human could possibly achieve- being a man or a woman. Just being one, the sheer personification of being one.

Success in life has become the mission, life has taken a backseat. That is still fine so long as we do not go on hitting below the belt along our way. But far from sticking to rules, we are all ever ready to trample over any thing, repeat anything that comes our way in our quest to “achieve”. Mission Success has failed and failed terribly. Abort!!

My People, My Land

Patriotically speaking!

‡ Rising high from the enchanting Dzükou valley

Streaming down to the brimming Doyang banks

Towering with royal pride the Mt.Saramati

Stretching to the majestic forest the Intangki

From the hush of the hills of Pangsha

To the rush of the plains of Dhansiri

Rests my land in a mosaic of colours

Colours of festivals, dances and warriors!

‡ A montage of cultures and peoples,

The ubiquitous and warriorly the Sumis

The simple but ever out-reaching the Kukis

The contented but vivid the Yimchungers

The native but courteous the Khiamniungans

The beauty personified and avant-garde the Aos

The unsung but loyal patrons the Phoms

The quaint but humorous the Lothas

The somber but industrious the Rengmas.

‡ The historically-oriented but affable the Changs

The stout but cheerful the Chakhesangs

The vibrant and mingling the Sangtams

The aged but sharp-witted the Konyaks

The dance-beauty and colour-embodied the Zeliangs

The gracious and candid the Pochurys

The vague but ever present the Kacharis

The undulating but blessed the Angamis

Oh a grandiose medley on land

My People, my land, Nagaland!

@@@@@@@@@@@

But not the Dream that i Revere!!

Folkmen and folkwomen ( traditionally speaking)!

This for ‘friends in faraway places…’

♯Too long a winter we all survived

But leaves have turned green and spring’s arrived

The Magpie’s flying and with grace

The countryside’s turned bestowing a joyous face

The weary shoulders’ risen again

Farewell to the sky that was a bane

All things’ well or so they appear

But not the Dream that I revere!

♯Oaring seamen back to ports

Bringing ecstasy of sorts

At the sea it’s been a good day

Their delight impatient for the bay

There’s bliss all around

Brood jigging and making sound

All things’ well or so they appear

But not the Dream that I revere!

♯Womenfolk with sheaves of grain

Too bounty for the thought of pain

The wait they made the field to ripe

Home they come with pomp reside

The sky’s cleared for better days

Now life it seems has many more ways

All things’ well or so they appear

But not the Dream that I revere!

THE SEACHESTRA !!

Folkmen and folkwomen, traditionally speaking!

let us chime this little rhyme...

♪The roaring sea waves roll on in course

I’d never know why they should see the shores

The murmuring they make when they do meet

I’d never grasp what tidings they do feed

♪The hastening symphony, I hear them far away

Rushing in with royal conviction all the way

Bliss music sojourning through the miles

Shipping in laden with uncountable smiles.

♪This is all pleasant and exceedingly soothing

But wake up and watch for your footing

This was a dream or so I thought

I was dreaming of a battle already fought

♪All this while I thought I knew

Lest did I know I was among the few

All fools think they alone know

That in mid summer it doesn’t snow

♪Was this a dream? I wish it was

But if it wasn’t and must come to pass

Help it go past in a rush

And let me sink again into bliss hush.