The Old Man & The Boy

The old man took his seat
Under one lonely tree;
He tiredly stretched his feet,
And silently gazed at me.

I drew nearer to his place..
“Come here boy, don’t be afraid,
You’re still young, with a fair face
That knows nothing of life” he said

And what is life, sir?”Said I.
The old man laughed a lot.
And wandering into the sky
He said: how silly a question you got!

Life, son, is a wide sea
If you know how to sail.
Either fearless you be
Or forever you shall fail.

Life is a stage, on which people act;
Each has a different role..
Some are faked and some are fact;
And at the end all the masks will fall.

I asked:” how was it, the time
You were born, master?”
Time, boy, goes without reason or rhyme
There’re ages of gloom & ones of luster

And time is nothing but steam,
Yesterday is today’s memory,
Tomorrow is today’s dream…
And that too, will soon be history.

I was born in an age of true sight;
Dark was the night, on our days sun rised
Wrong was wrong and right was right,
But as I grew older, I realized…

That things were no longer that plain;
There were days darker than night
When moments of pleasure hid hours of pain;
Yet there were nights that shined bright.

“And what is pain?” I said, wandering.
It is something you must feel
When you reach your understanding,
When you know the difference between fancy & real.

Then I said:” speak to me of self-knowledge!”
That’s what is hidden in your thought,
But with your tongue it does challenge.
That, in words, it can’t be brought

“But what about words, sir?”
He said: there are people who are talking’
To avoid loneliness they cannot bear,
Others don’t, of fear their self-secrecy be broken!

And there are those who reveal a truth
Without understanding what it holds;
And there are others who enclose
That truth, but they tell it not in words.

“Then what is truth? I pray you say “
It’s the monsters raised by your own mind;
These are the price of thinking that you pay,
And it’s the one thing you can never find.

“But if I work, even if I strive…?”
Nay, son. Work is life, it’s life’s love,
And by work you hold secrets of life;
But truth is a mirage that can only bluff!

“Life’s love!?, how is love, sir?”
Love ways, boy, are hard and steep;
When it beckons, follow it, and be aware,
Seek for it, climb high and dive deep.

Love may hurt and grind you,
So that you may know secrets of your heart;
But in those things that you knew
You become a fragment of life’s heart.

Your talk is sweet, my dear friend.”
Smiling he said: in the dew of little things
The heart finds it’s morning & is refreshed;
And that’s what life with a friend brings.

“When your friend tells what’s in his mind,
Fear not to say “no”, nor do you withhold the “yes”
And when he is silent, search for what’s behind
And listen to what his heart says.

Grieve not if your friend parts from you,
For that which you love most in him
Clearer in his absence it may grow,
And his faults are not as bad as they seem.

“ Why are we happy, then we get sad?”
They are both one, joy is your sorrow,
Just when it is bare and unmasked…
When one comes, remember that the other’ll follow.

And when memories are all you have
Tears shall be all you get
For you may forget who shared your laugh,
But never the one with whom you’ve wept.

“And what are memories?” I said.
They are sealed records of our past;
Of words we said or deeds we made.
So that the virtues of life would last.

“ Then tell me what is virtue?”
Virtue is everything good in all;
But good is something really vague,
It’s all you find when you reach your soul.

“ And how do you see beauty?”
It is a song one hears,
And an image he can see,
Though he closes his eyes & shuts his ears.

And beauty is what you feel inside
It’s what your heart beats for,
And if this gift is exiled
You shall be living no more.

“ How can this happen when I’m free,for god’s sake?”
Nay, freedom is life’s taste, my dear
Freedom is something you do make
When you break your extreme fear.

When your shadows are no longer there,
Then, light of freedom will rise on your face
And you shall come out of your lair
And then, you have keys of the space.

“Tell me more of your knowledge!” I told him.
Oh! You can never wear another man’s vision gown
And a wise man gives you not keys of his wisdom,
But leads you to ones of your own.

And I am old, but I’m still
This life’s ignorant child
Lots of dreams I have to fulfill,
And many answers I have to find.

I’ve been climbing this knowledge mountain
Trying to reach it’s misty summit
But, neither the "reason" did I gain,
Nor the "wisdom soul" had I met.

Sometimes the mists would go,
When some drops of rain would fall
Then, I’d behold the top as it glows
And the giant of desire in me’d call.

I would wish that the vision
Would take me on it’s wings,
And ease the thirst of my passion
And that glitter to my heart it brings.

I was like Prometheus – the myth –
Striving to find the light,
Wishing to get its bless,
And to move darkness from his sight.

Indeed he did reach his aim;
And for that, he got his punishment.
And I was fearless to end up the same,
Yet, I didn’t make my own achievement.

And man has nothing but to carry on,
To struggle against this reality;
And to fear not being alone,
Such belief is what gave life eternity.

And in this, you should follow my every word,
For the effort of searching is too much for me to exert;
And soon, boy, I shall leave this world
And gone will be all I’ve gained or learnt.

But it’s enough for me that I
Gave you the nectar of my humble knowledge,
That will show you the way after I die,
And provide you with persistence and courage.

And as death will come for sure,
So shall you leave one day, too
But not till you add to what I gave you before,
And hand it to the one who’ll continue after you.

For death is just the beginning, not the end;
The start of another blooming life.
And only the matter is to be dead,
But the soul shall ever be alive.

Free in the ether it wanders
Blessing those who understand the value of it
The gift of comfort to them it renders,
And their hearts shall it lit.

“I do understand what you mean,
but what if I lost my aspect ?”
you should go to where you once did begin ,
and try again ,taking faults into respect .

That was all you had to know, son.
Now, take your way into the world;
In your heart you’ve got the heat of the sun
And secrets of life your soul does fold.

Let life not trick you, boy
And always have faith in you.
Live it not with sorrow, but with joy;
And cry not over what time once blew.

You have all the years ahead
To achieve what I couldn’t gain;
And if the path one day does bend,
Be sure it will straighten again.

Someday, behind that far cloud,
You’ll come, and I’ll open the door;
And you’ll tell me what you’ve found
And I shall learn from you more.

Then, the old man raised from his lie,
And the last of him I saw
Was a smile with a sigh ‘
And a wave, and “Adieu!”

- THE END -



BAbyblue, 21 MAY 1999