Why?

This is another poem I came across when I was looking in my old books. I wrote this when I was 16 years while studying in New Zealand (we lived in NZ for a year during my dad's sabatical). I wrote this poem for one of our creative writing assignments... I've always felt sad about inequality in the world and the injustices faced by many people in the world... This is why I now feel that not-for-profit is the sector that I should work in, as I atleast feel I'm helping to eradicate the suffering of some people... I guess in a way it's connected with my previous post too...

she's just a little girl,
Who should be playing like me and you,
But because she's so poor,
She has to work as slaves do.
Getting beaten each time she makes a mistake,
But like a saint she doesn't complain;
She suffers it all in silence,
She thinks that she's to blame.
Why is this world so unfair?
Doesnt anybody care?

His wife died a few years ago,
Instead of caring for him till his last days,
His children for whom he sacrificed so much
Heartlessly told him to go away.
So now for many years he has lived alone,
In the shadow of the street,
Without a friend to care,
Tired and weary on his feet.
Why is this once caring man now old,
Not have anyone to hold?

She was playing with her toys
When she saw a man with a gun;
He murdered her parents while she was watching
And all she could do was run.
Since that fateful day, her life was never the same
And so she took a knife;
Thought her life was not worth living
And so took her own life.
Why did this innocent girl,
End up in this wicked world?

Why do so many people,
Have to suffer till they grow old?
When others waste so much
And live in houses of gold.
Why don't these people so fortunate,
Take what they have and share,
With those who need their help?
Why doesn;t anybody care?

Going back in time...

As I was going through some of my old nic nacs from home, I suddenly came across a couple of poems I had written when I was in my early teens. Reading them, made me realise how much I have changed across the years from the painfully shy kid with a strong inferiority complex to today, where I'm quite happy with life and who I am (though I'm always learning everyday)...

These poems made me think of how far I've come in the journey of life... I wander what I'd think reading my blog in 10 or 20 years time...

In my my early teens I considered guys to be of an alien species as I never had brothers and I studied at a single sex convent where the nuns made guys sound like evil octopuses waiting to get their tentacles around us! At the same time I was attracted to them too! So this poem was written with a friend when we were both in our early teens about how we felt... Of course this was an exaggeration, but you get the idea!

Why
I've always wondered why,
I act so weird around a guy.
I go bump into chairs everywhere,
and make them all stare.
So I try to act pretty cool,
In the end making myself look a fool.
The thing is that I wanna have a boy friend,
But I can't with them even a second spend.
And sometimes I wonder why,
I seem to be so shy(Especially in front of guys).
Which I really don't think is wise.
When ever I am self conscious,
To others I seem very anxious.
It really breaks my heart
Oh why oh why is life so hard?

Now after studying and working in a man's world (engineering), and with all my experiences in UK and Switzerland, I think that in the end we're all the same, with fears and hopes and dreams... the way we show them or what we like maybe different, but then they are also different from person to person even of the same sex... One thing that I wonder a lot about is whether what is considered as 'social norms' for men and for women are really inborn or are they due to the way we grew up... the famous nature or nurture debate...

While of course respecting the many biological differences, and knowing that we both have certain things that we tend to be better in, I wander if some of the differences are more to do with how we grew up rather than 'brain programming', even though book after book on men and women seem to claim the opposite... I think as I was the only child, I was both the girl and the boy in the family! So I became very independent and ambitious and liked numbers and technical things (which are considered to be male traits) and at the same time I loved music and dancing and had a strong interest in psychology and people and literature and am not very good at sports (which are considered to be female traits)...

So the more I think of it, the more I feel that people should be allowed to be themselves, rather than putting them into boxes and trying to find labels. To me this is true gender equality, where both men and women are allowed to be themselves as long as they are good people and don't harm others without society dictating terms on how they should behave...

Well I totally went off topic, but will add another old poem before ending this post, this was when I was chubby and tried my best to lose weight, funnily enough now, without trying I've lost all that puppy fat.

Trying to get thin
Some people want to be thin(for example me)
A great figure win
But that'll never be
For I've tried almost everything
Exercising, dieting, aerobics and all, but nothings working
And I won't even grow tall
My problem is that I don't eat much rice
And I try to cut down on other starchy things too
But cookies cakes and fries
I each a lot, Oh yes I do
When it comes to exercise and aerobics
I do them for a few days
And then I quit
And to loose weight I find other ways
So don't ever hope to be fat my dear friend
And with that
I will come to an end