My Favourite Self-Help Book Poem by AtreyaSarma Uppaluri

They recommended Dale Carnegie as a read staple
So I did read How To Win Friends And Influence People.
As I contrived to influence too many a friend
They drifted away putting the friendship to an end
And began to leave me alone
Giving me no time to atone.

They recommended Napoleon Hill
So I did flip through Think And Grow Rich
And began to think, and I’m thinking still.
I’ve ne’er come out of the thinking niche;
I have learned to think and think and think,
Think alone, only think, sans a blink.
I have grown rich in rethinking,
Double thinking and unthinking.

Then someone recommended Shiv Khera
So I conned You Can Win, as a mantra.
It didn’t excite me for he lost his security deposit
At the Lok Sabha hustings. So his book I had to reposit.

They prescribed Kiyosaki the then fad
So I ran over Rich Dad & Poor Dad.
I was promoted grand
From a dad to granddad.
As I remained my own poor self
I shoved it to the bottom shelf.

Someone else said, “It’s a must read - Thomas Harris”
So I perused I’m OK, You’re OK, guileless
Only to realise, none is really OK
Especially me for it was just too blasé.

Then I stumbled upon a great one
Which had been recommended by none
At an old second-hand pavement store.
I grabbed it and took it home to pore
O’er; oh, wow! how I fell in love of the title!
Don’t Do Today What You Can Leave For Tomorrow
From now onwards out, out with my every sorrow!
Yes, the lovely title is my nature vital
This is my life’s very mission
My philosophic ambition.
Here I will find my solace, peace
At long last, in this masterpiece
And years rolled by
Without any sigh…

In an eerie tone somewhere from afar
Spoke the author Sukumar Mazumdar
All of a sudden
From an unknown den.
He chided: “You, the fickle one, you haven’t opened the book yet
Though with this tome eons ago you so luckily met.
My ideas you’ve cruelly enchained in the leaves
And this suffocating horror me to no end peeves.”

“Didn’t you advise everyone
Sounding a great lot of fun:
‘Don’t do today what you can leave for tomorrow’?
I just followed it, without missing the arrow.
Why did you write such a bulky book with over two hundred pages
When the grand title itself oozed with wisdom of so many sages? ”
So I remonstrated with a bellow.
“…………”
“Hello! ...Hello! ”
“…………”
“Hello, Mr Mazumdar, …Hello…”
Damn! The line had gone off to a zero …

[Aug 09,2009: : Hyderabad-500056]