Friday Musings Poem by Vinaya Joseph

It was a perfect October setting for me,
On a bright Friday evening,
With the sun still smiling,
And the mahogany’s swinging,
In the breeze from the backwaters,
With chirping birds for company,
I sat down to capture my thoughts,
On a piece of paper

Ability, responsibility...
What is ability all about?
Yesterday someone had questioned me...
And that got me thinking...
All these thoughts were borne out of this little query...
I felt abilities are traits,
Each one of us is blessed with their own set...
Some people are born with it,
Comes naturally without much hard work,
While some acquire these traits over the years,
The ones that you attain from your environment,
Have to be maintained,
That requires
A bit of training,
A dash of self-disciplining…

My interaction with people,
From all walks of life,
Always leave me amused,
The more I interact, the more I feel,
That most of us are ‘professional misfits’,
‘Squares’ in ‘holes’,
Or ‘holes’ squeezed in ‘squares’,
Waiting for the right opportunity to ‘pop out’

Or for that matter,
People are in a set up
Where they are struggling,
Polishing their edges to ‘fit in’
Where they don’t belong to,
Like smoothening the edges of a hexagon
And making it appear like a circle,
Or making it ‘fit to size’
Or molding it to the requirement,
What a sheer waste of talent,
Waste of abilities,
Waste of time and skills,
That I observe at work places,
I see many are in the ‘wrong’ job
‘Right’ job but ‘wrong’ person
‘Wrong’ job but ‘right’ person,
Combine it anyway you like,
All sorts of permutations and combinations,
Very few individuals follow their hearts,
And that’s were the problem lies,
How do you expect quality from such individuals?
No wonder people perform below their capacity,
Fail to meet expectations and take responsibilities,
Wish if individuals could identify their true passion,
And realize their true potential,
And turn their passion into their profession,
And excel in their respective fields,
Then life would be easy,

So much less of so-called depression,
That I observe these days among youth,
So much more of efficiency,
So much more of happiness,
And satisfaction...

As hours pass,
Nature is still busy,
Twilight begins,
The sea breeze plays with my thoughts,
And with trees outside my window…
Let me stop scribbling now,
As my birds retreat,
Into the darkness,
And cicadas take over nature’s symphony…