Growing Up.. Poem by Deepesh Modi

Somehow today I opened the diary of my memories
I walked through the streets where my village ends
I sat under the shade of beans
But then unable to find my smiling friends
Some became slaves of cities and others of dreams.

Then I moved to my school
Reminisced the classes with no pen and those copied sums
That immense enthusiasm for the summer vacation.
Remembered the struggle for those sour-sweet plums
And those incidents of being punished for no reason.

When I visited my farmland
Where the dripping raindrops have changed their voice,
As my childhood-cries to their noise.
Now the flying dust that used to get wet with me in the rain
has settled down,
And that all night fun trying to detach, giving the pain
as the paint of its wall scabbing down.

Then I searched for an innocent companion
whom I found aside in all the throes
And shared all my concealed bases
Now it refused to reveal its dark spaces.

While sitting by the roadside, I could see
That barefoot cycling in the noon for hours
And that never-ending longing for fast-food.
Suddenly, I started calling those ageless peers
But nobody noticed the lost voice of my childhood.

Don't know where these friends have disappeared.
This wakes up my loneliness, and memories get deeper.

A girl came to me, seemed very familiar.
Relentlessly squeezed out all my sentiments
With-bated-breath, said nothing but gazed with elegance.

'I want a path without journey and destinations
Somewhere far away in the forest to be a standing river
To have a life without customs and conventions
Want to get lost somewhere in the blue as glitter.'

Then she disclosed her Ordeal
"Yesterday I saw a glimpse of life humming on the roads,
Then I found it here and there, smiling blindly with eyes closed.
'Why are we both angry? ', I was explaining to her and she to me.
'Why did you give so much pain? ', Just to show the beauty of my cane.

Don't save yourself so much, get wet if it rains
No one will give the moon, make your face shine.
Pain is a diamond, shed it to feel its lanes
Who says to join hearts, at least join the hands in fine.

Don't imprison yourself in confusion
Open the window of your mind to get allusion
Time was neither in your hands, nor will it be
The destination is around you, Just erase passivity.

'What are you searching for in the world? ',
When everything is inside, you pearled.
'Why do you look into others? ',
When your mind itself mutters…"

Suddenly, That smiling eyes had tears
I interrupt, seemingly that glimpse was of mine
Understood the depth of dreams, the goodness it wears
The secret of life and will connect to shine.

Good morning son! ! Wake up! !
Opened my eyes and smiled.
This confused my mother to ask
Nothing mom! ! Just Growing up..

-Deepesh Modi