Poem Hunter 7 - Ode To Classic Poets Of Poem Hunter - Rudyard Kipling Poem by Geeta Radhakrishna Menon

My father was a great fan
Of Rudyard Kipling,
Specially of his poem "If".
Dad had framed the poem
And placed it on the study table.
Every day, I saw this poem staring at me,
While I did my writing or my home work.
Without exaggeration,
I must have read it a thousand times,
During my school and college days.

"Dear Sir Rudyard Kipling!
I tried following all the instructions given in the poem.
‘If you can dream and not make dreams your master,
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with triumph and disaster,
And treat both the imposters just the same.'
However,
‘I had dreams' and worked towards the dream
Like a slave and not ‘like a master',
I did ‘think'
But made few ‘thoughts my aim' too
Not all! That would have been impossible,
But I did try, and made few thoughts possible.
Truthfully, I did enjoy ‘triumphs'
But ‘disasters', I could not take it like a ‘triumph',
They made me so unhappy and depressed.
I could not ‘treat both these imposters' equally.
I embraced the ‘triumph' with joy
But I shunned the ‘disaster'!
‘If' I had met triumph and disaster on equal terms,
I would have been a ‘Yogi', long, long back.
Then, there would have been no poems.
Though I have been studying Yoga
For the last eighteen years,
To gain ‘equanimity' is not easy.
Frankly, I have not yet become a Yogi."

But now, when I read the poem
Of Rudyard Kipling in Poem Hunter,
I remember my dear father who tried
Teaching me so many things of value,
Through this beautiful poem.
Though my father is no more,
Beautiful memories keep flooding my mind.
I can hear the spirit of my father
Talking to me through this poem ‘If'
" If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you
If you can trust yourself
When all men doubt you"