Passion…unbridled

These days meetings are held both in-person and online

Both types of meetings vary substantially in design

Virtual meetings more efficient seem

It takes only minutes to gather a team

From different corners of the world, no travel is required

Therefore virtual meetings have universal acceptability acquired

*

A study on this issue made some interesting observations

In virtual meetings, the entire communication

Occurs through a small box on the screen before you

Turns out being boxed in prevents out-of-the-box thinking too

Creative solutions do not come as easily to mind

When you are participating in a meeting online..

*

Virtual meetings in my life are fortunately rare

But each time I participate in one, I am aware

That I am more distracted than in a face-to-face meeting I would be

I would not be the one to impress anyone virtually

I shudder to think of being interviewed for a job online

In that my personality would never shine

*

Virtual meetings are here to stay

I’m just glad I have none scheduled in my day

When I see in any part of the world laundry hung out to dry

A wave of nostalgia hits me hard, I do not know why

The sight of clothes swaying gently from a clothesline

In an apartment balcony or in an open courtyard has come to define

The essence of the land that I left behind

Now that drying clothes to an appliance is confined..

*

Hanging out wet laundry blended seamlessly

Into the rhythm of daily life, comforting in its predictability

Sun-dried clothes feeling warm against the skin

In unexpected rain, rushing to bring clothes in

Those vivid memories have stayed with me

Evoked whenever laundry hanging to dry I see

*

The conservationist in me would like to choose

This practice on sunny days, I don’t think we need to use

An appliance to dry clothes on sunny days

Even if it seems primitive in some ways

*

Clothes drying im the sun never fail to remind

Me of the simpler life I left behind….

I go about life at a hurried pace

I feel like there is no space

For me to take a pause throughout the day

I want to get work done, get tasks out of my way

Before I give myself permission to rest

If I take a break, my sense of urgency protests..

*

Then I see people all around me

Who do not appear to be in any hurry

They go about their day at a leisurely pace

I wonder what it would be like to swap my place

With someone who does not feel the need

To go through life at a breakneck speed

*

Besides being the embodiment of a type A personality

I grew up in a metropolis where life seemed to be

A near-constant race- then I chose to become a physician

My work demands urgency in making decisions..

*

Now I am a woman trying to juggle

Work and home responsibilities , time management is a constant struggle

I need to learn from those who live at a slower pace

An unhurried life I would like to embrace

She was cooking her signature dish for the family

I wondered if there was magic hidden in the recipe

Because when she was engrossed in shaping the dough

There appeared on her face a beatific glow

She was humming a song in a language I did not recognize

There was a dreamy, faraway look in her eyes..

*

Displaced by war my grandmother had been

As a young girl, unspeakable horrors she had seen

She settled in a new land as a refugee

Her old life became a distant, dark memory

There were few traces left of her past-

But some memories were built to last..

*

Food is the bridge between her past and present

Between the home she lost and the one she created with intent

Whenever she cooks her traditional recipes

She brings to life her fondest memories

She conjures her old world, inviting us in its fold

Food is the medium through which her stories are told

*

Amid the disorientation of being displaced

Her recipes served to ground her in a new place

Her stories are with her recipes intertwined

To learn all about both I am inclined

I am surprised at my own audacity

In trying to create art beyond my capacity

When complex inspiration pieces I select

Outcomes similar to the originals I cannot expect..

I start drawing with plenty of exuberance

Soon thereafter I begin to lose confidence

In my ability to complete the artwork but at this stage I cannot

Abandon my project, I have already invested a lot

Of effort and time, so I keep working on it somehow

The use of permanent coloring tools does not allow

Correction of errors, but I try every trick I know

For all my effort, I desperately want to have something nice to show..

*

In the finished piece lines are crooked and proportions are skewed

But at least my artwork is complete and ready to be viewed

Through the lens of my phone, and enhanced

With a variety of filters which give it a chance

To look presentable enough, even though

The artwork is amateurish, quite clearly so

*

Next time I resolve to pick something more appropriate

For my limited artistic ability, but again my skills I overestimate

Once again an overambitious experiment I choose

Once again I let my shaky ego get bruised…

*

But practice makes perfect, so I continue

To aim for something that currently I cannot do

My inbox with post-Thanksgiving deals is inundated

I wonder how my email account is not yet saturated

With offers from every vendor under the sun

It is not like a lottery I have won

My purchasing power is the same as before

I don’t think I can buy shiny baubles anymore..

*

Every business big and small is trying to entice

Customers with discounts that seem really nice

I assume most customers are like me

I have only a limited capacity

To browse goods and sniff out the best deals

Going through a maze of offers stressful does feel

*

Don’t get me wrong, I love when I can buy things on sale

But this over-enthusiastic marketing is likely to fail

In achieving its objective- I do not need to be

Inundated with advertisements to contribute to the economy

The weekend evaporated even before

I could get a whiff of it- I am not sure

Of how time slipped out of my hands

Why I still feel drained, I do not understand..

*

I had lofty plans for rest and rejuvenation

And a firm resolve to not indulge in procrastination

There was a laundry list of chores to get through

About half of them I managed to do

Before I realized the two-day weekend

Had in the blink of an eye, come to an end

As far as rest goes, my sleep-wake cycle was thrown off gear

I am paying the price for it now, I fear

*

A mile or two I was supposed to run

I was supposed to spend time soaking up the sun

I had planned to try out recipes new

Regrettably, none of that I was able to do

*

It is Monday morning and I have woken up with dread

I am not looking forward to the week ahead

I want another chance at a weekend to set things right

But it is Monday, there is no weekend in sight…

Each time I am about to give feedback

I try to take a pause, to gather some tact

So that I can balance criticism with praise

I have tried to read all about the ways

In which feedback should be given effectively

But I need a masterclass to understand its complexity

*

If I do not think about it beforehand, I sound critical

But if I try to follow the rulebook, it appears artificial

I struggle to find a happy medium between the two

That I tend to judge harshly is unfortunately true

I do not want to upset anyone but I still want them to know

That there is room for improvement, which I hope in the future they would show

*

When it is time to give feedback, I get stressed out

This is one work responsibility I would like to do without

Giving effective feedback is a work in progress

On which hinges both mine and my mentee’s success

In a world that conspicuous consumption celebrates

I am trying my best not to consume but create..

Instead of buying yet another product online

I am consciously making an effort to design

A life that thrives on creative expression

I am trying to switch from my decades-long obsession

Of acquiring beautiful objects to creating poetry and art

The former left me thirsting for more, the latter satisfies my heart

*

In the days after Thanksgiving, there is intense temptation

To buy more, and I’ve done that to the point of “stuffocation”

To steer clear of this pressure to buy, my strategy

Is to channel all forms of creativity

When I write, paint, cook- create something new

Ignoring discount deals is not hard to do

*

I hope this weekend my creative well does not run dry

And that shiny objects I do not feel compelled to buy

The one message I do not like to receive

Is “Thank You”-and before you perceive

Me as an antisocial human, please hear me out

While expressing gratitude exemplifies politeness, no doubt

A “Thank You” message rarely adds value to the conversation

But increases message fatigue by adding another notification

When this superfluous message shows up on call at night

Annoyance at this polite interruption I have to fight..

*

A sincere “Thank You” is invaluable in a face-to-face conversation

But when included on a digital platform, it impedes efficient communication

In a world where our attention is already fragmented

Avoiding unnecessary messages should be the strategy implemented

Because each time the phone pings, you have to divert

Your attention for a brief moment before it reverts

To the task at hand, this happens often

Adding to the overwhelming digital burden

*

Let me rephrase my argument to state

That in digital communication, it is more polite to eliminate

“Thank You” messages that digital clutter increase

At least at work, my thank-you messages have ceased

Don’t judge a book by its cover, but that’s exactly what I do

When I am in the library browsing through

Bookshelves full of books with covers artfully designed

I look at the title, the typography, the layout and if I find

All of them appealing, I take the book home with me

And nine times out of ten, I read it before returning it to the library..

*

Mostly if the cover is promising the book delivers too

There obviously are times when the opposite is true

Being an avid reader and a patron of my local library

I think I can identify a book worth reading from a cover that appeals to me

*

To judge a book by its cover is a fun exercise

Both when the content is expected and when it ends up being a surprise

If I write a book in the distant future I shall keep in mind

To put substantial effort into the cover design

When I read an article, I start with the introduction and end

With the conclusion, but when I write I upend

The sequence-somewhere in the middle I start

During bursts of inspiration, I complete an arbitrary part

Of the article, my article gets constructed bit by bit

Just as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle I would fit..

*

If I were to start by writing the introduction, I’m afraid

I would not get very far, my enthusiasm would fade

Before I got to the crux of my article, therefore

I begin from somewhere in the center, the core

The next section I then arbitrarily choose

In this way my momentum in writing I do not lose

*

This seemingly haphazard way works well for me

It lets me complete my articles rather quickly

Since they are written piecemeal, my articles need

Considerable editing to make them worthy of a read

*

As a final thought, let me just say

It would not be as much fun if I did it any other way!