Cooked Up - III

8. No culture or language is better than the other. Each has its beauty. Just appreciate it.

9. Interest or disinterest of a foreigner in a culture or language depends on the people practising it, their love, understanding and in their ability to be inclusive.

10. If there is a person in your group who never voices their opinion or escapes on some premise when there is an issue(need not be serious), beware of that person. They are what is called a 'silent killer'.

(I know, the 10th one may not be acceptable to many people, but then experience is the best teacher.)

Hope

It is nearly three years that I have been in this campus. This tamarind tree is on the way between my department and the research scholars hostel. So, everyday passing by the tree, I have noticed her looking different as the seasons change. When it rains, she sprouts little bright green leaves that people use in their curry. When she bears fruit, most passersby would pluck one to taste the tamarind, green or ripe. Come summer, she would shed all her leaves and stand bare. She stood so this summer too...... But it has started raining, and to my utter horror I find that she is not springing forth with the showers. She stands, still, with branches brown, all bereft of life. I knew her passing by her everyday, seeing people enjoying her fruits. In India, it is a belief that a tree gives her fruits with all the love possible to the beings around. She for one, lived such a life. And now, ............ All around her, her compatriots are green..... not her. Wonder if she is gone but am still holding on, hoping that she will spring back... to life.

Mirror mirror on the wall.........

Watched for a month, and she visits this mirror everyday. She keeps looking at herself and pecking at the mirror. Wonder what she's thinking .................