Advice To My Sakuntala

N.S. Murty (India, 15/04/06)

 

   Darling Child!
   Marriage is a two-horse ride
   Of harnessed unequals.
   But the unwrit tenet is
   the strong should make up for the weak.
   After the ride to the summit,
   No one knows not what awaits there,
   Pastures and play fields?
   Heath, untrodden and deserted paths?
   But will to conquer, all obstacles sweep aside.
   Dreams are anxious to leap over to real life
   And the chances of success
   Hinge on your ability to strike balance
   Between firmness and obstinacy
   Accommodation and surrender
   Dependence and doting on
   Liberty and lenience.

   Assumptions and unattended feelings
   Grow differences to epidemic proportions.
   Meet them squarely, else, use ‘open heart’ surgery,
   Smile, silence and service are better artillery than
   Wails, words, and withdrawal not sparingly used.
   Be pragmatic to lose small wars for larger battles.
   Quarantine your quarrels
   Within the confines of four walls.
   Bear what an extra ear hears, the whole world hears!

   Serve delicacies of life
   Dressed with wit and humour.
   Fail not to remember, however,
   They never make the pudding.

   Welcome the differences
   Lest sweetness of life should cloy
   But see that their skewness
   Hurts neither you nor those around.

   The tips from our lives
   Open no new horizons.
   So go, find on your own
   The ‘sesame’ for the treasures of happiness.