While I was trying to declutter our home, as a lot of old letters, papers, and diaries had gathered over time, and were just gathering dust. It was an exciting experience to go through old jottings and notes in diaries.

In the process of decluttering I found a poem, which is not my writing, tucked in one of my old books. It was given to me by one of our friends while I was still in service. On the time scale it must be more than three decades ago. I retired in 1990.

Verse or Worse

It was an evening in November;
as I very well remember,
I was strolling down the street;
My knees were a flutter,
and I landed in a gutter;

A pig came and lay by my side;
I heard Colleen passing by say,
"Ye can tell the man who boozes
by the company he chooses"
The pig got up and walked away.

~*~

I also wish to share an old jotting dating back to over two decades.

In summer 1997 we decided to make it by road in our car from Jodhpur to Dehradun. While crossing a tea stall in Khatauli, a small town on the way, we stopped for some tea and snacks. There I came across some rhymes displayed on a wooden board. Before jotting down the rhymes I sought permission of the owner.

The rhymes were as under:

Gun na ho to roop vyarth hai;
Hosh na ho to josh vyarth hai;
Upyog na aya to daan vyarth hai;
Sahas na ho to hathyar vyarth hai;
Bhook na ho to bhojan vyarth hai;
Paropkar na karne wale ka to jeevan hi vyarth hal.

Before leaving the stall the owner said that these rhymes are on display over years.

You are the first one to take a note of them.
People come and go, they read the rhymes, look at each other, smile and leave.