How I Saw and Learnt

Here is my humble rhyme about some things that I have learnt,

From places, people and situations - the right ones and the wrong.

Life’s little instruction book is not just black or blue or green,

There is a moral to every story that unfolds for you to see.

I write this like a sing-along, hoping one day my son,

Will read my little ditty and say – ‘Oh mom, I saw and learnt!’

From a Place 

Home is where the heart resides, and where the soul must grow,

It’s a place where you are born, to know and know some more.

My granny welcomed Diwali with garlands she made herself,

She made us sit around her, taught us teamwork and togetherness. 

As her wrinkled shaking hands wove the marigolds on the thread,

I saw and learnt devotion – to faith, to family and to friends.

I had pouted when a certain shoe, white-sole and checkered-top,

My mother refused to buy me, even when all my friends had bought.

‘Be different, think different, my little one, if you want to stand out in the crowd,

Against the grain, away from the herd is where the Self is found.’

She was the 1st daughter-in-law with modern ideas and pants,

I saw and learnt that beyond norms too there teems a fertile land.

From People around 

You don’t learn like wine in a bottle, you learn from strangers around,

Turn your head 180 degrees, there are plenty of lessons to be found.

Some drive like devils some litter like fools, others pee on another’s wall,

I saw and learnt that these are things that don’t make sense, at all.

When you share a city, a country and a planet, you have to give what you take,

A little respect for another’s space, simply for goodness’s sake.

The bus was full, as I hung around with a man too close behind,

He brushed and dug his person into me, as others’ eyes turned blind.

I took it in for a little while, praying for it to stop,

Only when I slapped his face, did others push him out.

I saw and learnt that oftentimes, you are alone in a crowd,

You have to be the first one to stop what you know as wrong.

From a Situation 

You think you have learnt it all by now, when a mother you become,

But little ones can teach so much, if you look close and learn.

I saw and learnt to forget and forgive just like my little son,

A boy broke his toy, a few tears shed and next moment they played as one.

I see him shaking hands with glee with neighbours I don’t like,

I learn to look beyond difference and every minor fight.

But the most important right of all, that he has made me see,

Is that all parents need to grow along with their growing progeny.

I see him willing to learn and change, and enjoy an open mind,

I learn that that is where the solution to most adult problems lie.

As I see and learn I say, my Tomorrow I will teach,

But will not forget to ask him: “Will you too teach me, please?”

 [I am sharing what 'I Saw and I Learnt' at BlogAdda.com in association with DoRight.in]