Copyright@shravancharitymission

Kamlesh Tripathi
*
You think you know me,
Well, everyone thinks that way.
But believe me, I’m very sneaky,
I’m very tricky,
And I rarely play
By the rules you make for me.
*
I show you my left hand
And fleece you with my right.
You think I am very straightforward,
No, I am not.
I am the maze
In which you keep looking for the exit.
*
I smile when you are confident,
And frown when you least expect it.
I give you a ladder
Just when you think you are falling,
And sometimes,
When you are almost at the top,
I quietly remove the last rung.
*
I am the unexpected guest,
The uninvited visitor,
The sudden rain
At your perfectly planned picnic.
*
I give you dreams
And then test your patience.
I give you people
And then teach you about separation.
I give you success
And then whisper, “Don’t get too comfortable.”
*
I am neither fair nor unfair.
I simply am.
You call me destiny
When I surprise you,
Luck when I favour you,
Misfortune when I don’t.
You blame God,
You blame people,
You blame circumstances—
But rarely do you blame me.
*
Yet I am also the sunrise
After your darkest night.
The stranger who becomes a friend.
The failure that secretly becomes a lesson,
And the heartbreak
That teaches you how deeply you can feel.
*
I am contradictory.
I can make you laugh
With tears still in your eyes.
I can make you lose something
Only to make room for something better.
I can take away a certainty
And replace it with possibility.
*
So don’t think you know me.
You don’t.
You never will.
Because I am Life—
A little wicked,
A little wonderful,
A little crazy,
And completely unpredictable.
And perhaps that is my greatest trick:
**
kamleshsujata@yahoo.com