Deepada kelagina kattalu..

That was the 2nd or may be 3rd day of our Introspection, dont remember exactly. It was the day when kannada anthakshari was held. Previous years our team had won first place in that. But this time we managed only a second place. I was quite out of mood, but, nonetheless happy as staff anthakshari followed one for the students. It was organised by shruti and myself. We had great fun anchoring the show. Lolz.. Teachers were too good. They even got right the ones which we thought would be highly difficult. Didnt really expect that much of active participation and enthusiasm from their side.
It was about 3.30 pm when the programme ended. That was when i noticed the poetry competition was on the same day. It had kicked off in the morning and was about to close in another half an hours time. All of a sudden i felt, 'why shouldnt i be participating? I went to the info desk and saw the topics. Wow! this is it, this will be the topic of my poem, i thought. Guess what it was? 'ದೀಪದ ಕೆಳಗಿನ ಕತ್ತಲು...' There were two more topics as well which refused to register in my mind. I borrowed a sheet of paper, went to a corner( is the corner place which showers you with marvellous ideas or is it the loneliness which u perceive there is the culprit?) I sat over there in an attempt to transform my imagination onto the paper in the form of words. I had only 15 minutes to write my so called ' ಕವಿತೆ '. And thus my pen started playing with the paper. Once it came to a halt, i went straight upto the desk, asked for another sheet and sincerely copied the poem tidily onto the new sheet. I handed the sheet to the volunteer and left.

Months later, after i finished my internship, when i had forgotten about all these, i met Akshay hari. He said he had my certificate with him. I was perplexed, 'what certificate is it ?'. Then i realised my poem had been awarded 2nd place. Yeppeee..!! not bad, not bad at all..

This is what i wrote in 15 minutes..

ಬೀರುತಿದೆ ಬೆಳಕ ಜಗದೆಲ್ಲೆಡೆ , ಒಂದು ಪುಟ್ಟ ಹಣತೆ
ಬಾಳಿನ ತಮಸ್ಸನ್ನು ತೊಡೆಯುತ್ತ, ತನ್ನ ತಾನೇ ಸವೆಸುತ್ತ ;

ಆದರೂ ಅಳಿಸಿ ಹಾಕಲಾದೀತೆ ತನ್ನ ಕೆಳಗಿನ ಅಂಧಕಾರವನ್ನು,

                          ತನ್ನ ನೆರಳಿನ ಮುಸುಕನ್ನು,

ಆ ಅಂಧಕಾರದ ಪೊರೆಯನ್ನು ತೆಗೆದು ಜಗವ ನೋಡುವ


                          ಆಸೆಯಿಲ್ಲವೆ ನಿನಗೆ?

ಓ ಹಣತೆಯೇ! ನಿನಗೇಕೆ ಈ ಪರಿ ನೋವು?

ನೀ ಕತ್ತಲಲ್ಲಿದ್ದರೂ ಜಗಕೆ ಬೆಳಕ ನೀಡುವಾಸೆ ಏಕೆ ನಿನಗೆ?

ಮಾನವರೇಕೆ ನಿನ್ನ ಹಾಗಿಲ್ಲ? ಏಕೆ ಈ ರೋಷ, ದ್ವೇಷ, ಅಸೂಯೆ?

ತಾನು ತನ್ನದು ಎನ್ನುವ ಹುಚ್ಚು ಹಂಬಲ !

ಬಾ ಹಣತೆ, ಬೇಗ ಬಾ, ಬೀರು ನಿನ್ನ ಬೆಳಕನ್ನು,

                  ಸಾರು ನಿನ್ನ ನಿಲುವನ್ನು, ಮಾದರಿಯಾಗು ಜಗಕೆ

ನಿನ್ನ ನೋಡಿಯಾದರೂ ಮಾನವ ಕಲಿಯಲಿ, ತನ್ನತನವನ್ನು ಬಿಡಲಿ,

                  ವಿಶ್ವಮಾನವನಾಗಲಿ,
ಒಳ್ಳೆಯತನವೇ ಎಂದಿಗೂ ಗೆಲ್ಲಲಿ...