You were our future
We made you last long
You are now present
And we are not the past
In the last leg of our journey
On your field, we are ageing gracefully
Give us what we humanely deserve
We took pride in raising you, my child!
Gave you all we could
Never looked and asked for a reason
Not even once!
Now the tree looking for reasons
Why the gardener and the seed on which it grew?
Mesmerizes the gardener,
And the seed decaying under
The seed and the gardener
Go deep in the past, reflecting
“We are proud of you, my tree!”
We have always been giving and you have been receiving
That has been our relationship since the making
It is for your better future that we are praying
Allow us to help you,
We never ever calculated the cost of raising you
The feelings we valued in praising you
We saw our rewards in all your gains
Your single smile healed all our pains
For the human rights that we fought
Now you are enjoying, what we taught
To stand by your side, we are vying
Give us some space,
You knew how to please us
When you were a child and had to buy a toy
How come you now need to “investigate”?
To know what we like, my boy!
Yes, we are the very same persons
Few years older than before,
Our likings and disliking
Are the same as yours.
As if aliens we have become
On bed we lie sick and unattended
See us as the same persons as before,
Our longevity is our earning
It is not your gift
The longevity we have earned
On to you it will be shifted
You will live longer, my child
Some pains may become mild
The pain you too will have to live
But I wish you have child beside
Company of own children
Make all pains more bearable
Ensure that for me and it will be the same to you
Raising you a child was not a challenge
Rather we felt blessed
We thanked God for the responsibility He entrusted us
We enjoyed, and in no way we felt stressed
For all the fairness,
How did we become your challenge?
Manage your parents, my children,
Now that I am old, I can be so bold
With no greed, no fear; let the truth be told
I gave my undivided attention and dedication of love to raise you all
You are raised high, do not let me fall.
True, I forget things but not the feel of love
I can’t stop loving you and wish I could be loved
My needs are few, almost none
Please love me once and forever till I am gone
Please be patient with me, for I haven’t long
For this life of you and mine, the pain I am paying
Give us what we deserve,
–Krishna M. Gautam
