Appearances 

Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance”,warned, Jean de la Fontaine. Alas, things are not always as they seem and often a first impression deceives. We need to thank mirrors for reflecting and revealing,only our physical appearances.Woe be to us , if we were faced with all the mire and muck that is layered in our insides. The hardships,the naked  greed,the blissful ease,the  disgusting sloth,the rabid covetousness ,the throbbing  envy,the seething rage ,the biting pain,the haunting memories,the fathomless love -All the good ,the bad and the ugly that we are made of.

When we see, the immacculately polished shoes,the rakish tilt of hat,the neatly ironed shirt,the natty jacket and sharply fashionable trousers,do we realise the turbulence behind that suave and sophisticated exterior ? Do we see the tears, that lie hovering  beneath the kajal rimmed,mascaraed eye?The flaming,surging,bitter anger at the world’s injustice?The constant,mental mathematics of looming bills? The frightening, sick- bed of a dying,loved one ? Or that,the scarlet, Monalisa smile  on a bow shaped mouth is silently  mouthing fervent prayers to the good Lord ?

My Wooden Door

Winters need not seep through the crevices in my ancient wooden door

It’s engraved with Chinar leaves and tulips by a meticulous craftsman

The facade is stoic

The wood is Burmese teak

The varnish lasted through the arduous weather turns

My door bore the stinging whiplashes of relentless rain

A crackling of the veneer is all that happened

A scrunching up of the wrinkling exterior

The heart of the door is strong and beating

The creaking joints duly oiled

The blasts that sneak in below the door

I try and block with pieces of cloth

I am old fashioned you know

I never bought those metal strips that ward off dusty winds

I think it will last me a lifetime and more

This, my carved wooden door.

The flirtatious laugh, the inane banter, the irritating small talk, often suppress and harbor quiet despair. Ah, let’s pause and rake the surface of an appearance. Let’s grant another human being, much more than his cocky walk and jubilant laugh. Let us allow ourselves, a sojourn into the sum total of experiences that molded this person, we now know. A taciturn air or a serene disposition can be affected and acquired.

Walls of Rock

The layered walls of rock permeating the stony mien

Your facade of suppressed sediment

Piling on through eons of aches

Are you there somewhere

Deep beneath these pressured weights?

Will you ever emerge through these Arizonan canyons

To reach out softly and touch my damask cheek ?

The demeanour and mien of a human can well be a facade, a guise, a pretence, a veneer ; yet we judge instantly and click on the supposedly right answer.Our unique genetic blueprints ,often mislead the other.Khabardaar. The seemingly devilish ,evil stalker may be a well- meaning, gentle ,angel.

“tere roop ne , teri chaal ne har paase raula paaya

nakk vich koka , te sir phulkaari, khankan wangaan , tu haase di pitaari ,

ni tainu ghund kaddna na aaya……”

The Dalai Lama says, Nothing is absolute, everything is interdependent.

As Sardar Anjum pointed out –

sabhī ne lagāyā hai chehre pe chehra

kise yaad rakkheñ kise bhuul jaa.eñ

Yet, appearances rule the roost because

thheher jaati hai har nazar tere rukhsaar pe aa kar

tere masoom chehre ki banaavat  mein kashish kuchh hai.