Living Beings

Toolika Rani

Squadron Leader (Dr) Toolika Rani is an ex-Indian Air Force Officer, Mountaineer (Everest Climber), International Motivational Speaker (TEDx), Author, Poet, Assistant Professor, and was the G-20 Brand Ambassador of Higher Education Department, U.P. Government (2023). She has published seven books, out of which two are collections of her English poems, titled, The Song of the Sky and A Wild Flower, two are collections of her Hindi poems titled, Dayron ke Baahar and Hasratein. She has edited an International Anthology of Poems on Himalaya, titled, The Mountain was Abuzz which was displayed at Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, 2024. Her book Beyond That Wall: Redemption on Everest fetched her Young Writer Award and Sahitya Shree Award. Sherpas of Solukhumbu: History and Evolution is based on her Ph.D. thesis on the Sherpas of Nepal.

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In the endless maze

of the crooked ways

in which it drains

the vitality

the laughter

the wonder

the joy

the bliss

that life was meant to be,

I stand dazed

at the cross-road of a city,

dreaming of

the breeze that soothed

the air that smoothed

the creases of my soul

the scent of the universe

as a living,

pulsating whole,

In the wavy

curves of a stream

serenity flowed,

simple, fluid, elegant

that life was meant to be.

Obstructed by the chaos

we wrought upon ourselves

in the damned name of progress

now, shan’t we all regret

the loss of pastures green

the death of fields serene

the lack of a conscience clean?

We need

Oh, what do we need?

More Living Beings.

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Special Edition: The Dying City :: Setu, November 2024