Hope

Hope

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1. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best: to give up hope. 2. a particular instance of this feeling: the hope of winning. 3. grounds for this feeling in a particular instance: There is little or no hope of his recovery. 4. a person or thing in which expectations are centered: The medicine was her last hope. 5. something that is hoped for: Her forgiveness is my constant hope.

Coffee Is My Poison (106)

AnYwAy...

.
all our lives,
we plan and pray
things may not work out
we dream, anyway.

.
look at the divorces,
loves taken a backseat
more 'me', less 'us',
we wed, anyway.

.
we hold our pets,
too close to our hearts
eventually they die,
we love them, anyway.

.

we study hard,
burn the midnight oil,
we may fail exams,
we try our best, anyway.

.

life’s often hard,
putting a foot forward,
waking up some mornings,
don't seem worth the discomfort.

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in those hard times,
it picks us up,
it never leaves us,
not until we let it so.

.

its hope it is,
that makes
us live, anyway.

.=

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Yuvraj Jha (119)

The wicked winged satire on optimism
Is placing its claws on our jaws
And leading us astray
In the arms of death.
.
Any moment we die is the sacred hour
There is no hope, no soup to turn sour
Hope comes with black wings that devour
The little lost girl hopes for the strange hour
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We bring the mist of hope in this world
Through the event of our birth
And live in perpetual despair.
.
Hope for the forests of the night
The dead night, that sleeps
In the calm of its existence.
.
“We got our final vision by a clap”
.
Embrace the gloom,
This night we shall swim
Unannounced
To the kingdom.
Not with hope
But with wine.
.

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Nandini Sen (120)

Miraben nurtured a hope she’d always live in the ancestral bungalow, but her husband sold it and shifted into a flat.
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Miraben hoped she’d have two children. However, husband’s want for a son, ensured she produced three daughters before a son.
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She hoped her children would go abroad for studies. However the eldest dropped school and eloped with neighbour’s son. She hoped her other children would go for big fat Indian weddings, but one didn’t marry, another did a registration. Her son married a foreigner in church.
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On her deathbed, Miraben’s husband remarked none of her hopes were fulfilled. She smiled saying her ability to hope hadn’t diminished. Even in death she hoped her quality of life would get better.
.

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Dok Saab (120)

"Is there any Hope, Swami ji?" Rukmini was looking expectedly at Swami Ji.

"Beta, where there is Faith there always is Hope."

"Hopeless," Doctor Sweta's remarks were still ringing in her ears, "You have no chance."

"But Swamiji, the Doctor said it's impossible."

"Nothing is impossible for those who believe.

Just apply this bhasm on your husband's forehead every morning.

Soon your house will reverberate with a baby's cry."

She returned from the ashram, her heart full of hope.

Rohan was anxiously waiting for her.

"Biwi, I have decided, we are not going in for IVF.

It is so uncertain."

"But Swamiji said…."

"Leave Swamiji alone, we are going to adopt that cute girl we saw last week at EHSAAS."

.

Juhi (61)

The barren land hid in its depth a creature so dreadful, that even Pandora wouldn’t let it out. The beautiful girl in white scrounged for it. Her hair disheveled and her eyes wild, she dug her small fingers into the merciless sand. Suddenly, her face lifted and her misty blue eyes reflected it. She had finally found it. Her lost hope.

.

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Ruchika Bajoria (116)

I gazed out the window at the parched land craving the elixir of life – water.

A silent prayer heavenwards, a furtive glance towards the sky, an earthen pot on her head…she made the journey towards a pond which had almost run dry.

Why did she even bother to go when disappointment was assured?

With my curiosity peaked, I beckoned her. Folding her hands in a show of subservience, she entered The Grand Hall.

"Jee Hukum."

"Why go to the pond knowing that it is dry?''

With an unidentifiable look in her eyes she said "What sustains you now that Hukum is at War and you hear no news? It is hope that sustains us both."
.

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Shantaram (120)

Rocky: ‘I was hopin’ to talk to you for a while.’
Rita: ‘Sure. Shoot away.’
Rocky: ‘Ehm, erm, ehm…’
Rita: ‘Oh. My reply is, err, urk, err…’
Rocky (laughs tentatively): ‘Nah, I mean, I was hopin’ to take you out on Saturday.’
Rita: ‘And?’
Rocky: ‘And hopin’ we’d have dinner.’
Rita (smiles meaningfully): ‘And?’
Rocky (all charged up): ‘And… hopin’ we’d go to my place for a coffee?’
Rita: ‘Wow!! And?’
Rocky (swallows): ‘And… I have a nice couch. I was hopin’… we could use it?’
Rita stares angrily.
Rocky (dumbly): ‘What say?’
Rita (stomps away): ‘I hope you were a pig.’
Rocky (gazes): ‘Yuck! She fancies pigs to do it? Hope at least on woman on earth was normal.’
.

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Sneha (52)

Is the consciousness
constantly giving me
strength to live?

They say this
world lives on
hope

Perhaps the highest
four letter derivative
that keeps us ticking, ticking
and alive

Hope is life
that overpowers
strife
that keeps hurting like
a knife

Have hope
for a better world
a better tomorrow
that's yours.
.

.=

1st RaY Of tHe SuN (120)

Sometimes, Secretly, She Would Wish… Closing Her Eyes… Collecting Her Broken Self… Putting The Jig-Saw Together… She Hoped No One Would See Her Tears… Prayed That The Smile Fooled Others….

Hope Is What She Clung On…After Every Broken Thread Of Trust… After Every Lie That Rocked The Cradle… Every Deceit That Shook Her Faith.. She Gave Another Chance.. Hope Ruled Her Mind…

The Phone Calls Continued…. The Late Nights Prolonged… The Slight Red Appeared Now-&-Then… His Smell Seems Adulterated…. Each Night, Making Love Felt A Distant Memoir… Fake, Dreamy, Stranger…

She Assumed The 2 Drops Would Just Make Him Ill… A Chance To Care, Another Awakening Of Long-Lost-Love.. But The Thought Went Wrong… Fatally Wrong… And She Hoped to Survive…

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Sarang Mahajan (120)

The speck in the ocean was a smoking ship. The dot that moved away from it was the last man to jump out, Captain Demero. There was no room for him on the fleet of boats moving away with the crew, not without sinking one of them. But he did not need any. He had a plan – use the plank he had as a boat and his hands as ores. When the plank gets too wet and sinks, swim. Swim till the last bit of strength. When the strength is gone, bring out Mara’s picture from the pocket and hope it is intact under lamination, for that would be his last hope to cross the hundred miles to home.
.

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Maggie (2)

Fools Hope!

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Sowmya (105)

"Hope we can be friends", she said. His heart skipped a beat. His most cherished dream was to come true. They became friends, talked, laughed and cried on each other's shoulders. "I think I want to take this further", she said. "I hope u agree". It's a perfect world, he thought. He lavished her with attention, love and care. When she smiled he was ecstatic. I want to get married. Hope u agree. That's what decided he would tell her that day. "My parents found a guy from USA, a millionaire I think. I hope we can still be friends", she said. “We can”, he.

.

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Amey Mujumdar (120)

Backache was gnawing Murari today. His old body lying in a cot wasn’t tolerant anymore. It wouldn’t let him lift his head an inch. But he had to. Somehow. Anyhow. There had been a sound at the door. Someone had pushed it open.

Moving hands aside might help, he figured. But it didn’t. Then legs, perhaps. But nor did that. So there was only one way now.

He jerked his head up; pain singed him. It won’t leave him for hours now.

But he had managed a glance at the door... only to find it was just the wind, not his son who had left him sick and broken years ago.

But he would come one day. Murari would hope.

Mickey (120)

This was the seventh time I had climbed to the tree-top.
It was brown and yellow as far as I could see.
I scanned the sky, not a fleck of cloud was around.
It had not rained since more than six months.
Kuano had never seen such a severe drought before.
Trees were drying, animals dying with hunger.
Kids were thirsty but the village well had dried up.
Worrying about them, don't know when I slept on the branch.

A cold draught woke me up.
The sky was dark, clear, and cloudless.
But the air blowing from west was cold and wet.
Suddenly I saw a bolt of lightening strike the horizon.
A ray of hope glimmered in my heart.

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Rajat Mukherjee (120)

I touched around, four walls, no doors, no windows, was dark, I felt smothered and trapped, as if I was unwanted, detested. I wondered how I made it in there, someone said, I was born in it. I asked, “What about others, are there others like me?” They said, “Yes, there are many, more than you can count”, I asked back, “Are you one of them?” the voice said, “Yes I am. Just the room adjacent to yours”. Couldn’t stop from asking, “How are we alive without light, air, food, water”? He said, “The light is in you, we eat, breathe and drink it, we call it HOPE”. I sat down silently hoping to make it out of there someday.

Konfessioner Singh (83)

Dear –

“I wished. I wished as hard as I could, on every shooting star and every falling leaf…that…but…anyway.

So tell me, do your cold blue stars weep?

Is that what these mean?

… these paintings, they are stairways to you. Unending…are there any turns?”

From what I see, you now walk my roads. These postcards you send, the pictures are not enough. Say something. Run for me. Tell me I don’t need to… hope.

since forever,

S.

p.s. Even La Cienega once smiled.