And a youth said, speak to us of friendship.;Your friend is your needs answered.He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving....And he is your board and your fireside.For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the nay in your own mind, nor do you withhold the ay;And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;For without words, in friends, all thoughts, all desire, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.When you part from your friend, you grieve not;fFor that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence,, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.For love that seeks aught but the discloure of itsvown mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.And let your best be for your friend.If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?Seek him always with hours to live.For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.For in the dew of little things the heart friends morning and is refreshed.

MY father travels on the late evening trains Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light Suburbs slide past his unseeing eyes His shirt and pants are soggy and his black raincoat standing with mud and his bag stuffed with books is falling apart. his eyes dimmed by age fade homeward through the humid monsoon night. now i can see him getting off the train Like a word dropped from a long sentence. He hurries across the length of the grey platform, crosses the railway line, enters the lane, His chappals are sticky with mud, but he hurries onward. Home again, I see him drinking weak tea, Eating a stale chapati, reading a book. He goes into the toilet to contemplate Man,s estrangement from a man-made world. coming out he trembles at the sink The cold water running over his brown hands, A few driplets cling to the greying hairs on his wrists. His sullen children have often refused to share jokes and secrets with him. He will now go to sleep Lisrening to the static on the radio, dreaming of his ancestors and grandchildren, thinking Of nomads entering Subcotinent through a narrow pass.

For many years now, I have been teaching computer science to students studing for their Master's in Computer Applications at a college in Bangalore. I have ineracted with many students, and though it is not possible to remember all of them now, the memories of some are etched in my head. That is not because they were all brilliant, but rather because something in them was very diffirent from the others. In my first batch, there was a very bright boy called Hassan. he was tall, handsome,with a very good memory. he came from an affulent famly where he was the only son. Intially I did not come to know of his existence at all, mainly because he was hardly ever present. I normally take the first class of the day, which is schuled at 9 a.m., or the one after that at 10 a.m. I prefer this time as this is when students are fresh and very attentive. once in a while hassan would turn up, particularly if there was a class test or during examination. I mat him more ofyen for attendence shotage meeting. He would beg for attendence in such a manner that it was very difficult for me to say no. Some I would get upset and tell him, No, I can give you attendence. there should be discipline.

John philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a parade pass by. the united states Marine band was raPidly now. Marching along in the brass section ,Mr. sousa looked very handsome. he winked as he a went by philip grinned back.soon seven_year_old philip started to attend a school of music in his he liked all his studies but he particular enjoyed learning to play the violin it was not very long before he exculled in playing that a instrument for he was both talented and eager to learn trouble one evening when he was eleven year old

we do it differently in this dark continent Not just once a year a string of spurious verses enconced in a bouquet shaped like a chines house of dreams. My mother is more demanding an obeisance a teach sunrise, like a devotee throwing a handful of yellow rice to the birds. Holding a candelabrum before an idol, just once a year Is desecrating it . whenever i see a caterpillat slouching towards a pany s eye or hear ancestral voices in a wind s howl, i know invoke my deity some times tiice a a a a a a dayJohn philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a parade pass by. the united states Marine band was raPidly now. Marching along in the brass section ,Mr. sousa looked very handsome. he winked as he a went by philip grinned back.soon seven_year_old philip started to attend a school of music in his he liked all his studies but he particular enjoyed learning to play the violin it was not very long before he exculled in playing that a instrument for he was both talented and eager to learn trouble one evening when he was eleven year oldJohn philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a parade pass by. the united states Marine band was raPidly now. Marching along in the brass section ,Mr. sousa looked very handsome. he winked as he a went by philip grinned back.soon seven_year_old philip started to attend a school of music in his he liked all his studies but he particular enjoyed learning to play the violin it was not very long before he exculled in playing that a instrument for he was both talented and eager to learn trouble one evening when he was eleven year oldJohn philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a parade pass by. the united states Marine band was raPidly now. Marching along in the brass section ,Mr. sousa looked very handsome. he winked as he a went by philip grinned back.soon seven_year_old philip started to attend a school of music in his he liked all his studies but he particular enjoyed learning to play the violin it was not very long before he exculled in playing that a instrument for he was both talented and eager to learn trouble one evening when he was eleven year oldJohn philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a parade pass by. the united states Marine band was raPidly now. Marching along in the brass section ,Mr. sousa looked very handsome. he winked as he a went by philip grinned back.soon seven_year_old philip started to attend a school of music in his he liked all his studies but he particular enjoyed learning to play the violin it was not very long before he exculled in playing that a instrument for he was both talented and eager to learn trouble one evening when he was eleven year oldJohn philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a parade pass by. the united states Marine band was raPidly now. Marching along in the brass section ,Mr. sousa looked very handsome. he winked as he a went by philip grinned back.soon seven_year_old philip started to attend a school of music in his he liked all his studies but he particular enjoyed learning to play the violin it was not very long before he exculled in playing that a instrument for he was both talented and eager to learn trouble one evening when he was eleven year oldJohn philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a parade pass by. the united states Marine band was raPidly now. Marching along in the brass section ,Mr. sousa looked very handsome. he winked as he a went by philip grinned back.soon seven_year_old philip started to attend a school of music in his he liked all his studies but he particular enjoyed learning to play the violin it was not very long before he exculled in playing that a instrument for he was both talented and eager to learn trouble one evening when he was eleven year oldJohn philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a parade pass by. the united states Marine band was raPidly now. Marching along in the brass section ,Mr. sousa looked very handsome. he winked as he a went by philip grinned back.soon seven_year_old philip started to attend a school of music in his he liked all his studies but he particular enjoyed learning to play the violin it was not very long before he exculled in playing that a instrument for he was both talented and eager to learn trouble one evening when he was eleven year oldJohn philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a parade pass by. the united states Marine band was raPidly now. Marching along in the brass section ,Mr. sousa looked very handsome. he winked as he a went by philip grinned back.soon seven_year_old philip started to attend a school of music in his he liked all his studies but he particular enjoyed learning to play the violin it was not very long before he exculled in playing that a instrument for he was both talented and eager to learn trouble one evening when he was eleven year oldJohn philip sousa stoop on the corner with his mother, watching a a

I learned a great many new words that day I do not remamber what they all were but I do know that mother/father/sister/teacher were among them words that were to make the world blossom for me, like Aaron rod, with flowers. It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of the eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me/ and for the first time longed for a new day to come