Poem: Success

SUCCESS

There was a time when I tried something new
And ah! I failed so miserably, but I tried
Like me, there were only a few
But I never complained or cried

True, I did not achieve what I set forth to
But I have learnt what others have not
In this field I am still a novice, I am new
But I tried and tried, and gave it my best shot

The path wasn’t a bed of roses, there were great pains
And though I have lost this battle, I have not lost my heart
But from this lesson of life were immense gains
And I wish to continue, this was just a start

I dared to travel all the way up the road
And I kept my motivation high all the way
My eyes on my goal, I never thought about the load
The load of “he will never make it”, as all would say

I shut my ears to the cries of the mediocre men
For they always tried to pull me down
My decision about life was taken and that’s when
I was alone, opposing a whole negativistic town

A decade down the line I can now see
The same people now asking me how
And now every word I speak they agree
But their attitude is the same even now

They will never come up in life I know for sure
Even if I tell them the secret I follow
For their attitude I can never find a cure
To me, their lives seem so hollow

Achieving anything is all in the mind
It’s what price you are ready to pay for your goal
The power to oppose even the whole of mankind
Is what distinguishes diamond from coal




I wrote this poem in IITG, as usual when in a philosophical mood...

Poem: Doping

DOPING

When of winning there was no sight
When I had lost all hope
When I forgot what is wrong and right
Is when I planned to dope

But then my inner conscience knows
That even though I have won a gold
The thought stream that continually flows
Is that my self respect has been sold

The world calls me a hero, a star
But heart in hearts I am still not glad
I know the truth to be quite afar
And that drives me crazy and mad

Everyone around is proud of me
And I am the role model they want to follow
I have no idea what to do
But somewhere the success seems so hollow

“This can’t be happening to me, I hope it’s just a dream
I don’t want this to be happening; it’s a nightmare!”
Because now I realize that however sweet success may seem
This is not what I always dreamt of I swear

Now after realizing the true value of satisfaction
Which is the true basis of any success
There was this shortcut with such huge attraction
That it was so tempting I have to confess

This bitter fact I can forget never
The black clouds gone, I can now clearly see
The terrible thought that will haunt me forever
Is that there was someone more deserving than me

Kalla Siddharth
B.Tech 2nd year




This poem has an interesting history. I was working in the souvenir committee to make the souvenir for the 42nd Inter IIT sports meet to be held in IITG, and the first Inter IIT in IIT Guwahati. I was asking for suggestions from Ankit as to what to include in the contents of the souvenir, and he suggested that we include something on doping. Initially I thought about writing an article about it, but soon realized a good article would require technical knowledge beyond my limits!

And that's when I decided to write this poem, hardly sat for half an hour, and I still feel it is a very good replacement for the work I had to do for an article!