Congratulations, Joseph Nadar. 175/200 is a big achievement. For a Maths Board exam, certainly. I don't know who you are. I saw your picture on a hoarding. Some coaching class I won't name. Who claimed credit for your performance. Those big, hopeful eyes of yours as they look out from the hoarding. Very striking, burn themselves into memory. You are fifteen, sixteen? Big hopes for the future? Doctor, engineer, MBA? Considering scientist, copywriter, solicitor? No, not good enough for your marks. Fair enough. Right now you are selling seats. The coaching class needs to fill its next batch of big-eyed hopefuls. I don't know what will happen to you. ten, fifteen years later. Maybe an IIT, IIM, big job, America. Maybe some KTs and a life lost in the local trains' crowds. Who knows? I wish you well, Joseph Nadar. Though you are just an innocent picture staring out of an advertising hoarding. I wish you well.
The message is supreme;
Born in the heart,
and lilting itself
from tongue to tongue,
throwing its scent
over wind and wave;
travelling on dots
or fingers
when blindness
or silence bar its way.
It hews itself into stone
or burns itself onto magnetic discs;
it is the message that lives
and I exist
solely to pass it on.