Looking For A Guru

She is well educated and also well placed,

She's in corporate job, trendy urban life ahead.

Our Heroine here, let’s call her, ‘Ms. Aspire’,

She felt the urgent need of a Guru in despair.

The 'Ascetics' have always fascinated her dream,

‘Swaying dreadlocks’ & ‘smoke bellowing chillum’.

Attired in sombre saffron robes at best,

Face n body adorned with sandalwood paste.

Since eternity, cleansing the mortals’ all sins,

And still quietly course the celestial Ganges.

There are the Sadhus and the Pandits,

The rejoice of Satsang, Bhajans n Kirtans.

All these thoughts overwhelmed her soon,

By air, our ‘Ms. Aspire’ landed in Dehradoon.

Deep within, she suffered the ‘Urban Void’,

Often she would imagine the ‘Guru’, whom she longed.

A coveted 'Uber-ride’ on the holey road,

From Dehradoon to Haridwar, she reached.

After freshening up and a tasty light luncheon,

‘Lakshman Jhula”, with an avid eye, she stepped on.

The water of Ganga, quietly flows below,

The sight invited her to gaze with awe.

Fed up with the urban polluted air, filth, 

She felt the desire to take a deep breath.

Gosh, where’s the serenity? But an ugly stink,

She is upset, not mired in the unforeseen reek.

"The search for spirituality isn’t easy ones,

I should move on and rise above senses".

There were Sadhus in every nook n crannies,

She gawked at each one with hope and aspirations.

The best Ashram out there entertains only those,

with advance bookings n links with foreign shores.

Well our young lady, 'Ms. Aspire' had neither,

So, she was kept waiting for an hour.

Then they bluntly convey our Ms. Aspire,

For her, there was no room to offer.

The young lady couldn't digest the said defeat,

She called a friend’s parent with political contact.

The following day she went to a Satsang meet,

There she sat on the surreal Ganga Ghat.

Most Sadhu-baba had Santa-like chubby look,

They would narrate the contents like e-book.

Among all the loquacious Sadhu-babas she met,

She failed to find ‘her personal-Guru’ at least.

She was sitting quietly, suddenly someone asked,

Why did you become so sad? 'Beta', what happened ? 

Before she could fully recover n reassure, 

The old man started speaking in a calm voice.

Listen 'Beta', "Those who fall at the feet of so called gurus,

 Often they have lost touch with their inner qualms."

She felt closeness and familiarity in that voice.

Wanting to converse and looking closely at that face .

By the time she cleaned her glasses and kept looking for him,

Walking slowly, the old man disappeared in the crowded jam.

No matter, to find her guru, of course, she failed, 

But the sagely old man restored her saddened mood. 

                               *****