Never Give up

It was a time quite old past whenever I introspect

It was 1968 as that time as exactly I fully reflect;

Aspiring to do Ph.d. met I M.S. University head

But he for one year kept me in hanging nothing said:

Finally a year had gone and he told me I am too booked

You better go elsewhere with your Agra professor get hooked;

Knew I fully Dr Mullick who had been our post graduation teacher

Went I very soon took train for Agra and went straight into his chamber

‘working I am in a college situated in Bhavnagar known as Samal das remember

Where Gandhijee had been a student for as long time almost three years

Renowned it’s everyone knows about it a college very reputed none compared:

In case I admit you as my student you’d need coming many trips reverberating

No no give up the idea find some guide there who is close to you to avoid travelling:

Sir please don’t refuse as I had been your post-graduation student taught by you

There in Gujarat there is an intentional prejudice of caste and favouring their crew:

They only say that they are booked and you would have to wait for four years long

That is why I have come to you my dear Sir please don’t reject or avoid me not prolong:

You know me well remember Sir my face I was a boy who was very careful I your lectures

How would my state be where should I go without you it is only my career suicide

Be kind Sir I would come frequently as many times, you Sir become mine preside:

O.K. if you are so inclined how can I afford to avoid you so you are a good boy

I touched and bowed bent down touching his feet and then I gave him a smile coy:

American writers is my main focus of special interest in present Modern Times

Would you like doing work on Witman, Hawthorne and Thoreau is that fine?

What is fine for you Sir for me too is equally quite good and also fine

Your field of interest can transport me as well I am a supple plant time:

Oh Mr Kalra I forgot to mention Emerson too as an American writer significant

Don’t worry Sir I am fully prepared to work on several writers all gathered

I would read and write all the hours of the day and also at the time of night

Come what may I must struggle hard and be fully fit with all kits remain tight;

When did you marry Kalra I think just two years back in Delhi you got wedded

How the hell you would fully work and prove your scholarship when in sex wanted?

Oh SIR you are making fun of mine I am not so tender to easily be in sex succumb

She will have to wait even up to mid night for my reading writing work to be over

Married she is but we both must remember our priorities first needs it no reminder!

I worked on all the authors suggested decided my topic too for my doctorate degree

But Alas Dr Mullick quietly left for U.K. and bothered not to tell me his own sordid story.

Depressed dejected rejected for five years I dived hardly survived when Dr Trivedi admonished me

What the hell you think a guide from Agra or Meerut will come to you to beg

Come Mr Kalra I would lift you from your home and get you a degree as milk mug!

His words of insolence boosted my dull negative lethargy and again to Agra rushed

From the office of University itself I got the name of Dr Virendra Sharma in Aligarh

From the famous city of locks of homes, shops, factories, suit-cases got I the key Sinclair!

Quite late I was it was the year 1982 when I was middle age of years forty-six

Beyond Delhi I had to travel quite long to reach the home of my guide a great scholar

My energies and fervent desires had not decreased I remained then also full of valour

Finally the year of 1986 had then come by that time my doctorate degree was awarded

An irony of time my subject was Robert Browning of English literature the age Victorian

Lost in the dust bin was Whitman, Emerson, Hawthorne and Thoreau and all those writers American;

My brother-in-law Mr Subhash Dhir working then in Sikanderabad TWIGA U.P.

Came with his wife all the way to Aligarh making me work in their company home cup sippy.

When finally a doctorate degree awarded I was full fifty and Professor Salat congratulated me

You have broken all previous records because it’s quite novel at this age advanced

It is you Dr Kalra who just marched ahead despite all domestic hurdles snatched not by chance:

Gave up you not your dauntless courage and enthusiasm so fully confident

You got your aspirations never sat you listless with depression family duties so prudent.