CHEERS TO 2014

                     WITH A PRAYERFUL HEART

As another year
Draws to a close
Like a story book
It was written and ends
Just so…

The hand that scribbles
Gives us hope, adventure, dreams
The One who wrote the year for us
Makes sure we believe in Him!

I am here to thank
The Author, the Creator, the Artist
For filling my life this year
With the following gifts:

The present and presence
Of my family
Their love and understanding
For their just being with me.

For my best friends, my dear friends
They number few
But how happy I am
That for another year
They have been true!

Am grateful for the
Trying times
When all felt lost
Hopeless and discouraging…
I might not have appreciated
Freedom from it all
Had I not felt bound by unseen
Cords…

And for moments of joy and laughter
After some tears shed
Let me say, I am glad!

Thank You Lord
For these 365 days
At each dawn and dusk
You have me believe
Trust and Accept
Your ways!

I loved the year and all it brought
And I wish with a
Prayerful heart
That the New Year be
Just as wonderful if not more glorious
Than this last, was!

                                                FREDERIKA MENEZES

The Hill Palace

The following is a short story inspired by the sad fact that many a building here are not equipped with lifts/elevators or if they are, they are often unused due to very often petty easily soluble situations thus making it hard/impossible to access the floors above ground level...

                                                                       The Hill Palace
                                                                                          - Frederika Menezes

Once upon a time, in a Hill land, a handsome and very generous king lived in castle that had been built on a hill – it had the appearance of rugged stairs.
the palace was old and had its own charm but as the days, weeks, months and years drew on, those attending court began to feel rather fatigued – having to go up the rugged stairs and back down again as many times as they required the king to meet them and they him.
The king sought a solution – asking his best advisors who themselves were aging of the hill climbing but no solution was to be found.

This upset the king greatly and though very young still, he took to his bed, sick.

Days, weeks, months passed and though his physicians attended him giving him the best treatment, the very generous king slowly grew worse much to the worry of his people who loved him very very much and who would often stand at the base of that hill singing songs of well being to their king.

How he longed to go down the hill to meet them and say to them that yes he was okay but alas! the mere thought of climbing down the hill and back up again made his head spin violently  and his bowels loose so that he inevitably passed out in a royal mess…sad…

A long time passed and one by one the lord and ladies, all the dignitaries stopped going to court and even the king himself rarely left his bedchamber.

Now, like all great monarchs, our generous king had certain enemies who while he stayed indisposed, took to waging wars against the kingdom, in time invading it.

The kingdom having been invaded so many times, none of the land’s inhabitants remained but having been taken away as  booty people from the enemy lands started to live there.

All through this, the king remained isolated in his castle which despite the invasions, had not been occupied by the enemy rulers.

Hardly anyone remained within the castle walls -  only the king and his memories! not even a single soldier or anyone who might have looked after the king and guard him as in the old days.

The king was very old looking now and wandered about by himself in the vast chambers and grew eventually weary of being there alone. The illness had left him only to be replaced by laziness and he continued to live on rationed food. How he used to live and eat!

It brought on bitter weeping and the palace walls echoed of his wailing cries.

It so happened that at that moment, on that very night that the king cried, a witch maiden was hiking up the hillside. She heard the crying and knew at once that the long forgotten and often believed dead king lived! Not desiring to use magic for fear someone might see and get her in trouble, as the present folk weren't tolerant to witches and magic, she dashed down the hill and went about inspecting the base. 

Turning to look around to see if any nosey busybody was watching but finding none, she risked magic and blew the spell of visibility at the base of the hill on which stood the castle.

The spell was meant to find another way in and out of the palace hill climbing and lo and behold! she found it.

It was a wide iron gateway and beyond, a path that led right up to the palace’s majestic doors. Concealing the gateway by magic again, she went home and on that same night sent out messages through the lands to the inhabitants of the Hill land to return for there was no way their king was dead and that a very clever lady in the realm had discovered the unknown gateway.

In the following weeks a rebellion broke - inhabitants of the Hill land returned and started to drive out by fighting and threats the enemy folk. The witch maiden was with them using her powers fearlessly now.

The generous king, alerted by the noise and battle cries far below decided to attempt one final time to climb down the rugged stairs.
It took him many a day but he would not give up – he had let his kingdom down once before but that was all in the past – by the time he did reach the base of the hill, it all did feel like the past. The king fell in a mighty faint!

When next he opened his eyes, he was staring up at his own bed canopy rich and new. Then there were many voices all around, music and jesting, and laughter… Like old times! he thought and quickly got out of bed and dressing hurried to court.

The king felt, like all the lords and ladies in court who though young were sons and daughters, grandsons and so forth of the previous generation, alive! 

Let me now make this story which has gone on long enough, short.

The kingdom of Hill land was restored to its former splendor and joy – the king once more looked quite young and seeking out the witch maiden, rewarded her generously indeed. He made her chief advisor and head of his royal army and in charge of the safety of the entire realm.

The palace was now accessible to everyone and easily – often times even toddlers were found crawling to the royal doors! 

Alone Love Sits

The tragic happenings in the Middle East (Syria, Turkey...) is too sad to try and  comprehend. The following poem is inspired by these happenings. I take no joy in this poem but wish to share it with all. May it all be resolved as it is to be.
- Frederika Menezes

ALONE LOVE SITS

Amid debris of yesterday
And ever rising pillars of spoken
Broken promises
Striding among memories
Hurting,
She falls…

The world that once was
No more stands
Like a watered down
Tortured
Reflection of her own self…

It is all gone
With the twist of a phrase
What is she to make
Of her pain?

Cries slip from her lips
Sobs no one hears
In her world of barefaced
Fear…

In the eye of her memory
Colors are bright
Scenes of a long past
Unravel themselves
By her willingness to replace
The dreariness of her present…

She hears the laughter
She senses the thoughts
She sees what is not
But what was…

A smile escapes from the midst
Of falling tear drops!

 Arid life is what
Engulfs her being
Unconcealed sorrow
Clings itself to her soul…

Battles she has fought
Have left their scars upon her inner whole…

My gaze is on her
I look from afar
Such beauty meets my eye
I can barely look long
Her tears are a heavy free fall…

I flee, letting her be
By her own self
Amid the crumbles
Of a history!

Unknown, untold
Bare and recognizable
Love, she sits alone…                           

                                                          ©FREDERIKA MENEZES 2013

More Power To The Broad Minds

“More Power to the Broad Minds”

             Frederika Menezes

Okay, this one’s dedicated to all those broad-minded people who more often than not find themselves stuck in a narrow street overflowing with narrow minded thoughts. It does get mighty hard navigating through the throng of all those silly, irritating and unnecessarily complex thoughts, doesn’t it? Especially if you are the only one around with no company anywhere near to match your ways of thinking, right?

Problem is that the society I live in is clogged with folks whose minds aren’t very wide so to say, and the way they think too, is kind of through horrifyingly dirty alleyways and narrow lane littered in crap.

And a lot of people do not really care that, their once no doubt clean thoughts and minds, and I refer to the time when they were children, have become corrupt and so reduced in width that not even a fine beam of clear thinking will make it through, to reach a state of expression without losing its purity!

I know how it can get and how it does get. If such society streets were chalked out on a blackboard, I mean societies containing narrow-mindedness; I’d gladly volunteer to wipe off the entire board clean.

My point: narrow-mindedness hinders life.

A lot of people mistake the broad minded as unethical, spoilers of all that is right. I have no desire to judge but I do wonder how one sees the right or the wrong through the eyes of two very different types of folks with completely different mindsets.

Just as an example, let me tell you about two of my very good friends once, a long time ago, and I mean before they got separated by their own choices in life. These two would always hang out together and between themselves, alone, they’d get along charmingly.

At parties where there are bound to be people of varied age groups, a young bunch all talking or dancing animatedly - practically living the fun, no one really put much thought to their friendship. They were just two friends among so many who were close to each other.

Nothing wrong with that, is there? Absolutely not! At least certainly not to those who possess that element known as the broad mind, which I fear is very rare in this society.

If only it could be acquired from the earth – bet that there would be a lot of diggings-around.

Or have the diggings begun already?

Getting back to my little example, one look at my two friends by a busybody who thrives on gossip and wild imagination turned the ‘nothing wrong’ into a big deal, something all narrow-minded busybodies made their sole topic of conversation at every opportunity they got.

From a simple beautiful thread they spun an ugly web but did it trap the two friends? No. It just caught the weavers – the spiders, who once started, could not stop spinning the web of narrow-minded thoughts.

My two friends were just an example to how such folk work their thoughts. It can happen to just about anyone and it does happen to those people with a high status in society. Be it a next door neighbor who might just be well off or a celebrity who’s life or way of living and behaving maybe of the unacceptable kind to the narrow-minded, gossip lovers and creators and bham! nice folk get slandered by the so called better ones and all the result of narrow – mindedness!

As if that makes a huge difference – it does not and you know, no matter what people with the narrowest minds think and say, it should not matter as long as you, the broad-minded ones know what you are doing and how you want to live your life.

One thing that you, narrow-minded folks, should know and remember is that no one has a skeleton-free closet.

Being narrow-minded will get you just this far – not far at all!

I resent gossip for it stems from narrow minds looking to stir and add chaos and disagreements.

Broad-minded folk like me will I am sure, not really bother what the rest of them say for if we do, we’ll never get out of those ‘thought jams’ on narrow-minded streets, and get on with living life on our terms, will we?

Moral of all that I have said is merely that the broader one’s mind, the farther one will get in life.

Think about it and decide whether I am wrong or right, do! 

Invitation Discrimination

Invitation Discrimination

                                     Frederika Menezes

Okay, I don’t normally do this – heck I never do this but now I have decided to give it a chance! If you haven’t figured out what I am on about, it’s writing this piece.
 So, what do I choose to write about on?

Read on friends of the written word –I daresay the answer shall be found, if indeed there was a question!

Since time in memorial man has in one way or another discriminated against his fellow human – be it friend or loved one, (yes love doesn’t always spare such things) if you thought otherwise, think again, and hard. 

Anyway, getting on – I was talking or rather listing those people man have discriminated against since human’s were aware of being capable of choice. A choice in behaving nicely or horrifically, to dress right or not dress at all, to eat good food or make all the wrong dietary choices (all these are valid reasons to put a thought in choosing) of course I know I could have left out a good many other reasons off the page but I am sure you will understand that I am not exactly trying to put together any kind of list here. Just trying to jot down a piece of a hopefully interesting read!

I actually witnessed a discrimination between two individuals once – it was a petty thing but person A would not let person B get the better of the situation – it being a seat in a bus. Not really well behaved and always  chewing gum – the reasons given by the person A for refusing to give person B a seat and standing the rest of the way to the stop (which turned out to be less than a few minutes away) or, taking another seat as soon as someone got out at a nearest stop.

I would have asked the question that’s been itching to be asked ever since this incident, how do you, A, know that the person you absolutely refused to give a seat to didn’t need it?! Was it because B was young …er than you, A? Was it solely based on appearance - did B give off an energetically lazy vibe? Did B’s gum chewing annoy you so much that you decided that if B remained standing the entire ride till it was time to get down, that the sound of gum chewing would float on the air above your head without disturbing your ears thereby making them bleed?? What?! Unfortunately, I was too far in the back of the bus to ask A any of these questions and A’s stop came up first anyway, so B really did win in the long run!
So much for A’s ugly looks and no no no behavior – ha! Would it have killed A to let B have a seat when the latter’s stop was still ways off? I am going with a big NO. How about you?

I suppose you are thinking of whether I really witnessed this incident – honestly, no I didn’t but I did make a point, I hope.

Very recently I discovered (and this is true) that a very large and affluent family decided to throw a birthday party to celebrate a fiftieth birthday of one of their many members. Now, the invitations were sent out verbally, via a phone call and email to the family’s closest friends and  other relations (of course these included close friends of the member whose birthday it was too! ) This family has a lot of friends who are close and doing very well professionally as well as personally so when one of the friends learnt of this party and that no invitation had been received by this person from the affluent family, the individual expected that the one member whose party it was to be would call or text or even email he invite personally but after waiting for days, nothing!  And the birthday bash was nearing its marked day. Bad, right?  Yes, I was thinking the same! I mean all through the years and every party, get together, picnics this person who now had no invitation, a sudden cast out now couldn’t attend this big bash or any future functions of this family – once out, you’re out – that’s how it is with certain social stupidity!
It made me wonder if maybe the person not given an invite was suddenly being viewed in a ‘snow white’s mirror’ and the oh so many pairs of eyes had begun to see the flaws in that person as being too horrible – never has an independent opinion, eats way too much at family gatherings without ever bringing over any kind of edible contribution, tells jokes that are inappropriate at such occasions, isn’t up to the mark fashion wise and so on.

Why the sudden annihilation of someone who was until very recently liked and loved by the family and its friends? The fair and very cool thing to do would have been to send the invite flaws be damned or if flaws must absolutely be ironed out, them point them out to the person and let the invited decide whether a big bash thrown by this affluent family is worth changing one’s entire character for just because these people chose to not include the close friend whom they have suddenly begun to view as not worthy of any further association.

My guess – it is the family’s loss – how often do we get to acknowledge that we are friends of fun people? And how many can say ‘oh that one is with the stuck up, I know that one!’ with a smile and a chuckle?

Well, I sincerely hope that party goes well – along with every other get together, picnic and what-have-you that family has in future.
chances are all will go smooth but let’s face it, a pebble thrown in on a very still surface of a pond is just what causes little waves of a big difference!

At the Hands of Men

 At the Hands of Men
  Frederika Menezes

For the past several weeks my mind has been a whirlwind of thoughts – much like tea leaves in boiling water which in my opinion if left too long to boil, makes bad tea!
I have there decided to put my thoughts down and make them readable, attempt to make them understandable and so…

A recurring nightmare: I, me present in the primitive beginning of human life – no humans but mere animals with slowly developing senses of thought, conscience, skills, intelligence, speech, and all that goes along with being a human being today.
Being present then I live in caves or in the open with bare shelter – at mercy of nature in all its forms to live. And of course, being of the female species, either I have borne my mate’s offspring or am an offspring in the growing myself – either way, I am conditioned by instinct to give birth, love, nurture, care and protect while the males go out and earn food by hunting. Wait Stop! What am I on about? You are wondering, right? Hang around and you will find out – if my thoughts have been put into a readable and aren’t still a whirlwind, on paper this time!

Okay, back to the nightmare.

So, one day suddenly while I am alone, perhaps having stepped out of my place of dwelling a little further than other days, I get surrounded by a group of lust sick male species and they attack me. I run for it toward the dwelling but being of a somewhat gentler sex, they outrun me and have their fun. Beating, biting, scratching, forcing me to take the brunt of their savage pleasure.
Then, once satisfied, one of them takes a weapon of the age and goes to where my young are, be it a cave or under bare shelter in the open, and whacks the life out of them, in the end whacking his own life, he falls badly injured or dead. A true hero!!
The others of the group are still attacking me, barely conscious me – they decide they want more savage fun out of what is left of me.

Meanwhile, my mate is returning from a good hunt and sees all. Approaching the dwelling place, he’ll raise the earth and chase the attackers but somewhere along the way of the ‘justice trail’ he’s brain will evolve a bit and think ‘She is just as guilty as these males, she was not to wander too far away from our dwelling and besides, she should have taken our young and run to a safer place knowing I’d eventually find her.’
So my mate returns and reviving my battered body and piling the dead offspring, he’ll roar and rage at me in accusation. In the end, my mate too joins the lusting males, now long gone but present in him and attacks me.
End of recurring nightmare. Until it recurs!

I am of the female species. I must take it – the screwing, the beating, the accusations, the threats, right? Wrong!

Are you still wondering why I say that I am present in the primitive beginning of human life? Well if you haven’t figured it out yet, its because I feel the present is the primitive beginning of human life.

What is Woman? A companion to Man. Not his play thing, or his ‘use me to vent your frustration’ thing!
Without females where would the world be? We, woman and man, are meant to be companions and not a thing less to each other.
Yes, woman has evolved, she has brains and beauty of a kind, she, given half a chance will learn and academically prove equal or better than a man. Woman can be a in a seat of power and she has been. Woman has the every right to garb herself the way she sees fit and if the right is not hers, it must be given to her.

I’ll give you this, there a few women who don’t know how to use this right and to these, the other women who do know, must impart knowledge strictly. Men, must protect and respect women – be they whoever they are.

After all, isn’t A woman, human? Isn’t a woman, Nature’s identity? Aren’t children what we all have once been, both men and women?

Yes, the End of the World, of life, is creeping closer at the hands of … yes, MAN!!

There now, the whirlwind has stopped. The tea is served and I do hope its drinkable and my thoughts readable, understandable!