Do you know what it feels like

To compellingly ignore your visceral fears,

When you want to express yourself,

But are surrounded by unnerving premonitions;

Pervaded by your psychological predispositions

Encumbered by your social obligations.

Do you know what it feels like

To forge a façade of malice,

Not representative of your intrinsic traits

But a prerequisite to protect you from the callous.

When the perfidy of your peers

Causes pain more than the very act of treachery,

And then comes the false pacification

To assuage your grief and mitigate your bitter retaliation.

Do you know what it feels like

To be deceived by that carefully administered circumlocution,

Those statements laced with sarcasm and euphemism

And then to reply with malicious but mendacious remarks,

Exhibiting the traits of a brazen bigot.

When those you expect would support, mingle with the foe

And accusations of depravity at you they throw.

Do you know what it feels like

To be unable to decipher even the simplest explanation

Knowing well that you have the perspicacity

But consumed by that illogical misconception

Striving to achieve that intellectual recognition,

Denied only by your evading intelligence and presumption.

Do you know what it feels like

To be subjected to that ruthless derision,

When critics acclaim your work

And the envious engage in vilification

When fame is inexplicably converted into ignominy

But you can’t remonstrate, bound by tyranny.

Do you know what it feels like

To be precipitated into reclusion,

To repent those impulsive yet instinctive decisions;

To be consumed by that eerie superciliousness

Unwilling to accept mistakes made in restlessness.

With a defence of vitriol and malevolence

Perceiving with cynicism, but harming your own conscience.

Do you know what it feels like

To regain that indomitable spirit and potency

After a period of turmoil and adversity,

To do away with that irksome impuissance

To be in that powerful, but invidious position

Though kind, but perceived by others as being of a hostile disposition.

~Gaurav Nath Sabharwal~

Age  - 16

Grade - 11

Modern School, Barakhamba Road

INDIA

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