I ASK FOR AN audience from you, my King, in your solitary chamber.
Call me from the crowd.
When your gate was kept open for all I entered your courtyard
with the bustling throng, and in the confusion found you not.
Now when at night they take up their lanterns and go by different
roads to their different homes, allow me to linger here for
a moment, standing at your feet, and hold up my lamp and see your face.

I DREAMT THAT she sat by my head, tenderly ruffling my hair with her fingers, playing the melody of her touch. I looked at her face and struggled with my tears, till the agony of unspoken words burst my sleep like a bubble.
I sat up and saw the glow of the milky way above my window, like a world of silence on fire, and I wondered if at this moment she had a dream that rhymed with mine.

'WHO AMONG you will take up the duty of feeding the hungry?' Lord Buddha asked his followers when famine raged at Shravasti.
Ratnakar, the banker, hung his head and said, 'Much more is needed than all my wealth to feed the hungry.'
Jaysen, the chief of the King's army, said, I would gladly give my life's blood, but there is not enough food in my house.'
Dharmapal, who owned broad acres of land, said with a sigh, 'The drought demon has sucked my fields dry. I know not how to pay King's dues.'
Then rose Supriya, the mendicant's daughter.
She bowed to all and meekly said, 1 will feed the hungry.'
'How!' they cried in surprise. 'How can you hope to fulfil that vow?'
I am the poorest of you all,' said Supriya, 'that is my strength. I have my coffer and my store at each of your houses.'