See what they wanted to See

The joker skipped across the circus,

Making the crowds laugh with delight.

But little Mary in the front,

Sat as silent as the depth of the night.

She saw the joker jest around,

With that smile of paint plastered on his face.

But the girl couldn’t help but wonder why,

It all looked so fake.

The joker hopped about amusing the masses,

His hands in the air as he twirled with grace,

However those eyes gave his secret away.

They looked like a haunted place. 

So little Mary followed the joker,

Into what they call a greenroom.

Pity and Terror taking over her senses,

As she saw him sink to his knees, cast in a gloom.

Taking a cloth, the joker scrubbed off the cosmetics,

Revealing the truth that lay underneath.

The girl saw, a man with wrinkled papery skin,

His face in bitter despair that he had sheath.

The mascara that gave his sockets vitality,

Was replaced by sunken bags under his eyes.\

And The frills that graced his shoulders,

Concealed a dejected slouch that he had disguised.

Mary didn’t ever visit the circus again,

For under those hooting crowds,

Was its pungent reality scabbed in silent plea,

Were they really so blind to these cruel shrouds?

Or chose to see only what they wanted to see?

                                               

"Every ViewPoint is a View from a Point"

 

“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.” – Flora Lewis

Recently, I discovered that ninety-two in French is called ‘quatre-vingt douze’ which means ‘four times twenty plus twelve.’ What an interesting way to think of the number! While the same number in Mandarin Chinese is “jiǔ shí èr” which translates to ‘nine ten two.’ Isn’t it fascinating how the ability to visualize a number changes with the language?!

Interestingly, what I’m trying to assert is that the tool of language is so powerful that it narrates the history, manifests the intellect, and acquaints the opinions of the entirety of its speakers! It enables one to think from a certain perspective and what a trump card it is for bilinguals and multilinguals! They get to see the world from not one, not two but from many perspectives. It's like each language is a brand of sunglasses! Just like the quality of vision changes as we switch to different brands, likewise, one’s approach to the world changes as one juggles through diverse languages☺