Oh Lord, answer my prayer! Why should I suffer, I ain't aware? What's in store, I know not, 'cause all that I had is lost! Do what you will, the Almighty you're, And get me back all that I lost, thus far! Asked HE, in HIS voice, gentle and mild: What do you think you've lost, my child? Oh, many a thing, and countless, my Lord, Nor could I keep any record! List a few, can't you, without a cry? Uttered HE, assuring, only sooner HE'd try! Never-ending, I should say, is the list, Will these suffice, if I go on, as the gist? Times changed, my Lord, I lost my youth, And so did the customs, to take away my beauty, that's the truth! And what the world calls it ageing, Oh, it's only too discouraging! When I say, I lost my health, Isn't it as well all our wealth ? Don't ask me any more of the past Can't you retrieve, all that I'd lost? With a beaming smile HE overrode: Don't you recollect all that I bestowed? Gave you good education, made you literate, To rid of Ignorance, can't I state? With the hardwork you put in to count, It's the poverty, that you could surmount! And with all your kith and kin around How could loneliness dare surround? Your good virtue and trait brought no foes, Take no fright, my child, to expect any woes! Thus, I can cite plenty and more, It isn't just like twenty to score! Shall I get you back all these? If they are enough to please! There is so much in life, I never thought, And why should I feel distraught? No more I seek, for you to give, I only beseech you to forgive! You've showered your grace in abundance, Can't show my face, I'm a dunce! I prostrated, to touch HIS feet, Only to find HE'd vanished, leaving the Life's Balance Sheet!! ……………. N Rangamani