Striving Towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

One Roof, Many Weathers

Under one roof, so many storms,
Different shapes in different forms —
Each soul a language of its own,
Speaking in ways the others have not known.

We are not carved from the same design,
Yet still we’re asked to intertwine.
Not sameness, but a gentler art:
To bend a little, not fall apart.

I once believed I’d move the world,
Raise flags of change, have banners unfurled.
But now I see the harder test —
To bring four walls a little rest.

Let duty never be the wall
That keeps love’s quieter voice too small —
A son who honors, still must find
The room to keep his wife’s heart in mind.
For duty done with empty hands
Is not the love that understands;
True devotion holds them both —
The vow to parents, and the troth.

Perhaps this is the truer war —
Not out there, but through this door.
To hold my ground and still make room,
To light a match, not fan the gloom.

Not every fight is mine to win;
Some peace is built from deep within.
Acceptance is no quiet defeat —
It is the ground where difference meets.

So let me learn what I once missed:
That greatness lives in how we coexist —
Not conquering worlds, not building thrones,
But softening the space between two stones.

Let me do all a heart can do,
To keep them safe, to see them through —
Not perfect peace, not all as one —
Just room enough, till day is done.