All I Like

Wish

2011-10-25T10:57:00.001-07:00

I proclaimed myself as God
I decided to win the world
I always convinced myself for something,
That was never there
I tried to be as dense as Jungle,
I aspired to be as vast as ocean,
I deluded myself with real mirage,
Today I am standing at the peak of the mountain,
I can see all around me, the vastness,
I can see the void of valley,
I can experience the loneliness of mountains.
I am standing on the glacier,waiting for it to melt,
I will flow with stone cold water,
There will be movement without effort,
I will go with gravity along the river,
I have a desire to loose my sweetness,
I am waiting to be saline.
I am waiting to converge.
Let there be dams,let there be scorching heat,
I will evaporate; I will drift,
I will condense; I will fall
In the end I will be back again,
Here, here only....

Travelogue

2011-06-13T04:51:00.000-07:00

I came….
At times things you crave for are like fizzles
At times some dreams are good only in sleep
Sometimes places you want to see are without light
I was excited….
At times you remember someone you hardly know,
At times you miss things you hardly ever loved,
At times you preserve things that evaporated long ago
I am leaving……
Sometimes pain may not be so painful,
Sometimes memories may not be so memorable,
Sometimes desire may not be so desirable,
I am relieved……

Journey

2011-01-26T09:47:00.000-08:00

They always said - life is like this, life is like that
Everyone tried to define counters to make the silhouette more visible
Alas! The more they tried the more blurred it became.
Present never imitated past, future never had a prototype
It can never be many-one function, it could only be one to one function
Still...His life was this, Her life was that, and thus goes yours...
First I thought it was an unknown blunder, committed due to deliberate ignorance
Later I discovered it was the true order of the world - known delusion.
They do everything without considering the Given Condition,
The Given Condition is so much taken that they stop factoring in
They assume the Given Condition is in numerator and denominator, implies redundancy
and thus lies the misery - the equations are non factor-able and non linear.
By the time they discover this unique equation of life ,
The relevance of discovery is killed - remember can only be one to one function.
Now can you see the paradox,
Define the silhouette as non definable - but isn't it non definable!

I Stil Remember

2011-01-15T10:39:00.000-08:00

Tired body, exhausted mind, yet no shelter in scene
Few spirited souls and so we kept climbing
No distraction, no disturbance, I remember the voice of air
It was so clear, straight through the ears deep inside the brain
We never had thought - what a soothing sound
Up there amidst the clods, One can talk to oneself,
we learnt how to talk to one's soul - it was so clear and coherent.
We had no purpose and no goal to achieve,
We were climbing, just climbing, nowhere to reach
I remember the pain, bodily pain, sweet bodily pain.
Nothing to prove, nothing to achieve,
It was like those endless journey - had read only in books.
Every meal tasted so good, I still remember
Never again a food tasted so good, never again we could eat so much.
No one questioned, no one advised,
Whoever met climed few miles together.
No constrain of time and no hurry to reach,
Never explored any shortcut - every path was the right path.
No fear of getting lost, no qualm of remembering the way
Everytime we moved ahead, everytime we found a way.
I still remember....

My idea

2011-01-15T10:31:00.000-08:00

when people try be cynical, the best way to reply is to talk fundamentals..
not to prove counter argument but to remind the basics...

Loved Labyrinth – An Axiom

2009-12-24T03:18:00.000-08:00

Loved Labyrinth – An Axiom

You always despised it, never thought of doing it,
You called it a trap, loved labyrinth of steps - chaotic yet orderly and in sequence
You laughed at people, at times sniggered at them – deriving pleasure in the maze
They called it an inevitable, inescapable destiny- natural progression of a common man; an inalienable axiom
You differed not with the axiom but with the application – it applied to an average man not a common man
This is what you always believed – pious faith, yes it was.
But alas! You don’t decide what you do – “the coded axiom”
You never realized when you had entered the maze,
By the time, you deciphered the code, you were there.
Flavors had taken precedence over substance.
Midway, you understood the essence of the puzzle – “loved labyrinth of steps”
This maze is different; here you don’t get lost till long, so long,
You don’t hit a dead-end; every end has some new openings,
Every passage looks logical progression from the last one.
Innumerable footsteps from your predecessors as well as co-travelers make you believe – you are on the “Right Path”.
By the time you would reach the dead-end, you would have lost the energy and enthusiasm to brood over;
Many take the last wall as the ultimate destiny – a pre decided act,
Some repent and remorse, few dare to return to clear the footsteps – an act of misgivings!

Ultra Short Stories

2009-10-24T01:54:00.000-07:00

THE ONLY WAY
He was there, in the middle of the jungle, amidst the infinite darkness and that torrential rain. It was really bone crushing. He was using the light of the intermittent lightning to find a way, the only way! Neurons were at their best. He was moving, yes he could. There he could see the hope in that terrifying lightning. He moved..there was this light..sparkling eyes…neurons were at best..it was so near..so much light..and suddenly it was all over. The hopelessly hopeful lightning had fallen. He was there in the middle of that terrifying jungle calm, quite..no hope.

ORGY
He came, he stayed and he left. He just couldn’t notice it!

Changing Times

2009-08-31T05:46:00.000-07:00

Oh child!
You are born with everything- everything!
Childhood milk gets metamorphosed in simulated emotions,
You throw up the former out of ignorance; you cough up the later with full cognizance
Initially your feet imitate animals, later every move mirrors animals
Your changing faces, was so puzzling yet so enjoyable,
Now even your fixed gestures, creates confusion,
You enjoyed listening fictitious stories,
Now you derive pleasure from concocting stories,
At times, you tend to sense the changing waves,
But let the waves cross making yourself invisible – covered under the blanket of “time”
Oh Child,
You take refuse under the unfathomable mist of changing time,
You transform a simple word “life”, into a metaphysical question
Thus you overcome your conscience, and call this pragmatism
Oh Child!
You were born with everything, still you desired more,
You worked hard to transform mere desire into necessity,
It all started with simplification,
It can be simplified in one way – only one way,
Every other way could only complicate,
You forgot this lesson, or may be you simply ignored.

Reason

2009-08-31T05:45:00.000-07:00

You are like Kafka’s men;
The door is built for you to enter the palace,
But the guard will not let you enter,
The guard knows it; you also know that the guard knows it
A simple fact “the gate is built for you to enter”
A mere existence of the door makes you wait till the end,
You remained content with a simple thought of existence,
Existence in isolation, means nothing,
The idea was to enter the palace, not just to have a door,
You can’t blame the guard,
He did what he was supposed to do,
You forgot what you were supposed to do
You ignored the lessons of life;
Here desire gets tormented, feelings are smothered;
Efforts are ameliorated and results get destroyed.
Every yes consists of different “nos”
You are free inside a boundary, and freedom comes with guidelines
These are given conditions,
You may take it as an eternal truth or a mere aberration,
You have to take a decision – decision with far reaching implications
Everything will change – good or bad
I have no answer – no one has one,
Time will decide – any good or any bad
You may want to give it a try!

Face to Face

2009-03-05T22:08:00.001-08:00

Tell me about yourself- enigma, puzzle, yet to be known
Still you describe with clarity in detail – details are assumed to be revealing.
What have you done – buried in the dust or kept in the library with yellow books,
Still you explain one by one – to show that a treasurer is still awaited.
What can you do – given, written and visible on the wall
You still say it loudly – to believe that you also believe it.
How can you say that – for the sake of saying, just a formality
You bring rationale and weave it – to convey the weakest link is not the ultimate strength.
What you want to do in future – alas! The eternal illusion
Pause, halt, dilemma, qualm and finally you utter- want to be on the other side!
All said and all done - you did the greatest service to humanity,
You confirmed, fulfilled one ego and subdued other desire,
You did not break the motion – change in momentum is force,
You had very small surface area and the force would have ameliorated you,
You let existence won over identity – you are still a hero!

Sojourn - this summer

2008-10-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

Sojourn - a lasting memory

It was this summer, just before we went on different paths,
We had been to the mountains, the hills, the jungle
It was all there, all around, canvassing for more and more visitors!
It all started with that gentle, slow, rhythmic wind,
It was so freezing and made the body shiver,
I miss the pain of the piercing chilly wind.
That full moon night and lonely house,
Cocooned, isolated amidst the vastness of the jungle
We sitting together, sipping cuppa lethargically,
Realizing how small our legs were, wishing we could stretch more,
Striving to make sense out of the unfathomable mountains and drifting clouds,
Sitting in the middle of the jungle, trying to preserve the flickering candle light,
It was empty all around, blanketed with indefinable silence,
The darkness was getting deeper and deeper and trees were looking scary,
But I still long for that peeping moonlight.
That non ending rain, falling on the roof,
One drop is so frustrating but synchronized with infinite others,
They were sounding so dear, so soothing,
The clinking sound of the glasses filled with drinks,
We were all feeling high and aspiring for more,
I still remember the movement of the bodies what we called dance.
It was this summer, just before….

Sound

2008-09-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

They are silent, they are meek,

They speak, but they don't speak "as such".

Hold on! my dear friends

They have no dearth of desire to express - expressions,

They are not deaf either - my Friends.

They open their their mouths, lips do move,

Alas! The energy that comes out moves just the gas, fail to produce sound waves,

Or my dear friends,

They energy does produce sound waves,

Might be the frequency is not audible to us!

They say, reasoning has no significance,

If it fails to provide positive explanation.

But there can be another explanation, less interesting with even lesser acceptability.

Probably they produce sound waves, probably even frequency is audible,

Probably they simply don't speak, what they call "positive".

Jammu and Kashmir - Current Land Crisis

2008-08-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

Recent turmoil in J&K over the land issue has captured more than necessary media attention. The important point is, this issue is being projected as matter of significant national importance. The recent pool result published by The Times on India has added fuel to the fire. This shows how simple propaganda items can steal the share of recognition that truly significant issues like Olympics should otherwise get.
I strongly believe, there are many others, that this J&K issue should not have been given so much of hype, and I have reasons for that. First, J&K is an Indian state like any other state and 40 acres of land transfer-whether right or wrong- can be at max a regional issue. Just because some hooligans - most of them don't even know the history of J&K- have high jacked the political set up and taken the parts for ransom, does not make it a national issue. How many of you think that Rajkumar issue in Karnatka was a national issue, when millions were on road doing something similar. I am not at all interested in the merit of the incidence rather pure events and incidents.
Second, whatever is happening is pure and clear complicity between Pakistan's ISI and Ideologically bankrupt Hurriyat Conference. If I draw a logical analogy, Hurriyat is behaving like ULFA in Assam. Hurriyat is a bunch of self centered, fascist motley crews. They have no progressive agenda, have no solution for any problem. They are left with one and only one work - to act as ISI's puppet.
There is another angle to it, after the present chaotic change in Pakistan and impulsive democratic movement- again motivated by personal agenda rather than democratic principles- ISI is feeling shaky. It’s similar to what happened in NATO camp after USSR dismemberment. NATO was looking for its relevance in the new uni-polar world and Central Europe became the scapegoat. Similarly, ISI's role is being questioned in Pakistan and so they are doing this exercise in Kashmir valley. Therefore, the whole issue is again regional and functionally has diplomatic and military connotation- nothing national in this.
Third and the most important is the inept- I will use this moderate word- Indian leadership. Indian leadership is so engrossed with 123 agreement that they just could not react on time. Any foresighted "political" leader could have guessed it, the moment this issue started. They should have dealt this with due firmness and objectivity in the very beginning. This matter of regional- I will not call it minor- significance demanded pro active optimal treatment, which our leaders simply failed to deliver on. This raises the point and pertinent question- shouldn’t we need strong political leader than a good intellectual leader! After all, we are in a power race. No one gives a damn to what Japan say, when it comes to Japan vs China- I believe you got my point!
So analyzing it from different angles it is clear that it is pure, artificially turned complicated issue is regional and of regional significance.
I will describe why I am harping on regional word in my next article. .

Maa Durga

2008-07-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

Usually I take 7.15 PM cab from office and reach home around 8.15. That day I took 8.15 PM cab and got off from the cab at around 9 PM. I cook myself and buy vegetables almost daily. It makes me feel I eat fresh vegetables, I buy in the evening though, as in the morning by the time I leave for the office shops are not opened. There is a Foodworld near my house but it has everything but fresh food items even after an hour of its being opened every morning. There is another small vegetable shop nearby and I generally go there to buy vegetables. This shop lacks that word World but it helps me belive how things without prefix "world" are better off for people who leave in this part of the world. Anyway, enough of vegetables!
I went to buy vegetable to the same shop. As I turned left from the main raod and entered into the narrow street, I saw a woman beating a child mercilessly. She had a strong stick in her right hand, and was holding the child's shirt, right above the chest and below the neck, with left. I was born in a village and had seen people beating their animals. Right then, what I saw, forced me to think if the child was a thief or pick pocket. But, that could not have been the case as there were people standing near by, doing their usual works, and going by my experience, there was nothing like that. By the time, my mind reached to a conclusion that the child was not a thief or pick pocket, the woman, I am finding it difficult to use the word lady, had picked up a bat kept near by, probably the child used to play with otherwise, and started beating him with the bat. The woman, pronouns provide cover and hide true identity, kept on beating the child, I looked at the woman, she stopped for a moment, started again. The woman was uttering something, I could not understand. In India we have more than 150 languages. The woman dragged the child into a small house, this was where they stayed as I came to know later, and kept on beating him which I could figure out from the sound of thumping bat and the child's crying voice.
I asked the vegetable shop owner, "what is happening? Why is she beating him like that?"
He replied, "leave it sir, she does it everyday, she comes home after drinking "Daru-alcohal" and beat her son like that".
"Is she his mother, does she beat him because she is drunk?", I was shocked like anything.
"Leave it sir, what should I give you", he asked.
I couldn't buy the vegetable. I was born in a village, brought up in a small town, I had never come across something like this before in my life - Drunk Mother beating her Son".

Short Stories

2008-07-13T09:38:00.000-07:00

The maid and the book

He was staying alone in an apartment. For the last five years, since he took divorce, he had been doing his things on his own. Recently he had hired a maid to give himself some more time to do other things in life! The maid was quite professional and efficient. Within couple of weeks, she could build enough trust. Initially, he used to stay back while she was working. Soon he got a new key and gave it to the maid. Now the maid used to come and finish work while he was not at home. One day when the maid came, he was at home. He asked the maid not to come again, gave her some money, more than her dues. The maid was surprised and asked if he didn't like her work. He said nothing and gave her a paper, he had written something on. The maid opened it, " if you find a book on dinner table before keeping it back to bookshelf ensure three things. First, the book is kept mistakenly, second the owner of the book knows that the book should be kept in bookshelf and anyone would keep it there only, third the owner knows that you know the previous two facts. This is to help you for your future job", were the sentences written on the paper. The maid folded the paper back, looked at his face, smiled and left.

Poems

2008-07-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

PROMISE
I thought, I decided, I came and I stayed
I felt as if I constituted it and it was comprised of “including me”;
I failed to discern the reality of simmering waves,
It looked like shining gems, shining till perpetuity,
I forgot the lesson learnt early, probably it was too early to be learnt,
“Existence” of perpetuity is always “assumed”,
I promise I will never forget again!
I was told, I was advised, and I believed never questioned,
It seemed “pious”, without supplementary hope”,
But it was there, it was always there, intrinsically engraved;
I could not read the written, I missed it,
I promise I will never miss again!
I opened; I explored, and delved deep,
I picked up “speed”, without bothering for “velocity”,
Relied for direction to the observers,
But they were in a different frame of reference,
There were differences, fundamentally clear yet blurred,
It was distinctively discreet in principle,
Sham of malice was metamorphosed into perceived pragmatism,
I drifted with the flow,
I promise I will never drift again!

The Greatest Show!
I have been a part of a show,
A show where everyone is an observer,
Everyone is performer,
Everyone looks at each other but,
No one watches anyone else,
Everyone is spotted, no one is noticed.
This show is unique but repetitive- not iterative,
It has been happening since eternity.
Every character is alive,
Just some trivial things are changed,
Souls have been replaced by precious stones,
Blood cells are replaced by apple juice.
This show has no entry or exit fee,
Some characters think they run the show,
But alas! They are also characters.
This show is very chaotic,
Chaos is synchronized in an order.
Everyone speak different languages, but
Lips movements are same.
Here duties are performed, responsibilities are delivered,
With a minor deviation-
Everyone decides their own duties and responsibilities,
No one intervene, they just interrupt.
There is so much more, just little less than the imagination!

Wonderers
Let the Mind drift, let the soul venture,
Don't run behind purposes in life,
Life is by definition random, yet the only tangible thing,
It will end by the time you discern,
It never had a purpose, it never had an end.
Do remember the wonderers you come across your way,
No one is here for you,
Everyone is one of you,
You remember the wonderers as it constitutes your identity,
Identity is so elusive, yet you want to have one.
The day you realize,
There is no identity, its all illusion,
You feel relaxed.
The day you internalize the truth,
There were no wonderers,
They were all travelers destined to same end,
You will transgress the boundaries of conscience of obligation and guilt.
Let the Mind drift….