Forty five hours

'Why are you so dumb this beautiful evening?'
She asked me,
Smelling of Lavender...


Red pullover, glossy lipstick,
Marked eyebrow,
A neat bun,
A lot of couture...

'What are you looking at?'
'At you...'
'Me! Am I a stranger to you?'

Silver bracelet, blue jeans,
Pink mascara,
A rainbow clip,
A lot of lust...

'Not earlier, but now'
'Now? why?'
'Don't know...'

Forty five hours,
Three hours short of two complete days,
Three hours short of two rotations,
Just three hours...
Or just forty five hours of silence
After a long drawn brawl-
Within and without;

Red pullover smiled,
Placed nimble fingers on a sweaty palm,
'You're a fool!'

'Eureka!'
Me shouted,
And jumped
On the softness
To wipe off forty five hours of deathly strife;

A few paces away,
The hag with the grumpy face,
Counted silver-
Oblivious of Adams
And Eves;
Ignorant of Forty five hours' angst
That raged a storm
A few paces away.

In the middle of ...

Golden mean?

Middle age?

Midsummer Night's Dream

Have you ever witnessed
The strange fusion of childish whims
And superannuated lethargy?
Quietness dotted by flood of foolish blood?
Aging with agelessness?
Rhymes with reasons?

Have you ever
Woken up with a young heart and fading brain?
Have you?
Ever?
Caught in the middle?
Of a Riddle?

Have you?
Haven't you?

From Park Circus to Red Road

He comes every afternoon
To Red Road ,
Smooth macadam...

He comes wearing a pair
Of knee length pants
Holed and patched and holed
In many places...

The smooth macadam
Shines like the baked cake
Straight out of oven
Unlike the potholed alley
That led to a dingy five square;

Don't they belong to the same?
Smooth macadam and the potholes?
Holes and the patches?

Blood and wine

I woke up the way I do
-everyday,
The sun was red in the eastern front
And I remembered Red is the colour of blood and wine...
And Red reminds me of the roses
Dying every day
In your garden, in mine;
In the florist's shop round the corner...
Opening eyes, I found
Redness of wrath strewn all over,
In shapes weird and woobly,
In forms liquid and sticky
Like rivulets of wine ...

'Apocalypse is here'
Someone cried;
'doomsday befell us'
Shouted another;
I only saw roses on the graves!

Cobalt Moon

O Cobalt moon,
Colour me in your hue,
Colour me the way you are,
So happy and true;

O Cobalt moon,
Teaser of the night,
Colour me the way you are,
So shiny and bright;

Colour me blue,
Colour me white,
Colour me to live,
Colour me like bride;

Colour me silver,
Colour me pale,
Colour me to live through
All storms and the gale;

O Cobalt moon,
Why can't I borrow?
Your paintbrush and palette,
And colours of sorrow?

monideepa unlimited

Standing under her pink dotted umbrella,
She stood like a paper cut- out,
Singular existence...

She was thinking hard
For her eyes were half closed;
Lost in deep thought, perhaps,
As idiot me stood
Like an orphan
Under her pink umbrella same;

Did she mumble?
Did her eyelids bat?
I tried hard to fathom her,
Using my teethless groping mind...
And there she stood
As if struck by some serpent of unholiest kind;

Rain drops fell
Following a zigzag pattern
Down the cloth fringes,
Like molten lead-
Pure and Shiny drops...

A little distance away
Down the busy street,
Cars honk and run
Weaving curious simmering patterns of light
On wet, slippery road

And I thought,
God must be the pyrotech...

'You're crazy!'
She said finally,
Her eyebrows twisted upwards
Corrugated...
And hustled across the wet road
To meet a creature -
Better than me perhaps,
From every count;

I watched
Her going back
Stilettos black, brown purse, pink umbrella,
Swinging hip crossing the road
Abandoning an idiot by the heap;

I waited
Like the ancient sage in his cave,
High up in the hills,
Covered by ashes and soot
And snow-capped silence.

OLD and NEW

Even before I was born,
There was light and darkness,
The Sun was there;
So was the Moon...

And they were like friends,
Playing hide and seek,
Across the evenly spread vaccum
-The Milky Way;
All day long, years after years
They played hide 'n seek;

When I was left on the crib,
They were there,
By my side,
Like friends forever...

Then I grew,
Like the trees that grow,
Vegetable growth...
Across the landscape,
Across the equator and the meridians old;

Friends are they,
'Forever young'
'Forever old'

Playing games,
Forever...

Glory or ...?

It was a day
With rain and thunder filled,
And a man
Was crossing a bridge
-worn out;

The frogs croaked
Seeing the sky dark,
And the man
Was hurrying home
-tired;

The road was long
Kissing the horizon far,
And the man
Was running behind time
-Alas!

Sea god saw him,
Rain god thought-
How a battle like this so hopelessly fought?

Nature and Time,
The two pronged sword,
Could with the vengeance strike?
Or upturn the board?

The man had little knowledge
Of what awaited him...
Will it be glory?
Will it be doom?

Ran he fast
As fast he could,
Too eager to see
His lady's shroud;

At last he reached
The door he knew,
Knocked and thumped
But no answers flew;

Water dripped on
The floor with moss,
His lady slept
-no shiver or toss!

The dream merchant

Every day, at the appointed hour,
He comes and stands exactly here-
With his wares...colors of joy'
Green, yellow,purple, red, blue...

Every day, he draws the jolly faces,
Innocent smiles and wishes,
Obliging olds and insistent youngs...

He sells-
Dreams,wishes,wails,smiles
He sells-
Happiness amidst strife and hurry...

A dream

I woke up the way
usually I had woken up a millionth time earlier...
Sublime, sensuous and pure,
Covered by the broken bricks and mortars,
Against a perspective of a gray gray sky...

And,
There was the rain and the shine,
The blackness dotted by the white-
'Polka dots'...
They say;

And,
A pink blossom pressing up to meet the blue,

And,
A 'yellow submarine' diving deep into my belly;

And,
A rubbished thought spreading tentacles to get the sap;

And,
A pinkish dream, a balloon and a lucid existence...

Going back...

Its time to return home,
After all the wanderings
Across the rough and the smooth;

Its time to go back,
Where the dreams wait by the light and the dark,
And a veiled belle for me, sitting by the doorstep...

Its time to retrace,
The path I loved so much,
The way to home,
At the end of a cloudy day...

Its time, my friend,
To be there,
At the end of a month and a year,
At the end of the longest solitary ride,
At the end of it all...

The bath of the centurion

For the last time,
let me allow to dip myself into the cool
water of the generations...
One time more, the final one,
Before I embrace the eternal,
Before I transcend...
One time more, the last one...

Aging...

With the passage of the liquid clock,
Pouring forth all the time,
Age spreads like the wasteland-
vast and infectious...

Age spreads remorseless
-everywhere,
Like the green shrubs and bushes on unkempt
Lawns and parks and multiplexes,
On the young bodies and old minds,

Everywhere...

The Run...

I could see the way you soar,
Up in the milky route;
I could see how you flutter,
Away from the mundane and mist;

O It's so lovely to be there!
Tired souls, distracted...
You called on me,
To follow the trajectory
Of your forlorn flight,

Hesitant me, paused and thought,
For a while, as the unknown called;
'Get a move'n'-you said,
Eye to eye;
I thought I should join your generation
Of the unrequited,
I thought I should...
And so, I ran,
Like the arrow from the quiver,
Like the rain driving hard on steely road,
Like the lightning, hot and quick...

Leaves...and pearls

If you tremble a bit,i will fall .... The Fall will be mighty, i know...
If you blow a breath over me... i will die, a death so numb,
But i know you can take me out, you can freeze me to immortality,
Haven't you done that ever before? Haven't you ever felt the dying wish to live to the fullest? Haven't you ?

Silhouette...

It was an usual summer night,
Like it should,
Sultry and tiring;

Suddenly, you bumped upon me,
In a narrow dark lane,
With uncovered filth and ancient sadness;

'Who are you?'
You screamed, horrified
Staring at my shadow;

I didn't answer...
I fumbled for the key
I thought I misplaced ...

'My muse...' I uttered,finally,
Breaking the law of the game;
It wasn't easy nonetheless...

Lucky me that did,
All the works of unsaid words,
All the pains of unsung memories;

You recognised me-
Lean and pale,
Huffing and puffing,
A silhouette of strange morbidity;

Sunshine...

Who knows what may come
As night gives in to the day?

Who knows what transpires
Between the gloomy and the gay?

Denver not I
Who could feel it on his eyes...

'Sunshine on my shoulders'
Only into thoughts entice;


He the Man,
I wish to seek,

Providence, dear,
Becomes the lonely and the meek.

The Paramour of July

Even before could I anticipate,
She turned up dressed in her best attire
Stupefying me;
'You are a dumb!' she whispered into my ears,
Like she always did in the late evenings of July-
Year after year, every year of my half worn life;

'You are a gate-crasher!'
I shouted at her, uselessly,
Like I did on every occasion;

She just smiled that took me back
To the evenings of the past,
To the roads full of puddles
In which neon signs of giant billboards
Just disappeared;

'You are a magician' -I said,

She looked straight into my black dots
And came closer to embrace me;
I had the shiver of the lifetime,

'Jesus!' I exclaimed,
'I 'm drowning!'
But she came all over me
With her all feminine charms
To keep me mum;

I lingered onto her,
Like idiots do
Bedazzled by the voluptuous,
In late evenings of July-
Year after year,
Every year;

My little queen...

After a spell of shower,
You came to me like the Queen,
Dressed in your whitest robes-pure and pleasing...

I thought it was a dream,
Dizzy, I walked up to you,
To look at your smile candid...
You giggled like a little girl,
Full of Life,

Methought, it was a dream, like never been,
So comforting and blessed,
And I remembered,
How I missed you in rain,
Drenched to the skin,
How I yearned to plant a kiss,
On your white, white cheeks...

You giggled like a lil girl,
And I forgot I was there all the time,
By your side...

The Beginning

It was a ball of fire then, hot and burning with exploding volcanoes...
The MOTHER tossed it upon her plams,
This way and that;
The ball of redness burnt deep into her skin,
And she cried with pleasure and pain alike...

She tossed and tossed,
Till the fire gave in...
And till her tears vapoured up to form clouds mammoth,
And the clouds rained and rained,
To cause the Great Inundation...

And then came the tiny throbs of life,
Of kinds so varied...
Of sizes so numerous...
Finally cometh Man-
Two legged, adventurers,
With a cranium holding chemicals alien.

O how I long to be there!

How I long to be there,
At your lap full of greenness of youth;
O How I wish to go back to those days,
The days of fights and boozes,
Of misty evenings,
Of a life carefree and unguided,
Like a virgin, unsatiated soul...
Like a kite thrust against the gale so strong...

O How I long to retrace those paths,
Of reckless, illusory existence,
Of pristine happiness,
Devoid of the smell of coins and filthy papers
Which some people call 'fortune'

Jetty revisited...

In boyhood, we came here unnumbered times...
We played hide-n-seek...
Soon we graduated to sins of adolescence-
Here at the jetty;

So many years have passed by
Like the stream that flows underneath,
Now after so many years,
Standing here I feel pained...
Memories come back to me
Like clusters of stings,
O' How I miss them all...
Those bright faces, full of smiles and mischief,
O' How I wish to go back
To the days of endless smoke and cards...
Of love won and lost,
Of meaningful meaninglessness...

On an overcast morn...

It was an overcast morn...
I called on my friend,
'Hey What about a ride?'
I asked with a sparkle on my face;

'Not a bad idea'-he retorted;
So we rode...
Down the road wide and narrow,
Full of shrubs and bushes,
And there was the smell of Wilderness around...

It was a sultry morn,
But we felt cool,
As if we have crossed all those sensory perceptions...
We rode,
Till we felt sweaty and hot,
Till our bodies glowed...

window mine!

window mine!

o window mine!
You are my way of seeing the world afar,
And the blue sky with drops of rain and tears,
And the yellow hue that brightens up
Sometimes the pall of gloom...
And the faces glistened of children at play;

You are the only way
To glory and dreams,
To happily passed evenings,
To the sadness enveloped in the bruises
that mark the end of a beginning...

You show me the light of the day,
The dark of the Hell on Earth,
The glimmer of hope
And the worn out leaves...

The Sky So Blue...
Have you ever seen the sky?
So blue and white,
Have you ever been there?
So cold and listless,
Have you ever touched the clouds?
So wet and smooth,
Have you ever kissed the rain drops?
So salty and unknown...

I have always done these,
In dreams that blur my memories,
In thoughts that dumb my solitary existence...

The Immersion

Bedecked with all the jewels and flowers,
She came to the ghat at last...
Her face vermilion smeared,red,
As if the sun had set on her countenance...

The lonely cobalt ball of light,
Far away from the blackened sky,
Led her through the sooty water...

A chilly vacuum evades the space,
As Time dripped by through the fingers folded,

'Adieu!'-cried the pious and the plebeian,
I only tried to gulp down sadness
Through my narrow, singed throat...

The Epitaph

Here lies a body
Whose mind once possessed
An obsession-thick and sticky...

One fine morning,
Under a trance,
The body jumped off
The balcony-third floor!

And fell and fell
But failed to stop the Fall...

Now,
That you're standing, stupefied,
Infront of the obelisk,
The body-confused and shocked,
Feels a strange premonition...

You are the next to follow,
And thousands will follow you soon!

(published previously in The Statesman, 20 feb,2001)

Hey You!

Hey you!
Don't you know
That it's time to go?
Leaving all
That you reap and sow?
And giving all
That you keep in tow?
And wiping out
Your dreams and woe?
And cleansing off
Your filth filled shoe?
Hey You!
Don't you know
-As you come, so you go?

Thousand years

Of Nature I sing my praise, my lord!
For all the events of history will die,
As the morns, the nights deify;
For the fire, solace in ashes finds,
And in the annals, the worm resides;
For the flower in lover's hand dies,
And the stream, in desert belies;
For all the harms and wrongs we do,
Void will eat our nothingness too;
She grows and grows till the doom,
'Thousand years a little room!'

Had I...

Had I the strength,
I could have caused
The rebirth of a whole nation;

Had I the power,
I could have throttled
God to yield;

Had I humility,
I could have cried
a whole decade seeking blessings;

Had I ego,
I could have risen
like Satan from Leviathan...

boat song ii

A boat is all i have,
to go about the ocean wild;
a boat weak and old,
that has all the scars of an aged soul;
A boat is all we need to have,
to glide through the foam and surf...

the boat song

once i caught a boat, empty...
devoid of any occupant,tossing up and down
in a stream with no one around,
it danced and swayed, in its own way...
i gazed at it and found me a boat
in a stream cool and still