Friday, March 29, 2013

the talkers...a narrator's perspective...

He thought it was time to write about the talkers. Afterall only he could do justice to their story. He was always part of it. The story of the talkers grew in him over the years as he witnessed every moment of it.

How many years ago it got started he can't recollect nowadays...
but it had been a blissful evening after a short spell of shower.Surely it had been an evening cool and indolent.

The man was at home when a message came to his cellphone.
He,the narrator ,can't even recollect the content of the message proper though he was shown the content by the man...but that message from her prompted the man to revert and to that reply he got another rejoinder...
things started that way.

Next few days there was silence from both sides. She did not call or sms. He was busy with his works...his station post manning alphabets.
He had been always alphabetically inclined. His books and poems surrounded him from his childhood. She must have someway been leading a similar life...not fully similar but to a great extent alphabetical in her own ways.

That year when the rains ended and autumn had set in with a festive spirit in the air,they had graduated-from smsing to talking.
Talking over phone for long insipid hours had become a way of life for them. They talked. In their talks they explored the unknown deserts...unseen valleys...unheard music...distant eclipse...near and imminent issues-political,social,economic,historic even prehistoric . They talked about life-its necessary burdens and stresses and pulls;its insults and injuries;its superciliousness,morbidity,pathos and also ecstasies.
They talked about issues back home-the fodder scam,the murders and rapes,the heavy dew damaging crops,the potholed roads,the movies in which there were excellent fight scenes of swords.They talked day in and day out.
Several times during the day and even sometimes at nights when the moon slept tranquil white like a baby in the arms of cloud, they talked exchanging thoughts and emotions. They talked about also fears and suspicions and doubts.
They always had issues to raise. Being good talkers both found enough resources at hand to extend and elongate their talks.
Sometimes they would unburden their souls. They would feel lighter after talks quite satisfied offloading bags of their personal worries and cares.
Talks made them tensed sometimes;
Sometimes talks rejuvenated them.
They found their talks essential to their being so much so that people around them suspected them to be in love.
If talks of heart bring closeness to people,they were close to each other.
They were definitely attached to each other by their inexhaustible treasure trove of talks.
They exchanged their minds sometimes in their talks.
Their talks took them to different and varied things,almost as varied as life itself.
In their talks they replicated life-an online virtual world of their own.
They owed each other that.
They never grew tired of talks.
Interestingly the wide range of daily experiences only enriched and embellished their talks.
Being human beings susceptible to certain tendencies towards wrong judgements and fears,they also had violent talks sometimes-full of aggression,hurt,disappointments,accusations, and again they talked over them to get over them.
They distanced themselves from each other because of wrong perceptions about usage of words and phraseology. They were so alphabetical!
They dissected words and syntax. They constructed sentences out of whims without care.
Still they talked.
Aggressions dissipitated to remorse sometimes. Sometimes they would just cry.
Sobbing replies came disjointed.
In cellular connected system they erected a world-a virtual talk based one.
Conversational.
They were always conversational.
People around them thought them to be in love-a conversational and unconventional one this time.

They talked about so many things.
In their talks three seperate novels they created.
And they talked about those novels then.
New characters surfaced.
They braced the storms and the gales.
In their talks they wrote poems, depicted a moonlit lucid evening,painted a Monalisa not even smiling.
They talked.
So much conversational they were!

Several years after when they were on deathbeds,they were placed side by side.
To everyone's dismay they still talked. There was no sound emanating. Only their lips moved perhaps. But unwittingly that worked fine for them!
After all those years they had no need to talk noisily. In silence they could even talk!
They could read each other's mind.
That way they died.
The talkers.

she... the outpourer...

this moist cloudy western attire
like a long skirt the sky which wears
must have the scent strong
of rain soaked earth and her hair long...

she...
finding her was a discovery
amidst the din and chaos

carried panama printed dreams
all the way from Laos...

once whispered a song of desire
against the clouds so dark so fair...

on open palms caught drops from heaven
sparkling rounded beads seven...

broke out into a dance impromptu
pressing lips on glassy foggy dew...

standing on the footboard of a moving tram
hummed meghmallar to cause clouds melt down...

like a winged creature with colored flight
caught rays of broken rainbow light...

with a martini glass liquid glow
depth of an ocean brought to the show...

scraps of paper white thrown in wind
a maidan filled with billet doux unseen...

from a billboard flapping red saree
with cloud's blue monday fever married...

on glistening drenched dark asphalt
movement of bare feet by nailpolish recalled...

on yellow orange halogen lit walls
painted a big graffiti of misty smoky waterfall...

on a bridge suspended by rope like girders
with cherry sweetness prosaic existence murdered...

rang the door bell at the dead of night
planted creamy soft core choco-delite...

horizontal skyline turned vertical
with swinging treetops caused a wall street fall...

sent office goers scuttling home
all over Esplanade built a rainy dome...

this moist cloudy day of the night
brings her all in a transcontinental flight...
the thunderclaps...the lightning shadows
spray scent of her all over meadows
and hills and valleys and cities below
sing songs of her and her whims sure...

but he carried the cross all the way...

'I adjure you,by the living god,to tell us,are you the anointed one,the son of God?'

Pilate asked,
'Have you basked
in the glory of light?'
To which he got to answer...
The man was ready to be pierced by lance
He just smiled and sought forgivenness for all;

Pilate's wife
who dreamt the other night
the descent of riot
pleaded in folded hands
'You got nothing to do with this righteous man...'
She told him
tears in eyes
but Pontius Pilate brought charges
upon the man...
'you subverted the nation
you deserve damnation...'

and the man cursed that way
carried the wooden cross poles all the way...
He carried the cross all the way...

Thursday, March 28, 2013

rumblings of the past...

'At this place
there had been a big mango tree...
and there...
where the telephone tower now stands
so abrupt proud
like a monster...
was a temple...no doubt...
not those you visit
in the city
full of italian slabs of marble...
not that kind...
no pomp and gaiety...
but a simple one
made of burnt bricks
thin and red...'
He said,
my father
who had become a child
after coming to his homeland...
his blood line...
old ancestry
where had written down a lineage
covered by dust and cobweb...

I looked at him
my father
turning a child strange
curious..nostalgic...restless...
shoving off leaves of past to trace
where his father...my unseen granddad
at the end of the day sat
pulling a puff from his hookah
smoke through water
making sounds...
and a pond by banana grove bound
had coolest water with shades
dark and deep and like plates
flat round green lotus leaves floated there nonetheless...

'At this place
my mother paddy straws laid
with a ladder she would here seperate
husks from grains...full of dust
she would sing a song of dusk...'
My father continued
in his dreamy vein
walking he was...surely down his memory lane...

and I could perceive how little things sparkled
at the corner of his eyes where past with present met...
and he became a child, didn't he?
In his eyes saw childish glee
as he touched the ground with his palm
collecting small red pebbles some...

'we used to play with these like marbles
aiming and throwing them at sticks
and tell
who amongst us would be a good shot...
in which palm tree someone would tie a pot
to collect sap so sweet like honey
in which hole in the woods there lived a bunny...'

My father kept on murmuring soft
when the moon light on his face dropped
a stream of conscious unconscious rumble
a child like him with words fumbled...
and I listened to his narrative echoing across
and noted how the heads of coconut trees tossed
gently as if in full approval of happenstance
of gigabytes of memory engaged in a dance..

'At this place...'
My father was in a neverending flow
time clocked backwards gradually slow...

an operative...

so...
you courted death
just like your fate
which you once embraced
knowing they will never claim you
your this body of lies
which severing strongest ties
on the dust of a desert lied...

an operative...
you were and had been
and they lured you to the scene
by showing you stars on the wall...
some unnamed unclaimed stars...

at the farm
they trained you hard
how to run on broken shards
of glass on the floor
how to picklock the most secure door
how to be the calmest
how to be under water for records to plummet...
how to use local resources...
how to break codes...Morse's...
how to devise an escape plan...
how to noiselessly on tin shed land...
how to deploy your barest things...
how to strategise what could the greater results bring?

if plan a fails there should be a plan b
they asked you to go beyond what mortal eyes see...

and see...
a body of lies...
your deglorified demise
in an unknown land creates no hussle
back home files some might be missing
and two leaders could have a mild tussle
of words over a glass of whitest champagne...
but...
an operative
you were simply
and had been...
lured by that lonely nameless star
on the wall you moved this far...

nameless you die...
non claimed asset
you truths belie...

your colored state...sinks me...

your white copper bordered saree
had faint spots pink...
played with colors
You last weeklong I think...

your earlobes had a little reddened touch
played with colors
You the whole evening such...

when spring thus comes
with so much of colors
your saree copper bordered
catches hues everywhere...

find green dots there
on your lips
and your shoulder has
violet deep...
find yellow on arms
magenta on throat
in your sea of colors
sinks my country boat...

every spring thus
your ocean so full of colors
sinks me rudderless...
i just sink sans escape...

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

love debutant...

How can I ever forget you?
those papers
upon which you arrived once
like a dream
putting me into an experiment
the cold numbness...
a play between life and death...

in one paragraph
asking me questions
so harmless...
then in another
opening my eyes
'where does the mythical regenerative spirit lie?'
'how much do you love your mom?'
'which plaque did declare the birth of a child
inscribed on a marble tomb?'
'how far can you go to sacrifice your self?'
'How much attached are you to Sunaina... the sylph?'

How can I forget you?
those pages first few
printed letters of love
and laughter and sobs...
Aroma of a greyness
where once the motorcycle stopped...

and you...
a tree
entering full grown into me...
with all the creative possibilities...

Opal court...
tree lined University campus...
waiting for Sue
clutching the railing of a balcony...
A night dress pink and graded white...
a walk on the clouds...

O Gandharaj...
love debutant...
come once again to me...
come again with your insane smell
a madness rapturing all walls
A Niagra !
A straight headlong Fall!


Tuesday, March 26, 2013

a song and an evening of spring...

through the bamboo thicket
like a silver disc bisected
the moon was shining soft
and the smoky mist held aloft
a curtain drenched with a song
a rustic meera version two thousand thirteen
swept the blackish green
with her devotion...

a small gathering...drooping eyes...
people from the village turban on their heads tied
nodded in appreciative mood
and there I stood
a little distance away...
my body leaning against a tree...
restive pensive satiated me!

the woman sang of love
krishna going away far
be-longing that even the twinkling stars
high above the sky could also feel
a sweeping sense of a seperation
dripping like watery molecules fill
the air...the space...
the tired sleepy balmy faces...

the silver ray...
cut into several shreds of paper thin
slices fell on the ground...
on the woman's face partially silver grains found
tears and got easily mixed with the flow...
an intermittent buzzing of insects wild and unknown
added natural music to the show...

and I felt the softest palm
resting gently on my head...
slipping lethargic from there down
on my breast placed...
a saffron dress...
with a whiff of flowers
seeped into my being...

the show had ended my eyes opening
I saw
but the curtain remained
and the paper thin slices of silver
on the ground
and the tune reverberated the rural air...
kept me there bound...

rosary beads...

leaving them stranded
a heavy snowfall shape
whiteness on their coats and hats
reddened tips of nose and flushed cheeks
he started walking towards the exit...
but the rosary beads
he fumbled the chain out
of his pocket
trembling hands
his thumb rolling over
the beads one two three
triple trinity
and overcome by grief
his face took a grimacing look
he did not look back
knowing he had nothing to do
other than praying
for them the bravest and the just
legal provisions have been obeyed must...
he started walking
his heart being burned by silent parsimony
of his poor state...
he counted rosary beads...

the snow must have been heavy
the distant treelines looked like an opening shot of a movie...
and the musical accompaniment
must have been there...
a tune alien to eastern ears...

he walked away...
slowly with tears in his eyes
but the rosary beads
round wooden seeds
they surely sent him some comfort
and with choked throat
he just walked away...

the last shot
concentrated only on the beads
hanging tossing in the cold wind
focus was on the round balls
and whiteness at the backdrop
the heaviest snowfall...
proved to be a perfect setting
for the last shot of the last scene...

the rosary beads
hanging and tossing in the cold breeze...

Monday, March 25, 2013

memories of glass...

some glasses are like memories
spread wide a greenish fragile tinge
boyhood on reflection a nostalgic feel
'let's run up to that gate of steel
where the lemon tree stands...'
uttered once a friend of mine...
her eyes having a twinkle shine;

'what about plucking those green mangoes unripe
from that small tree where the old man sits and pipes
a tune every afternoon?'

I probably had suggested her then
and after a quarrel of choices in vain
we decided to do both...
first we ran to the tree -lemon smell
leaves on us like rain fell
as we shook the bough with our might...
then we took the street to the mango tree
from the distance we could see
the old man resting there
his legs spread bare
but he was piping the tune
so wonderous...a song heartful...

some glasses are just like that
fragile sheet of memories lying flat...
across the present tense a boyhood feel
and also of someone's girlhood sure...


Reiki trance...

Sitting on the floor
Opening the door
Of his heart
The man felt the breeze
On the cliff
The rustling leaves
The cooing cuckoos
Eyes unopened
He chose
The reiki trance...

Felt sure the pulse
Of the valley down
People waking up
Fields unsown
And the flowers yawning too...
The herds of cattle taken to the fields
The stream flowing beneath the flourmill...
Wheels moving making screeching noise...
He took the reiki poise...
Eyes shut but opened mind
The valley submerged in music of a kind
Came to him like a sense ethereal...

Sitting on the stony floor
Cold a pleasure on his nerves
He envisioned the path how curved and swerved...
From little huts to the highway wide
He thought he had taken the ride
To farther away...
From the settlement to the non distinct
From the real to the abstract it seemed...
From the sensual perceptions to the nonsensual ones
He felt he saw the whitest swan
Floating gently on a vast blue lake
Reiki trance him to a beatified state did take...

Football morning...

'what about a bit of football dad?'
My kid asked me early morning
And I jumped out of bed
To a dew laden green we sped
And barefeet
On soft moist grass
We kicked
The ball...
Soon we were joined
By people big and small...
A granddad...
A runaway lad...
A mommy...
A middleaged man with a spreading tummy...
Neighbours we are...

We played a match five a side
Sweated laughed shouted...
The ball rolled on the grass
Gathering dew
Ashine!

A morning so good
A morning football game
Post match lemonades and lime...
And bananas and egg yolks...
Calories burnt and added

'what about football every morn dad?'
My kid asked me while coming home...
The sun on our faces gracefully shone
Sweatdrops like little beads of diamond...
Me kid and the neighbours gelled and struck bonds...

Sunday, March 24, 2013

The street side painter...

This tabachi lotto store
That pigeon pooped alley
And sacrosanct three storied facade
Biege and sobered with visions of paintings married
Reminded her so much of the man
Old wrinkled faced...shaking hands
But once he stood before the canvas
He became so young
Brushes thin bristled and long
Made him to capture dreams
A tree by the river...
A girl sitting on a stone it seemed
So real as if he had been
To places sure by his foot
Treading across hearts of the multitude...

Sometimes he would work with charcoal
Blunt headed and black and grainy
He kept on enjoying his flight
And the noise of pennies
That used to fall
Made on him no impression at all...
Cars passed...
People walked briskly...
Some grave faced...
Some with friends high fived and laughed...
But he was by and large ignorant
Of passing screens of population on the move...

This tabachi store
And the alley with pigeon poop
If you would by chance stop
And have a chance look
You would find him there
The street side painter
A little piccolo
A tiny space
In his colored smudged dress
A cheroot on his mouth
On Monteroliveto towards south
He would be found...
The street painter no doubt...
Catching everyday life
Rushing gliding whizzing cycling by...

Once he wrote a story of a tree
Another day he with a big blue sea
Eloped to another time and space altogether
Yesterday he drew on lightest blue a white feather
Afloat like a free happy sprite
His face had all the light
Of crimson delight...

Today she thought nearing the spot
Where pigeons usually leave white dots
That she would see him with another world
Yes!
He was there with a canvas...
And inching towards the plate
She was amazed
To see a girl like her
Standing and staring fair
Smiling and in her white floral gown
She looked at the canvas and just frowned...
'when and how did you find me?'
She asked the old man with shaking hands...
The man shook his head and smiled
'don't know...your picture just happened to me...
Like the way flowers happen
And clouds before sailing to Byzantium stop sudden
Before me to plant dreams
Just like that...
You maid happened to me...'

Saying this the old man
With shaking hands
Brought out a canvas clean and clear
And stood before it
And took his flight again...
This time to the ancient Greece
He was  probably thinking then so much of Adonis...

Friday, March 22, 2013

To Albert Goring...a tribute...

O how stupidly you pursued your course
Of life often going overboard
Helping those who needed help the most...

I remember
How you foolishly joined those women
Forced to scrub streets with spades and meagre tools
O you fool!
How come you joined 'em the lower class?
How come you throw away your nickel and brass?
Your family name...
A Goring were you, right?
How could you join the anti oppression overnight?

I remember...
You deliberately sending trucks
To get 'labourers' in thick mud and slush stuck...
You forged documents only to set free
Thousands of people belonging to a different nationality...
Your truck loads always stopped
Somewhere hidden in forest
Covered by hills...
You set the men and women free...
The labourers without hope
You sent them home by the mountain slope...

O what a man you were!
Fighting silently standing where
Many people wouldn't even dare
To move a single milimetre
There the flag of freedom you unfluttered!

O what a man you have been!
A rare Albert Goring...

Now after many years
Standing there by your grave with happy tears
I kiss your tombstone with love
O you were the purest whitest dove!

And your life?
I know millions out there
Would call it
'bon viveur'...
I am just one of them...
A miniscule grain...
A tiny one...
But inspired enough
To take on all the smooth with the rough...
The snowfall...blood stains on frozen ice...
The horrific deeds... The propagandist's lies...

O what a man you were...
O what a life you had...
Bon viveur...

way to heaven... and being the child...

the moment i hear your flute
early morning
every day
i feel like getting stripped
of my all...
a sheer emptiness engulfs me
and i surely take the road to heaven
the road so pure and vacant
white blossoms lined
and i feel robbed of my everything...
my present...past...
even dreams of futurity
money... cars...
online shops selling brands
cards and poker games...
i think i lose my sense...
emptied...
void enveloping me...
i feel so naked...
like a child
just born...
looking at the world
a blurry dreamy vision...
still under his omniscient father's magical charms
smiling in wonder of lucid joy
and feeling quite at ease with his arrival...
O boy!
and fascinated the same
surprise and blessedness
working conjoined...

every morn
your flute
way to heaven brings
and i turn a child
naked pure curious and struck
with wonder and happy pleasure
i lie...
with legs playing with hands
self absorbed
and still having dreams of womb...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

the saviour and the saved...

Your shrunken face
and so shabby dress
your fingers bitten hard by cold
full of marks of blood on cheeks
unshaven beard witness to holocaust
could have made a wrong impression
you could have been killed by bullets hot
piercing through the air burning holes
your dusty boots worn out soles...

but
wasn't there the piano still?
a pure wooden instrument covered by a white cloth?
The officer's eyes were however grim
His eyes with an idea toyed
and he asked you to play
through the broken battered window visions of dead bodies stray
came unhindered like distinct pains...
and you uncovered the piano
and touched the blackish stains
on reeds...
the copper plate announcing the make
of the piano an italian stake...

all those played on your mind
and you for a moment closed your eyes...going blind...
and tried to put your mind on the reeds...
and the music in you bred...
slowly surely an outpouring ripple...
your fingers supple...

and the rest...
is history they say
you kept the officer stuck to his chair the whole day...
his eyes from grimness went on to be
fascinated... blueprint of a kind sea...
he just kept listening all his mind
his face glowed with unseen shine...

at the end
of the play...
the victim and the oppressor stayed
face to face...
no enmity had its trace
in the soldier officer's hat and strapped coat
harshness left his military throat...

he stood up and asked him
how much hungry he had been...
and how much thirst he had braved...
the poor man was thus saved...

the piano did the thing for him
his fingers woken up from a dream
started tearing the bread soon...

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

nocturne in c sharp minor...

like a chopin
amidst grey mist sad
your redness spread
a contrast
full of life
a blooming thing...

its march
and the sky is still wintry
the air is still cold and dry
and your petals unfold
moist soft dream like
as if beads of hope and beauty
weave stories on you
though the mist and the uncanny fog
makes one confused-is it winter
or spring?
why dew drops fall?
why this slight shiver?
why nocturne in  c sharp minor?


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

returning the water fairy...

If I have once found her
The fairy of water
From the deepest of the depth
Like a prolific percept
When the apocalyse befell
I left her the water fairy
In the deep
Buried under the sea
For the scourge and the curse above
Was too hard for her
to bear
I could see...

O I left her in the deep
And swam upward to face
The fire on the water and gasoline fume
And all the lampoons
Falling all over the place...

That way in the water
I laid the water fairy to rest
and sleep forever ignorant
of the unrest and the terrible contamination...

I just returned her to her safest home
where she could breathe easy
even left alone...

Today is a day for a tour to the hills...

Today is a day
For a tour to the hills
Methinks...
A long tiring and a perspiring trek
Walking up the hillock,boulders, rock
And a momentary stop by the blue blue lake
Reflecting the raman rays of the sky...
Prism like defraction of the light...

Today is the day
Methinks ,of nothing to be said
Only for a walk up the hill
Long,tiring and perspiring...
And a song to hum all the way...
Of the sunshine kind
In which mortals often ambrosia find...
A song to sing aloud perhaps
Reverberating across the wide green lap
Of a valley in which the poetic sage once discovered
A reaper girl simply clad
In her skirt and a cloth tied
Over her head and deep dimple smiled
And a scythe in her hand by which
She gathered crops golden rich...

Today is such a day to fly
To unknown lands with alien feel
Where flowers never seen
Wake up after a good night's sleep
Yawning at the monumental presence
Of hilltops still camouflaged by mist dense
As if they were guardians of the soul...
Today is a day for nothing to be said or told
But to feel everything on the skin
Today is a day to lose way in the unheard and unseen...

Monday, March 18, 2013

I wait for the morn...

You can say I wait
For the morn every night
A morn like this...sparrows on wires
Swinging and twittering in delight
And the crystal clear sky
Blue and white...
And a cool sweeping feel
Crows and pigeons having a meeting
Over pieces of bread crumbs and puffed rice...
The rays of light creating shadowy boards on the street
On which woken up and hurrying feet roll the dice...
You can say I dream of the morn
Every night in my sleep
This kind of a dazzling morn
When leaves and trees and hoods of minivans
Parked outside of my residence shine
With colors green, yellow and brown...
And the toddlers break out in shrill cries
Asking their moms
To take them out for a walk
Or play in the park...
When the light as luxurious as gold
Cover the buildings...balconies...lamp posts...shops...faces of people...cars and buses...bikes and cycles...with freshness bold;

I wait the whole long day for a morn like this
When songs from radio with the air mix...
And the whistle from the factory calls
Workers and their supervisors
To hurry to their stations...
When the bazar just opens
And fruits and vegetables and green mangoes and watermelons
Arrive in trucks from distant places
With dew drops all over them
Like blessings of Lord's omnipotence...
A fruitfulness and the fertility cult become so conspicuous...
When water of the river Beas
Usually remains the sweetest and the purest thing...
Every night and day, for the morning I dream...

Sunday, March 17, 2013

A perfect cloudy breezy noon...

The cloudy breezy noon
Leaves and twigs broomed
From one field or street to another
There flew happily the white feather...
Same sights and vision occured
Earlier to me and you then concurred
It was all because of love...
May be your that conjecture
Pasted somewhere like a picture
Hold true or it may not be the truth
but abject falsehood...
The cloudy breezy noon
Trees swinging
Scraps of papers and plastic broomed
From one street to another alley
Timeless grace, tempting folly
Your fingers sketching numbers
On the back of my dried timber
Hidden variable theory expressed...
The damsel walked my window in a white dress
Black clouds making her prominent
A perspective of pure poetry held that image...
A little love sprinkled with sad tune
Ah! A perfect cloudy breezy noon...

A conversation between the water of the lake and the traveler breeze...

Gee!
Water of the lake sparkling silvery
Was having a sweet morning talk with the breeze...
'where have you been?'
The water asked the breeze...
A bit sad...confined by earth...
But she had all the curiosity;

'well...coming from the west
Where little children in their sunday best
Had attended a mass
At a chapel...
Their mothers by their side
Wearing white...
And flowery hats...
And gentlemen in black ties
And white shirts cuffed and buttoned
Joined a chorus for the Lord...
And interestingly just beside the chapel
There stood a tree- orange leafy maple
And on green grass saw a lot of leaves
How painted an orange red skirt creased
And full of enbalmed silence
And a little distance away across the fence
Saw two white horses on run...
Their muscular frame glorified by the sun...
I saw them on run...tireless speed
Hoofs ploughing through the grass and weeds...
And the pathway that led
From the chapel to the homestead
Of the town's sheriff plump and red
Saw a singer on a bench
Playing on his jumbo guitar
A morning serenade...
His song had the flavour
Of youthful joy I tasted never...
The joys of being properly aligned
A marriage of body and the mind...
He sang of journeys made by men
To faraway places without chains...
To hills and plateaus and valleys of spring
To heavenly pleasures sought by those too much keen...
I stopped there for a while
And played my fingers on the singer's hair and mind...
Gave him more tunes joyful
To work on from the morn till noon...
Then I went where cornfield lay
Spread like a wide yellowish cloth
I played with the nuts and maize
I made butterflies find blossoming daisies
Honeycups and crimson pollen grains afloat
I gave the taste of life deep in the throat
Of a little bird perched high up a tree
I made her sing an eulogy for me...'

Hearing all these the water of the lake
Thought she got more than she could take
She was filled with joy, hope and dreams
The water of the lake was no longer kept confined, it seemed...

Friday, March 15, 2013

Perhaps it is very wide...so I am ignorant...

Don't know much of geography
Or climatic conditions...clouds' ways...
So don't know the reasons exact
How can an afternoon be so calm like a morn?
Kind of blessed...soft...yielding...
Cool rain smelling breeze on pages of my Henry Fielding...
And a stillness as well...
Absolute still ...no change in the color of the sky...
Till morn the birds might have noticed this...on flight...
Through the window moments back
Tried to grasp the known track
Of setting sun's songs...
Found nothing as such...
A stagnation strange...
The eastern streaks of toast french
Which gathered in the morn
Are still there...as they were...
And the cow grazing the field...
Is still on the field posted right there...
Found her sitting now only...
In the morn when the man left her
Tied to the post...she was grazing but supported by legs
Standing young...girlish...awake...
Only now she seemed sleepy...
Otherwise the field is just the same...
Same green with yellow unknown blossoms of wild...
And the colors properly filled in and filed...
No photoshop or morphing done...
No mortal had done anything to the picture for his or her whims...or fun...

Don't know much about painting though
Or photographic lens how zoom in acres of grass clean and pure...
But the God's gift of the finest simple living thing
Camera obscura...
That did bring...
A blessed stagnation...
Despite movement
There seemed an equilibrium...
A balance...
Like a picture postcard dense
Packed with colors not seen frequent...
But once seen which usually remain...
The whole long day...
Even if morning wanes to the afternoon
And the afternoon going forward still
To embrace a glowing evening...
A serene movement perhaps...
Steady and slow
So balanced that one never knows
If the day has actually passed...
If the planet has actually rotated...
If the universe is actually moving...
Perhaps it is very vast...
Perhaps it is unimaginably wide...
Perhaps it is unfathomably deep...
He knows...
I know He got the exact sense...
I know only that little thing...

Don't know much of geography...
Or painting...
Or anything really...
But He knows
And luckily I got fullest faith on Him...

Thursday, March 14, 2013

The morning drive through...

She and I
For our hearts and eyes
Conjectured for a drive
Through the cool spring on sprout
A morning wind in our hair no doubt
Kind of a drive on the blue dark asphalt
The trees standing without fault
New green leaves and birds merrily on chirp
Tea from small earthen pots slurped
Straight down the throat
A drive through the road
Straight to the ghat...
People jogging...
Wrestlers slogging...
And the perennial flow
Of the river having the golden glow...
Little kids in white tees
And white tracks stuck to their bodies...
Bowling and fielding...
Catching the red cherry ball in air
The nets hung like curtains fair...

The pious ringing the bell
At the grand gate of a marble temple...
Saffron dots on their forehead like marks
Of their morning's prayer already done visibly stark...

A school of horses and the mares
Grazing and thinking and grazing
Tied to posts in a green green lair...
A traffic policeman getting instructions over phone...
The Raj Bhavan having colonial facade shone...
A newspaper van scuttling fast as if it would reach
Within a few minutes the farthest of the east...

She and I
For our hearts and eyes
Had a drive through this morn...


Wednesday, March 13, 2013

My grandpa and me...one afternoon...

'your mind is like the stone
Placed at the outer side of the wheel on spin...
And so you are full of unrest and non dreams...'
Saying this my grand father closed his eyes
Sitting erect on his afternoon cot where lied
The last few rays of the sun sleeping full of bliss
On his white long beard there played the afternoon breeze...

I sat at his feet looking at his face...
So calm...cool...soft...without any stir...
He looked like an image of a saint from alien land far...
His forehead...his cheeks...and thin lips...
Had a glow of sweet charm...some divine chips-
as if they had fallen all over his composed self...
As if my granddad to some impossible depth delved...

Outside the world must have been clumsy...
The television screen must have Gordon Ramsay...
Those kids of the neighbourhood in sweated shirts
Must have been shouting playing fighting and falling apart...
And those beauties with handbags and sarees with flowery signs
Must have come and sat on the benches for their afternoon chat...
The cars must have honked loud and straight
Out of anger a friend must have slapped another losing faith...
A cab driver somewhere must have picked up a quarrel...
Hurly burly must have broken out a hell of a trouble...
But inside my grandpa's simple room
Only peace and tranquil sense bloomed
And I also closed my eyes sleepy as if to rest
I thought from the outer fringe of the spinning disc
I had started a journey to reach its centre so still...
And the outside world with all its shouts and cries
Don't know where temporarily did fly...
Peace and calm made a fruitful descent
Then... thought I got His saffron scent...

Summer of '99

We had also summers of our own
Riding the bus to the town
From our idyllic green
We had boxes of tin
And our very own guitarman
A microphone rusty stand
And songs in our lips...
We had summer of '99!

We boarded the first vacant bus
From the gate of our campus
Morning had been soft and temperate
We got comfortably sunk on window seats...
And watched the city waking up
Andrew nodded his head and winked just...
'its okay dude...we are going to win Casablanca...we must...'
He had such a positive vibe to spread
The street by the park was not till red...
Another one of us...had notes on papers...
Copies of our midsummer night's labour...
And when we had taken the stage...
Monitors placed like old sleepy sages...
The first strumming long pressed...
Jeans dusty had all the unrest...
And souls we were to burst...
We were surely having the hallucinogenic curse...
But we broke forth strong and wild...
We painted visions weak and mild...
And grew graded by the pedals tuned...
We shook legs for damsels with hairs colored and pruned...
O! We had such a summer of '99!
White columned Scottish gates...
We had overrun performance dates...
Took cabs and metro rides to the fringe
Of the city where yellow mixed with pink smooth cream...
We had also Adamic decadence...
We found rhymes in the most banal existence...
We had summer of '99!
We lost through pocket holes golden dimes...
And recovered haply to chase a note through Mirza Ghalib street...
At Reynold's we shopped copper and silver strings...
We had our own summer of '99!
O! We had summer with plectrums on fingers fine...

Sunday, March 10, 2013

who am I to show those visions?

Who am i to show you those
little flakes of morning's gold
falling and covering up a strawladen hut
who am i to show you that?

an old locomotive arriving from the west
people descending with bags and huge suitcase
and a cartman greasing his cart's wheel
his face blackened and smile on his face still...
a crow perched on a tin roof
witnessing bedlam arriving throwing dust by horse's hoofs...
a little boy running through
the cloud of white smoke
the locomotive into the derelict station blew...
a range of distant overlooking hills
the gradual change of a village's trance like feel...
the transcendence of civilisation
from serene stillness to a busy motion...
but who am i to put them into you?
these visions on my heart grew...
over the years...the passage of history...
a peepul tree with leafy mystery...
summers,winters,springs and autumns...
an anthology of laughter and tears...
human struggles with arrows and spears...
and also of nature's pristine best
a settlement by His providence blessed...
but who am I to show these?

Saturday, March 9, 2013

amico di anima...

Hey amico di anima!
I might drift
and you might take the tide so swift...
and we might live seperate
but we can't afford hate...
we can't simply...
For when we are so attached by strings...
we might fly to distant lands
you to the known chambers of hearts forlorn
me to a port where fishermen's song
transmute the evenings into silvery white...
Hey! amico di anima!
we can never lose the sight...
of birds flying back home...
of sun dipping her redness strong
into waters of ganges or volga...
Hey! we are not accursed...
We got no anathema...
Are we not souls tied by strings?
forever stretching...elongating?
You might choose in your way
carpe diem theme
carpe florem...
I might on a white page
work out a neopolitan theorem...
But where's the hate? where's the lack?
strings are mutually made to slack...
by us...
our choice of words...
and silence befitting the journey afterwards...
still...
Hey! amico di anima...
Where's the anathema?

Friday, March 8, 2013

you take me again...

you take me again to the breeze
on the cliff
and the green seen from above
like a carpet...
you take me again to the smell of incense wicks
and strips of white flags full of peace...
and the sombre gongs of bells
reverberating wide and far
sweeping the hills and the plains... you take me again to the beginning of an end
to that road which stops so sudden
to reveal the untraversed life beyond the sight...

you take me again to board a flight
slow taxing down the tarmac
and propellers rolling fast
taking in the air and the system of exhaust
blowing hot at the rear to give me the thrust...
and...I take off...

folding up my legs
severing the last touch,
to the soft generic earth...
I take off...

Thursday, March 7, 2013

'what do you really know of me?'

What do you really know of me?
Amadore once told me...
and set into rhyme in a murmur soft
he told me about what life to him brought...

"In search of life
I have wandered to hills and valleys
to pubs and cities... to aunt Sally's...
in search of life I have done so many things
dived into the coldest lake
to suffer hypothermic freeze...
Wrapping myself up in sheepskin tight
In a moist cave I spent a whole night...
what do you really know of me?
I have made rope from intestine
and slept on dead grass
in a burnt wood of pine...
Camikazi knot having tied to a boulder of a cliff
I jumped into the fearsome deep...
and fell the breezy weightless me
I fell straight to the blue green sea...
Survived several deadly crash
on my back got whippings of lash...
three diagonal marks of pride
A survivor of a hurricane ride...
Rolling over a downy slope
hitting shrubs and bushes of thorns
pains I coped...

And then met a youngish maid
in a whispery tone who to me said
'Settle down kid...settle down...
You've raised a storm and people do frown...
At your reckless flamboyant life
you got panache but lack a wife...'

So I thought stopping for a while
Why not change the adventurous file
of my life so much under fire
why not settle with a flat tyre?

After a few years a baby was born
with blue eyes he like a starlet shone...
in our cottage on a hill
beside the stream where fish danced till
the evening set in like a curtain of haze
i stopped climbing and jumping...
grew only maize...
and toiled hard from morn to night
and we owned a golden sight...
Soon the boy grew strong
and the bout of adventure came back and I longed...

Oneday giving them the land and my purse...
I set out early called by stars...
And days and months and years slipped away and slid
I journeyed again to the unpredictable bid
of Nature calling me to come out in the open...
Where strong dreams are with music woven...
What really do you know of me?
I have leapt into the blue green sea...
Straight from a cliff a Camikazi knot
That's my story to put it short..."

Saying this old Amadore
Took a bottle of Chardonnay and poured
a big shot down his throat...

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

sms to you ...when you are so morbid...

Writing a sms...
to assure you...
O Yes!
There's a lot between us
and then there's nothing as such... dear...

why you so shaken and feared?
don't you know we all are of His?
The Man who taking on his arms us gave the first kiss?
and made us to smile ,weep and cry...
and failed us so often so that we could try
harder n better with all might;
He who gave us the First Golden Arrow of Light,
Gave us the pains and sufferings too
as rare gifts so that we could burn and glow...
He gave us all to grow metal true
burnt ,hammered and thrown into blacksmith's hearth
He showed us how molten gold erupt from volcanic earth...

so...dear...
have faith on life and Him
And be filled with liquid dreams...

twilight sun...

the twilight sun...
without tease or the feel of burn
smooth dying and so benign
bestowing little men and women with candid fatelines...
simple...lucid and thing so round
as if to lift the waves of water beyond the bounds
of embankment so solid like rock
the sun going to sleep...
a perfect egg yolk...
carrying the secrets of birth perhaps...
and the scent of time elapsed...

our lost neighbourhood...

our neighbourhood had its own flavour
like soft kisses of an ancient lover...

the mornings woke up with simple sounds-
Little miss Lily singing her song
her fingers on the harmonium
and the sweeper in blue uniform
brooming the street-
The two working an uncanny rhythmic feat...
the rustle of dry leaves being swept
and the shrill song of Lily almost wept...
Then was the gardener's fast scythe
cutting through the air's chill that would soon die,
And there was an inimitable Mrs.Bose...
in her dressing gown and peeping hose
buying from her window white fresh rose
from the flowergirl too early arrived
catching ferry to town at the first tide...

Mr.Lahiri would be seen walking home
followed by stray dogs some
to whom he would gently give away
broken bits of biscuits on a silver tray...

Dhoot Singh,our only milkman
would knock the doors and place cans...
his healthy body glistening in sweat
his belly hanging a bit overweight...

Little boys cycle borne...
would shout and laugh aloud
riding fast round and round
down the lane and the mound
of grass and dried up weeds
to be blown oneday again to the fields...

The night watchman would plod weary
humming a story of a moon fairy...
oblivious of the sunrise...and the increased level
of noise...shouts...songs...cries...domestic decibel...

Our neighbourhood woke up thus
last two decades that passed...
each morn that embraced night
each night that broke to a flight
of jobs,studies,cradlesleep and birth
of death coming as the most frequent visitor...

Sunday, March 3, 2013

the atonement...for you and me...

you sent me bouquets
and warm smiles...
and hugs and kisses...
in forms physical and metaphysical...
in shapes cool as a glass jar
of clean pure water...
scorched me dying of thirst knowing you well;
in alphabets so vegetable ones...
and like fruits on trays
glistening like the sky of noonday...
in pathways and alleys
in shirts mauve colored ones -Allen Solly's...
in hymns and harmonies...
in pandemonium...cacophonies...

but why?

you needed an atonement I guess...
a balm to calm your senses...
you needed that...
an atonement...flat!

I needed that too...
urgent and straight...
but i don't need to send you anything for that...
instead...i found a word...
Evolution!
That's my choice.
Period.

Friday, March 1, 2013

the piano teacher mine...

Last few minutes
before I took up the pen
i think i was with her
my piano teacher...

i think because i am not sure
she had left the job many years ago...
but still on an evening such
i am sometimes reminded of her touch
on the reeds white and black,
and her heels on pedal making mild taps...
and she telling me stories
of princesses and wonderous fairies...

sometimes she would allude the tune
with a vision of a changing sand dune...
then another time she would not talk
her music set a vintage 1869 on rocks...

then there were times for her fingers to evoke
a scene from Alice in wonderland like a stroke
of paintbrush creating a scene...
she by her music strange things did bring...

once she taught me how waves of ocean could lap up
on the shores of our living room by music soft...
and then she showed me once a corn field
only by music how swayed and filled...

'Music' she told me once in a whispery tone
'should be felt and heard all alone...'

God knows what happened afterwards
I found music in every thing that appeared...
a tram making tring tring through the mist,
a cycle bell having pure music unleashed,
a ferryman calling his mate in rhythmic tone,
a clock ticking in a silent hall alone...
a boy mugging a multiplication table
of nineteen, with a musical feel...

i caught then on,music everywhere,
from piazza dante to college square...
i felt music forever like a downpour
on my head...heart... and I got lured...
to music and of course to her
my only one piano teacher...

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Hope you are not ignorant of those little things...

Hope you are not ignorant
of things that used to stir
you few years back...
those little insignificant things?
like that evening breeze?
and the play of light and shade
on the smooth road of velvet?
and that copper colored flakes
of paint dusted off the board of a dream?
Hope you are not ignorant
of little things...
insignificant ones like the taillight that blinked
twice before slipping into the dark?
and that meadowy place where gnats and glowworms convened
a seminar
on relationships how get trimmed
by passage of time...and mutation of space...
Hope you have not forgotten the taste
of wine...a residual chance...
a night of people engaged in dance?

You might have forgotten every thing about me...
But...how can you be ignorant of memories of me?
And that egg yolk moon?
and the parade of stars?
and that afternoon show ticket
of a play...a farce?
and the flower girl from whom you bought
three different blossoms in traffic jam caught?

Sunday, February 24, 2013

so she arrives...like the season of spring...

sometimes...she arrives
wearing the newest green
under the blue sky of spring
as if she comes to wait
for me by the river straight...

she comes sometimes with a shade
cool breezy flakes of white sand dropping on my head...
like a pure dream of a land unseen but heard often
in lores of forgotten youth that soften
adult hearts with drops of moist dew...
sometimes she arrives with stories few...
wearing her newly bought green
waiting for me at the onset of spring...
by the river and the mound of sand
white mica laden -a sparkling land...

And I dream of radha and krishna
tunes of flute flooding my ears
and colored pollen grains on my painted vision...
soft...benign...on a pleasing morn...
sometimes she arrives like a tree alone...
wearing her best sunday green...
smelling so much of flowery spring...


Monday, February 18, 2013

Ah! I spent life half for such a day...

After a short spell of shower
when the sun came out
knew he heard my prayer
for he smiled surely looking at me
and those flowers bloomed for the swarm of bees...
and the road still populated by leaves
yellow fallen chaffeurs of dreams
smiled too with sparkle on their blades...

Ah! I spent half life for a day
like this when the streets and alleys lay
awake yet in a restive trance...
and the drenched soft and fresh sun
playing with the trees...
and the afternoon chapter of a breeze...
kissing him to be gay...
Ah! I spent life half for such a day...

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Being in a time warp...

Well...
When one is in a time warp...
One sees history written on walls...
History of struggles...deprivation...
Starving faces of a whole generation...
Hanging footloose on the board
Blood on sickles...spades and rusty swords...
Trains departing ...a snail's progress...
Torn dhoti... Muddy shirt... Fallen lace...
Fire on thatched roof... Shelter under a tin shack...
Children running... Women falling there slack...
Bulging smoke tear gased eyes on burn...
A road emptied closed for no return...
An alley of the noon filled with sounds of heavy boots...
A shop's shutter broken for an awesome loot...
Three pronged candleposts blackened by molten tar...
A body lying beside a flower fully charred...
Posters slogans full of Gandhi speak...
Great kolkata carnage posted in petitions writ...
Flagmarch of olive green tattooed cars...
Religion ushering a fitting doomsday curse...

Well...
When one is in a time warp...
All scenes of sins fall sharp...
Before eyes like witnessing live
Broadcast with sombre voice fully televised...

Friday, February 8, 2013

Pea soup sky and the breeze...

The slice of sky this morning
Looked like peasoup...to me
And the sun...like egg's yolk...
In the middle... afloat...

Peering out...
Felt the breeze on flow
There was something in the wind...
As if the lovely maiden Spring
Had sent her sister here...
She was swift...breezy...fair...
She must have started to work
To sweep the street...
Upon which some people walked...
Found leaves from different trees...
Falling running jumping...
As if they were happy to find Spring's sister...
As she had come long time after...

The breeze had the southern smell...
Of seeds...spices...coffee plants...
And valleys and plateaus...
Reminder of luncheon at Le Chateau...
Plates placed on tables of wood...
Glass jars on which with honey stood...
And fruits and mango juice...

The sky looking pea soup...
Made me a day to lose...

Thursday, February 7, 2013

The wait at the library...

The greco roman columns...
The ceiling white with brown colored beams
Crisscrossing like figures from geometry text...
The long old rock solid tables...
All smell so much of them...
The great men and women...
Who chose the way to a vocation...
So self possessed thing...
And nourishing too...

Here time even leaves all her work....
She doesnot go to ring the bell...
Or hurries around...for no good...
Here time also reads...
And sometimes she writes her mind...
Her wishes and secret desires
Which she scarcely let out...

Yes!
Waiting at a library...
Is like living in with Time...
A different version of hers...
Who is so quiet...
Rooted...
A meditative soul perhaps
Of a restless being...

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Dolce vita

With the sun on back
Have you ever sat
On a cliff...
Overlooking the city
As if in a cauldron set deep?

With the breeze soft
Playing with the ends cropped
Of hair so indulgent like a mother
Have you ever looked up the canvas
Of the blue so pleasant and true?

Well...
I have once...
Got that chance
Many many years ago perhaps...
Almost forgotten like picture under dust...

But...
I know that was the moment...
Perhaps my only one so far
My dolce vita...sure!

The morn...the sun...and my heart...

Chanced to catch you
By the window of the morn
The sun all over your face kid...
Infused with absentminded feeds
Of last night's dream of yours
Of characters from your comic books...
Or perhaps you were still not out of sleep
For your eyes looked not restless...
You just sat lethargic on the bed
And savoured the first light of the day...
Chanced to catch you like a poem
Fresh...sweet...dropped from heaven...
So full of divine trance...
Catching photons as they danced...
Passing through the fog and mist
Caught you kid perfect...sunkissed...
By the window of the morn
Sitting and watching the world alone...


Friday, February 1, 2013

what can i say about that man?

what can i say about that man?
my being to him i owe
and as time passes on we grow...
together...separate...
alone yet joined...

he watches the television set
sitting on his bed erect...
and sometimes lying silent...
watching the world on flow
in colors...in colorless violence...

he has seen so many events...
the birth of a nation...times tensed...
cries of youth soaked in blood...
villages disappearing under water of a flood...
marks of barbed wires on shoulders blue...
heavy stomping he heard of leather shoes...
the fall of a man riddled by bullets...
he had read news of Mussolini's arrest...
seen he had how vultures dawned
upon the roofs of a blackened town...
one night he had felt how the earth shook bad
another morn he witnessed processions sad...
black badges on shirts...against deaths
by molotov cocktails purely handmade...

what can i say of this man?
growing crow's feet and wrinkled tan
over his face...so aged by sights
and sounds of numerous fights
and struggles of a whole generation...
and unending queues of teeming millions...
before shops which rationed food
and grocery supplies which were never good?

a poster of a book...

somenights are just like that...
I walk by her side
under the moonlight
and the shadows of buildings come out to play
upon me...her face...as the streets silent stay
witness to our nocturnal stroll...


Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The road takes it all...

The road takes it all...
The poems of the fall...
A crumpled paper...
A chocolate wafer...
The sun peeking out...
The cottony white cloud...
A pair of lips overturned...
A cigarette held in fingers uselessly burned...
A dimpled smile saying nothing but love
A box with powder, patches and pink soft puff...
Hand placed willfully on the lap...
Eyes closed in pretense of a nap...

The road takes it all...
Poems of autumn...
Proses of the fall...
The wind touching strands of brown hair...
A dream of an angel playing the lyre...
A white horse running across the green...
On the seat a lonely hair pin...
A confessional song full of regrets...
An aristotlean treatise on mutability of fate!
A bunch of roses with dew on petals...
Polished nails pressing a lever metal...

The road takes it all...

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The imagist...

A blue blue day
Was it...
Right fit...
Perfect to recoil...
My tendermost counterfoil...

Crossing over the bridge
Ferry ghat...foreshore road
A market...a chocolate factory on  lease...
Huge drums full of sugar...
And a house with a big verandah...
A scooter green with a spare tyre...
An uncle in dhoti and white half sleeved shirt...
A window longish type with iron bars...
A playmate with round glasses over the nose...
A garden with saplings planted in rows...
An alley leading to several serpentine lanes...
A paperwallah trying to put in order fallen cycle chain...
A playground with holes made for wooden sticks
To act as makeshift stumps for a short version of cricket...
Fingers placed on the leather ball...
A catch to hold on to...humpty dumpty fall...

A blue blue day...
Was it...
Right fit...
To hold mind on sway...

Monday, January 28, 2013

Wherever i go...didn't i leave a leaf with you?

Wherever i go...
From this arid desert
To a mountain full of snow...
If i drift away...caught by the wave...
Or if the wind takes me to an almora cave...
Didn't i leave a leaf with you?
A torn page full of dreams,sobs and cries
And rippling laughter and dusk colored sky?
Wherever i go...
From this valley of thorns
To a sea shore greenish blue...
Didn't i leave a leaf with you?
An evening forrest gump kind...
A basket of popcorns never meant to be mine?
A chair with wooden handrests a bit off the shine?
A pot half filled with ink ?
A ribbon made flower absolutely pink?
Wherever i go...
Didn't i leave a leaf with you?

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Post conversation trance...

'Go...stand on the open terrace
Of yours...and study the sky scape
And those urban builds...'
telling me,categorically you the conversation sealed...

So I went...climbing twenty stairs exact
If you want to know the matter of fact
The stones colored brown green ash red
Planted and fixed into the mosaic
Stared back at me till I opened the door...
The door to the open terrace...

The blue wide profound skyscape
And the breeze playing about
Raised me above confusions and doubts...
Yes the urban builds were visible...
But the light that on them fell
Made them look like paintworks
Block prints like on the panoramic canvas...
And those heads of trees green...
Supplied varied ideas it seemed...

Then got a hazy glimpse of a distant bridge...
Its towers twin kind of glistening
As if the painter had deliberately left a sketch
Of them on the canvas to fetch
Before the onlooker a hint of life in flow...
The tiny dot like vehicles moving slow...

Then saw at one corner the minaret
Of a sculpture...standing straight...
(As if arabian tales at that corner were made...
Everynight...when the sleep descends...)

'Go ... Stand on your open terrace...'
You told me and I perfunctorily obeyed...

Saturday, January 26, 2013

A holiday ride with her...

The young breeze like a clandestine
Desperate lover full of her joyous kisses
Dashed me on my face...
Going up the national holiday bridge
As I was then...taking her into me...

'Let's go up this road...let's just keep going...following this long stretch of highway...'
She whispered into my ears
I felt the ends of her hair
Touching my shoulder...
Got the scent of flowers
Into me like pollen grains colored yellow and white...

So I kept going...
Up the bridge...
At toll plaza the man waved...
Smiling...to me perhaps...
Seeing smile in my lips...

The toll ticket kept on the dashboard
Danced for a few moments...
Before catching my clandestine lover's anchal...
Settled down quiet...

And we rode...
Me...
My youngish breeze...

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The bottle of cologne left by you...

You left the bottle
Of cologne
For me standing lone
An orange shape
And a glistening knob like top
Upon which so many images stop...

Images of my face...hands...
My body...the ceiling...the shelf...
Every kind of moving and immobile things land
Without any pretense over it...
And the deep orange liquid
Carry layers...sublayers aromatic...

The top layer is strong...
Musky husky long...
The mid level is so royal...
As if passed by a banquet hall
With people in black ties
Or dinner jackets tight
And fashionable ladies in gowns and corsets...
And a flowing river by the Somerset...
And...

The last layer...
The faintest of the three...
Is that of...not sure...perhaps of a bodhi tree...
A salvation kind...
An ethereal mystery...
A cloud like white tapestry...

The cologne bottle...
That you left...
For me in a deep orange shape...
Has so many incorporated...
Signatures of men...
Horses...polo clubs...
Cigars...
And also of the last stage...
The salvation...

The butterfly on my palm...

For a few seconds...
Flapping her angelic wings
From a flower nectar having sucked
She came and sat
For a few seconds
On my palm's lap...
As if to take a rest
Brief moments that suited her the best...
On my palm...
To keep me captivated...
As I stared at her wings...
Silk like shine...soft like muslin...
With bluish violet patterns wrote
By Him...all over her coat...
The morning sun the blue turned green...
And the green soon violet seemed...
And the violet turned mauve so good
With her on my palm I just stood...

She came and sat...
For a few seconds on my palm's lap...
To help me see how heavenly colors play...
for a few moments she stayed to make my day!


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The poet...

I dreamt of him
Last night
In his thick and warm woollen overcoat
Standing brave against the cold sweep of the breeze...
In his hand he probably had
His poem which he wrote
For the purpose so grand...

I dreamt of him last night
Standing in the biting cold
Afternoon without any warmth...
Only the poem in his hand
Held tight in the breeze not to be blown
Away by the gale
his fingers were numb...

But the poem...
His fiery one
With passions in it
Written bold...
Kept him standing...

He just kept standing...
The poem in his hand
And draped in woollens...
Strong...
Broad...
Unlimited...
Reaching above the localised weather conditions...

Saturday, January 19, 2013

waning winter afternoon of a saturday...

i think i know this afternoon
particularly handsome...yet so benign
i think he is returning home this afternoon
humming his favourite tune...
an urban traveller...
through those streets
partially shadowed by buildings
with overhanging dreams
spread neat by women
of those dwellings...
on the rails of balconies
in shapes and colors
varied yet so similar
like afternoon soaps
seen after a lunch at home
munching a few chopped betelnuts...
so similar in theme
yet varied sure...
i think i know this afternoon
a siesta like tune playing soft in the breeze...
and he returning home
the urban walker...
after his work ends early for the week
a saturday half...
half warm kind...
with winter on the wane...

Friday, January 18, 2013

roses are forever...

despite walls and streets
traumatised by unholy smoke and sleaze
despite hooting of vehicles in premoghul state
dust pumped into lungs of maidan every second
roses red bloom...
somewhere...
unnoticed perhaps...
lost in the hurly burly of business district
and trade calls of brokers on the floor...
roses bloom somewhere
unnoticed behind the closed door
uncherished...
never looked with proper admiration...
despite the graffiti filling minds
political slogans replacing words
you or us...
me or you...
they or we...
despite discrmination of every kind...
roses bloom...
somewhere.


Monday, January 14, 2013

june havens and the crimson red...

Opening his eyes
he felt blinded first
the white sunlight
on him blinding dazzling...
then he thought he noticed a face
'June Havens...
you're beautiful' he said
'am I dying?'
he added confused
June smiled...
'you just gained life...'
He smiled...
the blinding sunrays
fell through June's browny head
full of strands of hair trembling
the sunrays life to him did bring...

'now...I know...
you got way to go...
but tell me...is it with me...or without?'
June asked him
as he sat up slow on the beach...
the golden black lined car
caught his eyes parked not so far...
'Go start it...
and get the radio on...'
he said as he patted his trousers
flakes of sands fell...
the sky westward was crimson red...
the sky westward was so crimson red...

Sunday, January 13, 2013

the tree friend mine...

she is as old as me
whatever i did she did see...
the matches ten a side...
yellow cards...quarrels...
Hardys and Laurels...
Captain Haddock and the Merlinspyke hall...
and flooded ground and the runaway ball...
the shared tiffin cakes...
and green banana shakes...
and marching soldiers in a parade...

she is old as old as me...
and she did see
whatever touched me...
the springs...
the rains...
and winters...
and jackets...
a library stamped
New Samuel Beckett...
a chocoball satchet...
a crossword puzzle...
playing with hosepipes
water jet from muzzle...
worn down pumphouse
a morning of mickey mouse...
first bicycle fall down the slope
first motor bike crash iron spoked...
first love poem torn in the evening breeze
an ice cream cone and cherry red tease...

she is old as old as me
she has seen whatever touched me...


time...

i keep her in the glass...
and as she does pass
from one to another
in the wind of change a feather
caught floats so free...
i watch her pass in glee...
a steady flow in pink...
a dream transient i drink...
and am reborn
every day's morn
and i die
with every evening's sigh...
time...
i watch her pass in pink ...
the stream from which i drink
the ambrosia of life...
for me in shapes numerous arrives...
both at the beginning and at the end
both in straight lines and curves that bend
time...
i keep her in books...pages...leaves
in seesaws...waves...walls and sieves...
in roads...streets...ferris wheels...
in charcoal flame fabulous steaks
in humming birds' too fast flaps...
in water flowing from roadside taps...
in buses...taxis...audis and alloy covers...
in spontaneous kisses of young lovers...
in flyovers- a few jam free stretches...
in the old man's hanging breeches...
in plaits visible on the skirts...
in the fairs of curio things and the city marts...
in sun rays reflected by the facade of glass...
time...
a dream i drink every moment passed...


Thursday, January 10, 2013

peace and war...

The gentle choir of the church
got caught into a real sound that jarred
for navy planes flew above from the far...
the gentle choir got really jarred...

the corns of the field swept and downed
for navy planes flew over from the distant town
their propellers full of omenous signs
the planes drew black smoky lines...

the little hut by the river shook a lot
for balls of fire fell at undesignated spots...
from the sky which had been so blue till the war
broke out sudden in the town not so far...

and the rhymes of the school stopped
for from the sky paratroopers dropped
in olive and grey with tin hats rough
the country witnessed a real hard bluff...

O! the country faced a real hard bluff...
In the name of peace a war broke loose...
and the artillery fire rang after the truce...
the gunshots smeared red in the blue...

O the guns smeared red in the blue...

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

your cottage overlooking the hills...

I long sometimes, specially in search
of golden sunshine warm and bright
to be in your cottage overlooking the hills...and a small piece of land
with trees and small kind of shrubs...
having brown freckle seeds- nut like
hanging and sending peculiar rustling sounds...
and that wooden table and two benches...
cut from logs of wood...thick...unpolished...raw...
and those wheels of cart...
kept slanted on the wall outside
for weathering...and that wooden staircase
going up from the square shaped marbles...
to the first storey...a bedroom...a kitchen and a bath...
simple...necessary and so minimal...
but when at dusk and the dawn
when the golden red sun warm...
fell on the floors...
and through the windows open...
maximum love from the hills came...
and life became so blessed...

I long to go to that cottage of yours
overlooking those hills
and the small shrub filled field...
and the rustle of dry seeds in the breeze...

I long to go back to that home of yours...
where nature all her poetry poured
by days...and also by nights...
when the unobstructed sky
fell down almost upon head
with stars...moon and tiny starlets...
and buzzing of alien insects...
a cacophony so sweetly arresting...
as if an orchestra the wilderness did bring...
to play on my soul in the most pleasant terms...
O! your cottage had its unique charm...

Monday, January 7, 2013

the cold thick misty evening...

the cold evening lied
on the wasteland spread in shape of grandma's cotton soft veil...
white...thin...fluffy...and expandable
always to accomodate a few more
of urchins like me...
lost in wayward thoughts...
but once under the veil
given a shelter cozy...
always tempered down...sobered...
to be part of a fairy tale told...
to take young hearts far away
from the city buses...flyovers...
to somewhere half dreamy...
half real kind...
perhaps a lovely lonely railway crossing...
and a small lantern lit
by a lonely old guard in turban...
and with a thick huge coppery white moustache...
which saw the ups and downs of history...

the cold evening swept up
misty thick fabular forms...
in blurry lights...
a tower looked legless standing right...
and trees seemed submerged halfway
in fog machine smoke on some stage...
like actors enacting a special scene of the ultimate act
of a play...a full length five act one
written by the bard for the groundlings and the royal...
to be turned into a classic after a century or two...

the cold thick misty evening wrote
a scene of a play such...
only to enchant city bred eyes
with a rural heart...

Thursday, January 3, 2013

you young and the morn so wet and cold...

the drizzle started when I don't know...
but you must have woken up
by the soft rustle of the leaves
and the chilly breeze
must have swept into your street...
meandering through the corners
of those apartment blocks...

in black knee length socks...
and red skirt topped
by that white jacket...
you took to the street
braving the cold...
and drizzle sending shivers...
for I know...you have to catch the bus of number six route...
you walk through the mist semi dark...on foot...

the arterial road is vacant...
no sign of silvery buses...
a few cabs wait like yellow stagnant pics...
three dimensional installations stationary tricks...
the tea shop under a tree
is open and the chulla is set...
smoke white like clouds in mini forms
rise up churning dreams of warmth this morning wet...
and you wait...
tugging the end of your jacket
for the bus number six to come...
municipal lights try to catch glory some
yawning up to the wet chilly sky...
a black and white feathered bird
sits still on a handsome pole...forgetting to fly...
drenched as it was like your soul...
waiting it was sure for someone to dole
out a few corns or bits of bread...
rain and mist lingered and made
roads so dustfree...vacant and pensive...
but you take the road to catch the bus...
in white jacket and red skirt
you look the only one young and smart
otherwise this wet chilly morn is so old...
feeble...shaking and shivering in the cold...

Monday, December 31, 2012

another year...

Another year added mate!
to your and my dates...
of the runs...the plays...the writeups...
the tuxedo black jack chase...
and card games...martini glass toasts...
of holidaying breeze rubbing a frosty nose...
another year...is at its legit end
another year to catch up with dreams right at the bend...
where the road takes to the hills...a long climb...
and the wind falls with drops of lemony lime...

No big wishes for you mate...
no big wild ecstatic screams...
only wish you to live it good mate
and sleep well in peace...
and wake up every morn with a smile
and grab a belly full breakfast
and a bit of juice...
wish the battery of gunshots cease
and brothers hanging up swords...declaring a truce...

No real big wild wishes mate...
nothing like that...
only wish flakes of smiles falling everywhere...
and wish birds to fly unobstructed till they warm up...
and wish to find soft kisses from the heaven drop
on those living without basic required things...
wish the new year only love in fullest splendour bring...
and wish to see midnight's children also going to school...
and wish to see lotus of fancy brimming the pool...
and that twin dimples appearing often on her cheeks...
wish to see the crimson shiny himalayan peak...
breaking sun rays into a seven band bow...
wish to breathe air fresh not heavy with cfc snow...
wish the oceans remain deep and blue...
wish to see green leaves bathing in morning dew...
and to hear the chirping of tiny ones from the branches of trees...
wish to see every house hang clothes on lines swaying in the afternoon breeze...
and parks full of kids...old ones with walking sticks...
wish to see no child labouring at the kilns of bricks...

another year gone mate!
another year gone...
wish to see a lot things
not left undone...

Sunday, December 30, 2012

the portrait of a woman...

seen her standing sidewise
the rays of smudgy light
on her shoulder and back
so careless...
as if she spent her life that way...
oblivious of the eyes of the onlookers
amazed...
by her simple demure non chalant charm
paintbrushes with white hair as on the canvas make a free run...

the portrait of a woman...she...
stands before my pen and paper
to ignite inspiration in wintry dried up me!

the recurrent combination of red and black...
an off shoulder dress kind of slack...
losing and yet holding up the dream
silk gown without seam...
and eyes downward in a self absorbed mood
a smile hidden in lips...
the blurred light soft on her shoulder as she keeps...

the portrait of a woman...
like a great spoil...a work of art
bestirs me with energy...and i erupt...
from the cold...the chill...the frost...
with thousand shooting stars...
with ashes emitting unseen sparks...


Saturday, December 29, 2012

for the candlelight that dimmed...(on the Delhi rape victim...my girl!)

they picked you up
from the street
like a prey
ruthless sex starved perverts
and after pouncing on you
mutilating private parts
they threw you off
from the bus shuttered windows
brutality taking the bestial course...

the candlelight...
fell...
on the street...wax molten...
spread like blood...
and those perverts flashed teethy disdain...

the candlelight panted and screamed...
in pain...in humiliation...
in horror...in trauma...

O girl!
Give me a knife...
let me shake the dread...
give me superhuman strength
to bobbitise them...
those evil demonic serpents...

Thursday, December 27, 2012

come'n out...sing a pillion song...

what's the point in sitting cuddled up?
while outside...the winter evening is writing a draft
of a long chilly cozy story so warm...

yes! by the fire faces burn
and hands stretched on the yellow red
flames caused by gallons of hearts...
bottles from which the youth of time takes a swig...
shadows eerie sketching cartoons wide and big...
and haven't you so far seen?
how vapour rise to paint fog on screen
of the cars plying fast jumping lights?
how she held the arms of her wight tight-
as they haply cross the road to reach the opposite side
where a vendor selling steamy momos draws crowd so bright
under the corporation trident installation...

why cuddle up when the city is on the motion?
come'n out! enjoy the chill
let's whizz up the air with a thrill
of cold cutting into our bones...
of visors getting a smoggy tone...
of heat of petrol turning into fumes...
of singing pillion a highway tune...

last winter...

last winter...you once came
knocking my door early one morn
with a basket full of strawberries...
i remember...
your pink pullover...
glossy lips...
which had the hint of a smile...
mischievous one...
and then
i welcomed you
had coffee
together
sitting by the window...
i remember the sun falling on your hair...
black and browny silken motion...
and how you added two cubes of sugar
to my tumbler...sweet...

last winter
i remember
you coming with bunch of marigold flowers
hung around your neck like a carefree garland
and a porcelain vase
in your hand
one afternoon...
so fragile...
vulnerable...
running fingers on the edge
of the vase...
i got the feel of a shape...

last winter...
i remember...
pink pullover
and strawberries...
how filled the barracks of my heart...

Monday, December 24, 2012

merry christmas...(of the yore kind)

loved always that door of teak
polished shiny with copper bangles
and the graveled pathway that led
to that door kept opened from evening on for children like us
to run to and fro through the legs
of adult members of the town...
little bulbs were hung around the trees...
and four rows of wooden benches were dusted and cleaned...
special candles were delivered...
by a small van...with a grinning front...

At midnight...for the mass...
we used to come again...this time properly dressed...
in black and white...
Father Mathew in his whites
looked impeccable and somewhat alien to us...
He never smiled at us...that night...
he would keep lips held tight...
probably he had been himself a bit tensed
to stand and deliver before the townsfolk dense...
And also there would be some monastic guests...
From the city cathedral...
And everyone opened their books...
we also opened our own...
though our eyes hovered around...
What our friends were positioned...
whose dad looked particularly fearsome...
After the prayers we loved to stand
in the queue to kiss Old Father's shaking hand...
and he also seemed a bit relieved
with the biggest ceremony being over...
and as the adults hugged each other and wished
we got time again to run and play...
the night never looked like a night but a day!
No one slept...
No tears were shed...
as if happiness had been the only choice
of all people around...to sing...and dance...and to embrace...
That small chapel...
that old Father Mathew...
and that graveled path...
That 'Merry Christmas'
and midnight mass...
I miss...


beach ball...

the vast beach calm
and the long line of trees...the palms...
looked like the biggest ground on earth
swept by the strong wind from North...
and as we started to play
the ball by hurrying feet...prints we laid
on wet white sand soft and so full of grained joy
we became ourselves mere toys
at the hands of His vast open unpolluted variety
we had a beach football party...

but who's in midfield?who's centreback?
where's the goal post-
the fisherman's shack?
the central defender...the middle mark...
all became non existent...all positions were blurred...
for the vast...the open...the freed...
need no such markings to pay any heed...
only the ball rolled and rolled...
and we ran and ran...
on the beach...the soft benign sand...
putting everything at bay...
the civil choas... the horns...the crackers...
we ran and kicked the ball through the air...
got blisters on bare feet...
white foamy patterns dried neat
on our legs...by phosphorus got lighted straight
we ran hard...in the open sans barbed wires of time...or a closing gate...

those trees waved and sang
the only audience joining our band
as if they booed and cheered our game...
as if they implored us to carry on the same
sense of mirth...and uncaged hope...
the wind from the North brought twigs and feathers down a faraway slope...
the ball and the beach made us discover
life is unbound for any nature lover...
All we need is a pair of feet
and a ball to kick till we meet
the horizon...the waves and the wind
life...is not to be tinned
into some tiny cannister...
with a pin hole on the top...
life...is a beach ball party till the churchbell chooses to stop...


Friday, December 21, 2012

midevening blue convertible ride...

The air and the smell and even the taste of the midevening
came paddling smooth on the turf
as I rode the convertible...
the people had come out too
in jackets...wraps...sports shoes...
and young moms pushed perambulators...
the old man walked the footwalk with his setter...
and my blue midevening convertible had a song
of a self indulgent vagabond...
like a stallion the machine ran
whizzing past coffee joints and glowsigns...
the traffic lights blinking reflections pasted
on the roads...intersections...dots red green and yellow rested...
a brief too momentary makeover...
midevening convertible blue rider
that's me...

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

reunion at Nice...

She was working on the machine
tallying the day's earnings...
while the crimson spoilers fell
on the ocean...the bay of Nice...
Waves were roaring hard before kissing
the rocks...a shining turf with bubbles missing
the count burst into the air of spring
and she heard the ring of the door of the shop
someone had come to rent a scooter or to drop
one taken at early hours of the day...
without looking back...she stayed
put to her machine...and the book
of coins earned and coins spent
just then she heard...
'is the shop still open?
can I rent a scooter now?'
The voice sounded too familiar somehow
to her...so she turned
and with a frown of surprise
She found him in white flannels with a smile
cutting the ice...
she put her palm on her mouth
she kept looking at him with stupefied doubt
then she thought to play around
'Got an ID?'
She asked him with suppressed fun
The strokes of crimson sun were
on her face and also on his...
'I think I haven't...but wait...'
Saying this...
He brought out a picture...of he and she...straight...
Two heads and faces placed side by side...
One leaning on another picture of a kind...
'will this do?'
He asked back elongating the fun...
but that was too much for her
she did just make a short but fast run
to embrace him after four years with might
for four years they lived without each other's sight...

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

if you ask me...i would say...

if you ask me
i would say
tonight...
is just like another night
but it is also a special one...
like every day which comes and goes
each is special too!
if you ask me...
I would say...
Every month is so banal...
but every month is special too
for it has so many beautiful nights and days...
the days which herald the birth...
the nights which announce the climax...
if you ask me...
i would just say...
every birth is so banal
and so special too!
every kind of birth
on this awesome place...
full of possibilities...

Friday, December 14, 2012

urban mist...

when the late evening me returned
piercing the misty pattern
of urban decline...a slope
two or three figures like climbing ghosts
stalked me straight from tombs
as if to remind thrills of nights
listening wide eyed stories of fright
from granny in her gray shawl wrapped
me resting my tiny tired head on her lap...

urban misty form has such a thing
known roads turn never seen...
buildings frequented to look so unknown
a small patch of green turn a smoggy ocean...
park looks as wild as a bog
It is such a delight to move through urban fog...


Thursday, December 13, 2012

the warrior's way...to sainthood...

Well... led a life upto twenties
chasing guns and pink panties
a warrior was I...wild...reckless...
and women dropped to me like lost necklace...
or sometimes as offerings by the kings
under whom I served and did trophies bring...
then Beth came from no where
Mild...observant...soft...benign like a mother...
Never felt to chase her...dont know why
In her eyebrows were hidden tears and sighs...
orphan as she was without family
but got a strong overwhelming personality...
a virgin by face and eyes and demeanor...
she carried in her robes a sad sad lore...
and I chose to keep my head down to her
Couldn't look up to her eyes demure...
then a civil war of a kind broke loose
Swords and harpoons like lavish rain flew...
My wild wild warrior self rose to shine
Heads fell on streets like rolling dimes...
And someone told me Beth was caught
Heard in the melee some bastard sought
her to satisfy his carnal desire
My eyes were filled with hot charcoal fire
I flew to the spot and by a single stroke
killed the devil his breath choked...
But Beth ...being what she was made of
Her breath panting and she sobbed
and asked me to shun the fight
pleaded me to leave the sight
of gory battles and too much of blood
in her eyes saw how tears could flood
a warrior's merciless subhuman heart
She asked me to my ways part
with fights and battles and beheading course
she taught me to seek God's ways and remorse
fell on me like never it did on anyone
changing me from a warrior wild to a pious man...
Beth did it all by her smiles and eyes
which showed me to makeout His Holiness in blue sky
and green patches of life so vast
Beth removed my valour and lust...

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

unexpected rain ...

The rain of the evening caught me
unawares...
'a chilly night awaits us'
I thought as I buttoned up
and waited for her to turn up...
Mid december rain
sent shivers down the spine
and miserable umbrellaless men
ran helter skelter in vain...
'this gloomy evening...
Better not to expect her...
She wouldn't dare to wet her expensive fur...'
Thinking this I pulled the moist air
off my face...neck...and shoulders
and took a glance at the both sides of the road
glistening by the lights of municipal posts
declaring vivid a scene cold...lifeless
buildings looked all cooped up... captive
people must have chosen to dip
into tumblers of warmth and wine...
only I on the road caught in a drizzle unexpectedly shine...

Monday, December 10, 2012

a prayer to Him

let me be free
O God Stand before me
And place your sweetest softest hand
on my shoulders which are drooping down
and flash that your smile so blessed
Let your halo burn my flesh
and transmute me into a soul
Send me that fire to brave the biting cold...
Let your robes so white and soft
on my face with soothing feel drop
and give balms to my parched and broken heels
for I have walked far and the journey kills...
O God pull me up from the pit of uselessness
Make light of the mountain that my heart press
and help me to stand like a man who had seen
the worst and the best through your blinding dazzling beam...

Thursday, December 6, 2012

being bikechopper...

Have been long doing this
for just love playing with those ladies...
And after several hours of grease and grime
On the tank when airbrush the sign
and when the spark plug runs the first fire
and the sound of their hooting and purring rend the air...
I just love to take them for a ride...
a long one slicing the road of night...
O my ladies...of pure badass looks
and with jet set gasoline to keep them off the hook
Lowering the cg to the ground
keeping balance under a monstrous shroud
Chopper dreams when become plasmic real
More visions of aerodynamic builds I feel
as they drop one after another like a long battery of hope
on chartboard white rugged and broad...

the plant by the window...

when the last rays of the sun pass
by your blades...
the patterns of light and shade
fall on the stones...submerged
in water through which like tentacles
you spread thin line like roots
as if to find the perfect route
I know...
you are getting happy inside
and chlorophyll dots are waking up
to capture the waves of energy of light
and your cells are wriggling into life
for time has come to catch those photon drops...
the last quantum of energy down the slope...
I know...
you are perennially on the growth curve...
I know...
Your molecules of joy then get sprinkling of love...


Wednesday, December 5, 2012

wintry evening sudden...

This sudden arrival of evening
in winter has always kept me nonplussed...as if a practical joke
has been thrown at me by someone...
For the sun which had been there
a few minutes back round orange fair
writing orange songs on the wall...
playing hide and seek with boys homebound
from the school where they did a lot of math and writeups...
God knows where the sun suddenly hides
as if to quit his job he all of a sudden decides...
and the evening at that moment makes
an entry like a trained pro usually takes
into the last phase of a play on stage...
with gigs and gags suiting the script
winter evening to another level the day lifts...

frosted fingers and ringing ears
in diluted spirit rainbow tears
speed up a rocking episode of cuddling life
a huge multiplex screen lit up with supranormal delight...
a bunch of exotic smell grasps the teenaged boy
a boutique of designer wears he brings for his girl so coy...
and the little boy in socks and shoes and muffled look
tears open the wrapping paper of a story book
given to him by his father on his seventh year...
the taxi driver stops arguing with an elderly woman over fare
who has come to her son's after a decade long silence
frosty air smoothens the road view through my lens...
potholes appear closed forever...
ups and downs remind one of his granddad's rocking chair...





Tuesday, December 4, 2012

obituary to a simple unknown woman...

Today is a special day
for me...since two thousand and three...
for today I lost one of keys
to my original home...
the warmth of that womb...
that not only supplied liquid hope
and food through pipes and chords...
today is my day...
only mine perhaps
to lie down at the feet of Lord
and pray the whole day...
to cleanse my all impurities
to purge and burn
to sanitise...
to disinfect...
today is my day to have a tryst with fate...
one more time
since two thousand and three...

Mother!
stay right there with me...
as you have been
all these years without being seen...
like a smell of flower of the morn...
like an incense stick relighted...reborn...
like a smile with ambrosaic spell
like a bed time story that from your mouth oft fell...

twin space

The journey had been long...
tedious...full of hairpin turns...
bends foreseen full of puns
bends unseen with diabolic chance;

but pushing up the hill
came to a flattop...
can't move more
for the hill comes to the fullest stop
from where one could only drop
some fifty feet chasm deep...
lying down had a peep
God! only having wings one could try
to move smooth through the air...fly...
but the journey had been a macabre one
lost wings of the white swan
so lied moveless like a stone
felt clouds happily so far airborne
inscribing songs to my bone...

Eyes closed tried to ease
with my mind fathomed the breeze
it had the smell of God
surely it had penetrated my bod
for felt I had dreamt of me
Going out of all physicality...
there there saw myself asleep
And felt like a superb mind freak
Being at two places at the same time
on the top of the hill lying flat
and afloat without any effort on a magic mat...

'Now you don't need any wings
Wings had become part of your being...
But to keep you there for long
you need to shut externalities strong...'
Heard Him whispering into my ear
as if He divulged a secret fair...

The State Funeral

At least they have given her The State Funeral With tongue cut,  She could not have spoken for  The rare award,  The police have done the th...