Staying relevant
In irrelevant times
Is the challenge
Engage
Or disengage?
Stay attached?
Or be detached?
When Time sweeps
You away from the frame
Should one linger
On the fringes?
Where does one go?
Is there a Rumi’s field?
The even playing field?
Where they play it fair
No time to call a foul
A foul
No ground rules
It’s a game
Where no one wins
But all try to
Reinvent
Shifting positions
Moving goal-posts
To stay relevant
In these irrelevant times…
Under the Canopy
Here She lies
In Paris
In exile
At Pere Lachaise
A mother, a queen
With a vanquished dream
She crossed seven seas
A sin in the 1850s
In the hope of justice and freedom
From the Queen of England
Mocked, ignored and bribed
She told them
They could not own
The kingdom of her son
And her pride
Here she lies
Our own Queen of Oudh
Next to a bush of roses
Growing in the wild
In exile
at Pere Lachaise
Resting quietly among the greats
She sought nothing
But Peace and Freedom
Among all the shiny graves
If you see an earthly grave
Fractured by Time
Under a green canopy
Know that it’s her
India’s brave Queen Mother –
Janab-e-Aliah Mallika Kishwar
Who crossed seven seas
A sin in the 1850s
To seek Peace and Freedom
And fair political justice
From the Imperial queen
And did no compromise
Do pause
And pray
If you may
But do tell her tale
Here She lies…
History stares at me
Full of tales
From different eras
From different perspectives
A walk
Back in Time
To re-build the Time
To know the present
To shape the future
That’s what Astronomers
Do as well
Look back in Time
To connect the cause
and the effect
In a chaos that reigns
There she lay
In a lonely grave
By the Brook
Unseen and unknown
Till a lonely shepherd
Stumbled upon her
And found her tale
A glorious tale of
Love and loss
Of a royal Princess
The most beautiful
Tormented soul
Soon the stories
Were made
And unmade
Shepherd loved
The dead dame
And his fame
He tended to
The tomb
Soon lovers came
To be blessed
By the cursed Princess
Little did anyone know
Six feet under
Was a sad refugee
Who had lived,
In pain,
Loved,
And died in vain
Little did she know
Her death will give
Her a life, care
And a fame
And not far away
In the grand Cemetery
In an unmarked grave
Was the real Princess
Finally dethroned by Time
They tell me I don’t belong
To this part of the land
Under this part of the sky
On this shore
They tell me move back
But I came here
When they told me
I don’t belong there
I was a refugee then
An illegal immigrant now
How many names will you give
To your own creations?
The divide that you created
The line that fractured the land
Into here and there
Us and them
You and me
I will go away…
History will repeat
I will move on
Move back
Move away
But when will you learn?
The Earth, Sea and Sky have no boundaries
Your mind has made it all up!
The imbecile mind
Which is addicted to war games!
I will outlive your games
Tomorrow you will celebrate my survival
You will share it million times
Just like war
You are addicted to stories
To social media
To internet
Between the persecution
And celebration
Millions will disappear
Lives will be lost
Many changed forever!
In this world of imbeciles
I’d rather be an immigrant!
I’d rather not belong!
Your riches
Will be forever indebted to my poverty!
Engulfed by the light
Blinded
By own luminous being
Unable to see or feel
How others feel…
An era of knowledge
Bereft of Wisdom
Desensitized
Sensitivity reigns
A world
where refugee children
Face trials
Four year olds
Die smothered with lust
Hope is a lost cause
Let darkness descend
Light has led us nowhere
Maybe answers we seek
Lie in darkness
Let there be dark
And quiet healing
While emerging from the dark
Maybe we will learn to behold Beauty
And the Truth yet again!
Mad Decadence 