What do I say to you
My dear city?
Should I regret the joys
I was robbed of ?
Or should I thank you for
Gifting me a new me?
I have smiled and cried too
On these shores of the sea
The sea that you seem to hide
I came around a full circle
What I thought was a closure
Became a spiral
Yet I am back here
Asking no questions
Nor seeking any answers
Your hidden vast shores
Are welcoming as always
As though waiting to hear
My song again!!
Ah! AI
Ah! The clamour for supremacy
Race for Artificial Intelligence
While we lose natural traits
Along with all kinds of intelligence
In this game of supremacy
All are falling behind
Be it China, US, UK or name any
All bear the similar shame
Shame of bartering poor lives
Trading away dreams
Violating privacy
Outraging modesty
In this magnificent churn
Of algorithms and time
Wonder who will survive
When the planet dies?
Let us pause out
Take a time out
Remove our heads
From the sand
Information ain’t knowledge
Machines aren’t human
Money isn’t the end game
Neither is power
When empires topple
It is the poor rebels
Who make it alive
While tyrants flee
Time spares none
Not even the sun or stars
We are mere mortal
Accidental stardust!
– Jan 2025
Bangalore
Only regret stays
If only…
What if…
Just like
Driftwood in rapids
People drift away
Some choose
For some
It’s not a choice
Time stands still
With moments lived
And unlived
Departures
Without goodbyes
Are the toughest
Life teaches
How to pick
Yourself up
Along with all
The broken pieces
Of your heart
And your being
One just needs
To be patient
Those life lessons
Are like strewn clues
Hidden in a flower
Or a bleak star
In the night sky perhaps
Or on the dark side
Of the moon
When pushed
To a corner
Or into an abyss
Don’t quit
But rebel
Your life puzzle
Maybe undone
With pieces missing
But new pieces
Are strewn around you
Pick those up
Try to find
A grander puzzle
Or a greater purpose
Or just be
An unseen gardener
Toiling away
For the new seeds
To germinate
Pick yourself up
Don’t give up
Yet.
20/1/2025
Gambling away
One’s own life
Taking risks
Leap of faiths
Seeking
The unknown
But gambling away
Others lives?
Especially our children’s
Thinking we own it
Is always dangerous
And wrong
A young aspirant
Gave up
So did the other and another
Fathers said
Fans need to be banned
Anti suicide device
Need to be checked
Let us control
All the factors
Look for loopholes
The peripherals
While avoiding
The truth
Sisyphus facing the
Heaviest boulders
Dared to pause
And not push
Not realising
It is not a choice
He or she had
Who decides
Size of the boulder?
Boulder of expectations
We unwittingly
Force our kids
To inherit
Boulders
Which crush them
Then we call them
Idiots who quit
We look for others
To blame
For our collective shame
Perhaps
It is the time
To imagine
Our young Sisyphus
Unhappy
With boulders and crucifixes
Of our expectations
– Jan 2025
Maybe the culprits and reasons are the same so are the innocent victims. Be it Gaza, Ukraine, Manipur and other conflicts or wildfires in elite neighborhoods of Hollywood. It is a skewed idea of entitlement, unchecked growth and greed. To feel entitled to encroach and occupy – not just other nations but also nature. To completely disregard basic tenets of human existence and Nature. To stop being human to create luxuries out of miseries at the cost of the environment.
What will become of you and me are in the images of the world today. The destructive progress will reach our homes too before we know it. Natural elements like earth, fire, water and air will try to tame the shrews we have become. Earthquakes here, snowfall there, wildfire here and floods, landslides there – we refuse to read the messages they bring just like we refuse to learn from the history of hate and war.
What will become of you and me isn’t hard to imagine…we no longer even persevere and aspire to leave a peaceful and safe planet for our children. What will become of us and them?
Waiting for the tides to turn
When and where exactly do the tides turn?
When the river rushes downstream to meet the sea?
Or when sea water surges in one long big wave?
Which of the two will flood the banks?
They say glaciers are melting
Sea levels will rise and rivers too will swell
Wonder how much land will be swallowed by the waters?
And what will be left behind?
I hear the unrest of the sea of humans
They too are waiting for tides to turn
For some it will bring in fortunes
Others may simply drown
But no one knows which way will the tides turn
Whether the river will rush downstream
Or a long sea wave will hit upstream?
Everyone pretends to be in control
Unaware how their actions affect the other
While we were watchful of water waves
A fire engulfed a forest somewhere
Humans rushed to save animals and
Animals taught humans love and empathy
Maybe that’s the game
To return to one’s own self and roots
One must brave the surging seas, the fire and vanishing forests
Fighting natural elements is tough
But tougher it is to battle one’s own kind
Who believes that my end will turn their fortune tide
The fool can’t foresee the surge will drown us all!
The river bank watches yet another epic battle
Ah! The vicissitudes of Time and Tide!
I see confident people around me
Who have figured it all out
Life’s bucket and checklist
The job, insurance, taxes, savings
First home, second home
Third getaway home maybe
The blueprint clear in their heads
There would be assets, things
And family playing their perfect parts
A big happy picture on the wall of life
They know they will get nice funerals
Maybe memorials, epitaphs too
I see all kinds of people around me
Well, who seem to have
Figured it all out
Their days line up
In a disciplined manner
One following the next
Smart alecs – they know
How to cease the moment
They know their politics too
They know whom to hate
Whom to other, games to play
All rules of the game
But then they can’t imagine
Others imperfect lives
With mouths to be fed, roofs to be fixed
Neither do they realise
Beauty and Fragility of life
Stupidity of their whole game
Modern Sisyphus seems happy
Happy to be a smiling cog in the wheel
Turning and turning, without the toil
I see people pretend
They have figured it all out
Even as their world falls apart
They can’t imagine
Someone’s home being razed
Children being killed and maimed
Chaos only comes home
When their lives get disrupted
And the grand plan derails
Like natural cycles
Disasters seem to have a purpose
To restore our hopes, dreams and ideals
It takes an effort to live and love
We somehow miss this simple fact
Till our homes become empty cages
I see people around me
Who seem to have all figured out
Their todays, tomorrows and dayafters
Except for the bits which need love
Compassion and understanding
Except for the fixing, we know everything!
Then the cycle repeats
With fresh blue prints
Which erases yours and mine!
Escaping with little
Leaving home behind
A refugee in the world
Only a sky and courage to behold
Empty mansions
Tired caretakers
Only wealth to behold
A hostage to greed
Twain realities coexist
Yet they never meet
Peace is easy to violate
War remains difficult to negotiate
Ah! World…so predictable
With no new way ahead
We trudge the known bloody paths
Self-similar war games
Us and them
Power bereft of reason
Reason bereft of compassion
Compassion bereft of love
Love bereft of logic
Logic bereft of purpose
A farce called out
Wit bored of sarcasm
Futile cynicism
Kaleidoscope needs to be shaken
A new pattern must unfold
Out of all brokenness…
It is easy to imagine
You are sipping
Your morning tea
On your favourite spot
Reading your book
And suddenly
It’s all reduced
To rubbles
Except the place
Where you are sitting
In your favourite spot
You look for elevator
You need stairs
You need to run
Ground beneath feet
Did shake
And now it’s just you
On a high rise
With roof blown
Staring in disbelief
Incredibly lucky? Isn’t it?
To be perched precariously
To watch the scene change
Within seconds
You don’t know
Is it a nightmare?
Where did this missile come from?
When did the war reach my home
Till yesterday I was a civilian
A honest tax paying citizen bystander
When I did I turn into a victim?
A witness to such horror?
Do they even know I am alive?
My dear and near ones who
Probably are watching TV
Sitting in their favourite spot
Will they count me among the dead?
With no signal, no electricity or kitchen
I will have to wait
With this rage, confusion
Fear and grief
Why were we abandoned?
Who abandoned us?
The governments? UN? God?
Will this attack bring peace?
Cease-fire atleast ?
Nations will spar
Deads will be numbered
And not named
Living ones will have no names
Only identities
Suspended in disbelief
I wonder if the house
Was it insured for missile attacks?
But was this an official attack?
Will there be a paper work?
How will they prove?
Everyone will spin the narratives
We are good in condemning
What we cannot prevent
Words, words and more words
Us and them
We forget – they made us
And we made them
Imagine, it is not too difficult
Planet on the brink of extinction
But till the end money needs to be made
Stocks to be bought and sold
No need to see what companies do
Buy and sell
As long as they bring in dividends
Was this missile made by you and me?
Play the probability game
The answer may be infinitesimal
But finite
Ofcourse we didn’t know
Where our money went
Taxes and investments
We were just doing jobs
Building our homes
A place to be
With a favourite spot
To sit, sip and read
To plant our succulents
I look around
My spot, books, succulents
All are there
But rest all is destroyed
Reduced to a pile of contrete
They will find me
They need to mourn
And avenge!
26/10/23
Mad Decadence 