Jump

Unable to find answers

Unable to bear the questions

Acutely aware

Of all closed doors

And humiliations

And all silences

She decided to jump

As she walked along the edge

Too many thoughts

Crowded her mind

She wanted to cut loose

From the past

From the present

The questions

The helplessness

The despair

Her luckless and

Loveless life

When no one pays heed

When life is cruel

What’s the point?

What’s the point?

On and on

The thoughts fogged her mind

Tears blinded her vision

Suddenly a stranger stopped her

“Please take one bunch please.

I haven’t eaten whole day”

A blur of bunch of yellow roses

Were staring at her face

Prodding her was

Another voice of despair

Carrying a bunch of bloom

What an irony!!

She paid the boy

And watched the train go by

She brought home

The yellow flowers.

She wondered…

There is a point maybe…

There are people maybe…

There are doors maybe…

There are paths maybe…

There is a future maybe…

That day she didn’t jump

But took a leap of faith instead!

Strange

Strange is the light that blinds

Strange is the light behind dark shadows

Strange is the joy that inflicts pain

Strange is the love that teaches to hate

Strange is the life that must end in death

Strange is the meaning that is absurd

Strange are the dreams that cannot be real

Strange is the reality that is a dream

Strange are the clouds that don’t bring rain

Strange is the regret that hides the pride

Strange are the journeys that never end

Strange are the words that defy the form

Strange are the doors that never open

Strange is the religion that robs the faith

Strange are the bridges that separate

Strange is the war that is fought for peace

Strange are the journeys that never end!

Other

Peasants will rise
They will sing
They will protest
They will take bullet
They will save democracy
While we will fret
And intellectualize!

Educated middle classes
Don’t you worry
These whom you ‘other’
Will save your jobs too
They don’t need you
But you do
To reap crops,
Cook your food
Cobble your shoes
Tailor your clothes,
Build your homes
Clean your homes
Toilets and cars too!!

After the revolution
They will still come
And assume their lowly jobs
While you will rot in your guilt
Or die with a foolish smug!
History textbooks will talk of them
But you will be mentioned
As the ‘other’ who let the system down!!

#saynotohate

Time

Time is wrapped
We move forward
But yet in circles

A new beginning
Another New Year
All dots
On the circles

Time is a trap
An endless wrap
Moving forward
Yet in circles

Histories repeat
Dictators return
But tyrant
Time
Beats them all

Let us not despair
No one colour or
One faith can
Rule Forever

Light refracts
Even through
The Prism of Religion
Into a Rainbow

All mighty forever
Will bite the dust
As children of soil
Will rise yet again

Time goes in circles
Some look ahead
Forgetting the wrap
Others who look behind
Fall in the trap

There is no way
Back into the womb
Only death awaits
Ahead

Time moves forward
While moving in circles
Maybe Sisyphus is happy
For he knows
The clock ticks…

Modern Day Macbeth

We are still under the hangover of Macbeth – the play by Rajat Kapoor which was staged yesterday at Kalamandir, Kolkata. It really give hope that there are people who are voicing their dissent loud and clear!

The satire was not lost…starting with three witches being compared to Kardashians, fascism being called Karaoke Fascism, how it needs one small ‘push’ to make any person violent, how violence is the potent force that binds the society and ending with the satirical disclaimer by two jokers played brilliant by Jim Sarabh and Vinay Pathak.

Ranvir Shorey portrayed the dilemma of modern day Macbeth (who kills to become a CEO)

with troubled conscience superbly. Each dialogue was important but unfortunately much was difficult to decipher due to poor sound and our back alley seats. They made it very clear that given current state of affairs, the joke was entirely on the elitist audience!
Bravo is all I can say!!

I hope it will make people introspect what they are endorsing so easily is dangerous and the blood stain on our conscience will only grow bigger and bigger even if we try to wipe or justify it!

#macbeth #shakeaspeare #rajatkapoor #jimsarabh #vinaypathak #ranvirshorey

Strange Imprints

As the night falls

I wonder what

Set the pace

Of Time

It moves

Freezes

Goes back

And forth

Yet always

Arrow of Time

Points always

Ahead

It circles

Around the

Life and Death

Beginning

And the End

I look at the stars

I look back

Millions of years

Wonder how do they

See our history

Unfolding

On a tiny

Blue Dot

Strange is the

Arrow of Time

Pointing into

Nowhere

Ticking away

Turning

Itself into ashes

Rising like a phoenix

Yet it always

Moves ahead

Stubbornly ahead

Leaving behind

Strange mute imprints

A sand dune there

Or a mountain here…

By the Brook

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