The Blue Door

There is a blue door at end of the road. People say it’s the door to the happiness.  One can hear laughter and songs, but no one is ever seen crossing the threshold. Neighborhood believes that all the peace and happiness has got locked behind the blue door. No one knows who has locked all the joy away but the sadness and anger that is left behind is quite palpable.

As one walks down the road, one can hear screams of the locked lunatic sibling coming from an attic of one house. They say he lost his mind over a girl who was forced to marry someone from her clan. From another house one can hear heart rending lament of a mother whose only child has gone missing. A misogynist cop rants and screams in the other one, ordering his wife and children who tremble with fear. A young girl screams hysterically in the next one whenever she hears a footstep, “They are coming for me. Save me.”

The town has a church, a temple, synagogue and a mosque where prayers are held daily. Everyone prays for peace and prosperity that they think is locked elsewhere behind the Blue door. They all hold each other’s faith in doubt. They all live in constant fear and pride of their gods. They fight and attack each other relentlessly. It feels as though they are compelling their gods to compete in a race to gain the highest glory and power of the land (just like they wanted the children to compete once upon a time). Sadly, they have managed to drive both gods and children away.

After prayers everyone returns to the little hell they have managed to create. The Blue door remains shut forever. In their fight, hatred and bigotry, the town has forgotten that the gods have left key to the door with them – the key that opens only when there is love and kinship.

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…

Staying Relevant

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…

Kafkaesque

I exist therefore I am

I am therefore I exist

I am the means

and the end

I think

so I do

I do

so I think

I stand

so I believe

I believe

so I stand

I reason

to be

not to be

I protest

for Justice

That is blind

I am free

but chained

by law

But the law exists

to free the chains

what is Right

is also Left of Right

But Right is not wrong

so Left is definitely wrong

Emerging from the Dark

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!

War

Canvas of history
Forever painted in red
Shows us the right mirror
Mankind has never been kind

Battle after battle
Peace has been butchered
Yet we dream and hope white dove
Will save us
Love will bail humanity

Even in garb of peace
We know to fight our
Cold wars
Power wars
Without weapons

Even between you and me
We identify the Other
To keep the fight on
We need victims
To feel the power

Even if we don’t butcher
We bully in good humor
To eliminate the Other
Upmanship may drown us
Yet we steer our ships with pride
Towards annihilation and regret

Metaphorical Phoenix
Rises from the ashes
But we keep the embers burning
To start the next war
With every hope demolished
Love turns into a refugee