Tag: life

Revisiting the Past

What looks like a wasteland
Exactly that’s where
My home stood
With a beautiful garden

I stare at that land
That unsold dirty plot
Not belonging to anyone
Yet belonging to all

It was once upon a time
guarded by a tall wall
The wall is also half gone
While rest is totally erased

The land is covered with grass
The same grass we despised
But yet picked the holier ones
For the offerings

Along with the garden and home
My people and trees are gone too
I can almost hear the voices
Which lived there

How was it all demolished?
Brick by brick?
Blow by blow?
Or was it natural decadence?

I guess, I came looking for her
That barefooted wild girl
Who ran to school and cycled,
Played and giggled in the garden

As I turn around,
I find her on the wall graffiti
A barefooted wild girl
With her back turned upon the world

Strangely the roads
Where I learnt
To walk, run and cycle
Have remained the same

Just like the stubborn grass
Memories are stubborn too
So are some friendships
And roads we return to

Labyrinth

Trapped in the Labyrinth

It is often impossible
To get out the labyrinth
For the simple reason
You don’t feel trapped

It doesn’t seem what it is
You keep going onwards
While the labyrinth’s design
Takes you backward

Blame it on the design
Or the divine
There is no way to know
That it is a trap

You go in circles
Thinking it’s taking you forward
But it’s a spiral descent
To nowhere or maybe hell

You are happy
With the clever deception
Who doesn’t like
Illusion of happiness?

Who needs justice and peace
Happiness and prosperity?
The grand illusion of it all
Is fine enough

Why risk it all?
For which end?
It’s an endless
Labyrinth

Fatigued, fogged
You are simply happy
Forward or backward or circles
How does it matter?

Soon lifetime will be served
Labyrinth will be inherited
Baton will be passed on
The game will go on…

Designers will blame the divine
Divine will be part of the design
Truth will become a beautiful lie
And all lies will seem truthful

It’s an endless labyrinth
We need to navigate
To keep going
To reach nowhere or maybe hell

2034 – A Play Rooted in Dystopian Present and Future

Couple of years ago, I had taken a years break from work. I did many things which I wouldn’t have had liberty to do as a full time working teacher. One of things was – a week long course on History Of Indian Science hosted by Asiatic Society. Icing of the course (cake) was the grand finale – a theatre group called Mukhosh presented an anti-Superstition play – ‘Uncertainty of Principles’ ( ‘https://maddecadence.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/uncertainty-of-principles-a-brilliant-play-on-conflict-between-science-and-superstition/) in the historic auditorium of Asiatic Society. That’s when I first saw scientist duo Dr. Ayan Banerjee and Dr. Anindita Bhadra with their family on stage calling out superstition and astrologers through their brilliant play. 

Having been a fan of playwrights like Brecht whose famous play on Galileo still gives me goosebumps, I felt a great sense of relief to see scientists reaching out to society to spread awareness, to open their blindfolds which has been put cunningly by those in power. That play was a grim reminder of work and sacrifice of stalwarts like Dr. Narendra Dabholkar and many others.

While there are quite a few professional theatre groups in Kolkata who are putting up incredibly brave shows to call out fascism, autocracy, highly critical of state and central governments but what makes Mukhosh a little different is that it is literally a small home grown theatre group, none of them are professional theatre persons but are rather well established names in their scientific academic circles and they really don’t have to do anything additional for the society – as we are often led to believe that scientific contribution is one of the most gratifying one to the society.

But we often ignore that modern scientists rarely dare to call out societal, religious and political wrongs like their glorious predecessors – Copernicus, Galileo and many others (whom they admire) did, as much is often at stake. Prof. Ayan Banerjee, Dr. Anindita Bhadra are carrying forward the brave legacy by staging dystopian truth as a dark comedy and making a call for scientific rationality of thought and action.

Their second play 2034 which was staged yesterday at Academy of Fine Arts on the eve of the anniversary of their theatre venture is truly a commentary on dystopian current times.  Though the play backdrop is set for the year 2034, but I guess realities have accelerated fast beyond the expectation of the playwright.

It is a brilliantly scripted play about how an innocent magician couple’s famous stage act becomes their Achilles heel and they end up behind bars, framed to be anti-nationals by the fearful fascist government in power. I don’t want to give away the script but the way play unfolds as yet another show of the magician while breaking the fourth wall – involving the audience and ending in similar manner is quite innovative and engaging – making audience feel complicit and victim at the same time. It blurs the line between precarious predicament of protagonist and audience. Also, it ends on a mixed note as baton by legacy is passed on to the younger generation who are left to fend for themselves as society abandons them but the seed of creativity instilled by their parents holds a promise.

2034 addresses the important question as well – who are fearful ones here? We, the people of the government or is it really the other way around? Do fascists do what they do out of sheer mental fear psychosis – a fear of being called out and voted out of power? Are they so fearful that they wish to imprison any innocent who they feel is an perceptive, rational, gifted, thinking individual who can unmask their sinister blueprint? It also depicts how fear psychosis percolates when even neighbours, co-workers refuse to stand with the victims as media descends to hound them for the truth which has already been cleverly buried!

Kudos to Mukhosh, Ayan Banerjee, Anindita Bhadra and their family members for not fretting from holding the mirror to current times and calling out that ’emperor is truly naked and fearful’. Unfortunately, it is the audience/people of the republic which has been cleverly blinded.

Certain parts of the play did seem slow but I guess it was deliberate to build up the momentum for the end. Auditorium sound system needs a revamp. Academy of Fine Arts is undergoing renovations so one can hope they will improve infrastructure of the theatre as well.

Also, it was heartening to see many scientists and research scholars coming together to watch the play on a rainy saturday afternoon.

Looking forward for more such plays. These efforts truly are like proverbial straws of hope or silver linings – much required during current dark times which I guess will only become worse in future if we don’t act now. 

Musings on Love

Death of loved one 
Is difficult to endure
But death of love itself
Is impossible to accept 

At times
Just like a bird
It simply flies away 
No reasons given 

For some death of love 
Is slow and painful
Resentment just grows
Like cancer

For others it is a sudden death
Heart simply stops beating
For the other
It leaves behind a void 
A wasteland of promises

Love may seem a gift
A burden, a nostalgia 
A baggage or a lesson
Just like life itself

Love can grow at unusual places
It can grow roots
In most hostile ground
And bloom like a wild flower

Love is a life breath
Breathe it in 
As long as it lasts 
Cherish the illusion
  
It often brews a storm 
Out of mere flapping of
A colourful butterflies
On a lazy afternoon
 
Just like a storm 
It rages and ravages 
Dazzles with rain
Light, colours and rainbows 

For those who claim forever
It becomes a habit
A known rhythm of heart 
That resonates 
Till the vibes lasts

Then there is that rare Love
Whose beauty lies in its brevity
Whose grave you build within
Which gives you strength 
To endure its passing 

Hate stands no chance
In comparison 
Love lurks in nooks and corners
In that gentle pat 
Love has life's back

Time Portal

Time portal

On some days I wish
Time portal did exist
Just a familiar knock
Would lead me to its door
To another time, another space

More than the Time,
I miss the familiar spaces
With loving faces and embraces
That are forever lost

I wish to go back to a time
To enjoy long walks with my father
Have ice creams with my mother
Or to get into arguments
With my grandmother
about ungodly behaviour of gods
(While savouring her ladoos)

I wish I could go back
To just be a naughty giggling
back-bencher in school
Or climb those Sahyadri hills yet again
To reach dilapidated fort premises
Just to lie on my back
Under open night dark sky
Beholding the starry night

Or maybe go back to a time
to be held
In a long tight embrace
by my very special little nephew
His eyes conveying fears
And a promise that
he would always
Be there to hold me tight
Wish he could return
Through that portal door
To me yet again

Sometimes dreams
become that portal
They take me back to time
That’s when I wish
I don’t wake up
To this hideous reality
Of an unsafe world
That teaches us
Only to doubt, fear and judge

I wish there existed a Time portal
And a familiar knock would lead me
To another world
Another time and space
Where I could be me
Throwing all cautions to the wind
Embracing or being embraced
By those I have forever lost

Best not Taken

Thud – will that how it will sound?
Breaking lazy monotony
Of a rainy evening
Ensuing a chaos

Miraculously
Things will be taken care of
Strangers will curse,
blame and pity
And so will
family, friends and colleagues

People who never paused
To listen or understand
Will dissect your being
For hours

Gaslighting the departed
Absolving themselves of guilt
Everyone will move on

Within a day or two or years
Presence of a life will be erased
Unloved life would be lost in vain

Is that all there is?

Pause and look up
Behold the bird
Soaring in the sky
Flying into the setting sun

Birth is never a choice
But when death seems at times
The trick definitely is to
Keep breathing

Wait for the moment to pass
Look beyond
Outside your window
There is a life that awaits
That wants you to live

Take the pain in stride
And marinate your life with it
The last desperate step
Will definitely be
The best not taken!!