Tag: poetry

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

Random Musings

Yet another new year
Is back with the old baggage
Of fears and cautions
Prejudices and bigotry
Lurking shadows of
Diseases and death

They tell us
To hang on
To seek hope in
Science and prayers
Look for silver linings
And healings
Lost love
And musings

While prejudice kills peace,
And pride our compassion
While hate spreads
Like wildfire
Our comforts get
Traded and sold

While we lose our voice
And rights
Like Jesus
Or phoenix
Maybe they will rise
Just like balloons
Filled with their breath

Those little street urchins
They bear testimony of
Our collective failures,
Our naked emperors
Maybe their balloons display
Everyone’s lost smiles!!

#2022

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!!

Dreams

I take long walks
In Latin quarters in Paris

I enter a random church
Someone is playing Ave Maria

I climb Sahyadri hills
Feeling free and fatigued

I walk along Marine drive
Watching rains approach

I am stranded in deluge
Waiting for a transport home

At times I am sailing
Along Tungabhadra in Hampi

Or I am listening to a stream
On some river bank in Bhutan

Or I walk and sob on a beach
Unsure of taste of salt

It could be sea
Or my tears 

At times I am trapped
In Escherisque space

Or walking on a 
Mobius strip 

I am lost and then
I am found

I reach yet
I don't reach

While Uncertainty is
The only certainty 

Waking hours 
A prolonged nightmare

My escape and freedom
Is in my dream 

Selfish it may seem
I don't want to be awake 

I don't want to talk
Of nightmares today

#covidtimes