Your idea of heaven
Is my idea of hell!
How will we ever reconcile?
You talk of supremacy
I walk with the oppressed
How do we find a middle ground?
You use brute loud force
I sing my songs of protest
Do you ever hear me?
You think might is right
I believe meek too has a right
How do I protect my child?
You are drunk on power
I root for my freedom
How do we avoid the fight?
Dice is definitely loaded
You will win this fight
But still you will lose
You will remember me
At the door of heaven
Your sins
Will be my testimony
Your lies
My truth
The fire you lit to hide your crimes
Will burn down the heaven
Your supremacy is a sham
You have power that is not yours
One day humanity will rise
One day humanity has to rise!
Tag: time
Lost Humanity
Scavenging under the rubbles
She looked for humanity
It was yet another day of
Strategic bombing
They tried to flee in vain
From guns and grenades
And bombs
And landmines
And beastly men
Death was everywhere
In every form
It caught up with all
Even those who escaped these
Troubled shores
She kept scavenging for humanity
Under the rubbles
Of the wasteland
Many died
For the sake of few
Who wanted to live
It was a lost battle
Under the rubbles
She scavenged
For dead humanity
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.
Howling Winds
It was in the news
Cyclonic storm was on its way
They did what they could
To prevent the disaster
They monitored the eye and the tail
There it was circulating,
feeding on winds
And gathering momentum
It all seemed calm on the shores
Till the waves began to move faster
It came closer,
Sounds of the howling winds
Made it all real
Everyone knew
All preparations were made
All estimates looked good
But there was no way to assess
The damage it did
Young ones quivered in fear
Homeless knew they will be
Unaccounted ones
Lonely man walked on the street
Unaware of the perils
No one had told him to be safe
He took shelter under the very tree
That crushed him minutes later
Howling winds
Harbingers of death
Preyed on lonely, helpless
And homeless
Farmers lamented as
Entire harvest got washed away
No one realised
Storm was our harvest
By feeding Earth, wind and seas
Our anger, disgust, greed,
wastes, pollutants and hatred
Cyclonic storm just churned it all.around
And returned what we had reaped
With anger and vengeance
Winds, earth and sea turned hostile
Howling winds perhaps were warning us –
“Don’t be a bully
It all can all boomerang very badly!! “
Silence and the Darkness
When silence becomes deafening
And the words hide in the dark
Slowing erasing history
I try to figure out their forms
Or meaning or language
Nothing emerges
It’s a dark dense space
Nothing is visible
Nor is audible
I wait
Maybe words are being born
Maybe a new reality is taking a form
What if it’s a monster that’s in the making?
What if the silence is made of inaudible screams?
As the world looks away in faith
Blinded by the festive lights
I will hang on to my doubts
I shall still try to listen to sounds of silence
And try to peer into dark abyss
With or without hope
Chains of Liberation

You ask “Why don’t you dance with joy?
There have been infinite invisible chains around my feet
I never knew that I was supposed to undo them one by one
I kept them all ‘as gifts’
I waited for some loving hands to undo them
I didn’t know I have to undo them myself
One day you came along
And laughed at me…
You reached down my feet
But ended up adding one more chain
Now I struggle to undo them one by one
Only one of them can’t be undone
It’s the ‘chain of liberation’
Which you gave me as a farewell gift!!!
Bare Foot Joy

Making, flying and chasing paper kites
Bare foot
Running across the crowded streets
They seem to soar just like the kites
Kite runners look happy
Across continents their joy is same
For the moment
They are free just like their kites
Riding on the lightness of the moment
They behold pure joy
The joy that eludes
The boy across the street
Sitting in the car
Staring through the glass window
He is a prisoner of luxuries
While poverty has set others free
They run like wind
Through narrow lanes
They hop across building roof tops
While the other stays glued
To the smart phone screen
Sun kissed
Blessed by the evening breeze
Our kite runners seize the moment!
Ah! the bare foot joy
That eludes the little boy!
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!
The Storm
Light breeze kissing the leaves
Dancing waves touching the shore
Whisper to me
A storm is on the way…
I want to be silent
I do not want to burden the wind
For my words might trigger a storm
I wait silently for the storm to pass
Once again I shall be ready
To throw my words to the winds
1999
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