Friday, April 07, 2006

War and Hope



Where is he, the wounded soldier that walked the streets of nowhere land
Where does lie the drop of tear that was never wiped by a single hand
Where has gone the cries of hope that echoed in the empty souls
Where can I find that mark of peace in the clutter of bullet holes
Time has stood still for those eons when no one heard the songbirds cry
No one saw the springtime blossoms slowly wither in pain and die
Clouds of black smoke filled the sky, gunshots choked the silent dreams
The wind blew far carrying sounds of vulture’s laugh and muffled screams.
The rivers dyed in crimson red carried the message to the seas
The streets echoed silent cries of misery, agony and disease
The rumbling roaring war machines were all that had a presence there
Rest was hung in desperation in the shadow of a pall of fear
Waiting for the clouds to clear, for the blossoms to bloom again
The sun to rise in an orange splendour and ease away the pain
And so the days of the solitary girl looking through the broken glass
Is spent in hope that one fine day this blinding darkness will just pass.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

time and money

there was a time when everything seemed very smooth...but those were the times when there was no tv, no mobile phones, no cars, yet things were nice. there was a certain importance to life away from work. people worked for the stipulated hours and then their time was meant for leisure. but today work seems to be everything. someone calls you at 10 in the night about something at work. you are trying to watch a nice movie in a theatre and some bloody client calls you ten times in the middle of the show. ofcourse you dont answer and then he will accuse you of not picking up his calls. you come back home and are trying to relax over a warm cup of tea and some stupid guy from the project managers office calls you and wants some detials right now for his boss who is having a meeting in bangalore. how do you care? and the details are anyway in the office and you cannot give them now. so you tell him 10 tomorrow morning. he will again call up at ten and ask you have you mailed the details? what do they think they are. a majority of the pwople in the professional world do not understand a very simple thing. if their time is money, then the other person's leisure time is also money for him in a different way and they should better learn to respect that. my leisure gives me better mental and physical health and keeps me away from doctors and medicines. i have heard stories that in some parts of the western world you call a person on a weekend and he promptly reminds you that its his holiday/leisure time and you better call when work hour starts again. when will we learn to behave like that? architects should start telling their clients no to meetings on weekends and late evenings. vendors should learn to tell their customers no to unreasonable demands about fast service. we should all learn to respect each other's leisure time and get the belief out of our minds that money is everything. their is no use of moeny without good health. dont we all agree to it?

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Poetic Liscence

they all talk about poetry a lot... everybody seems to be writing some poetry.. but what exactly is poetry? is it just a random expression of thoughts rising in a person's mind in a few incomplete sentences which may or maynot rhyme and with unusual punctuations thrown arbitrarily? or is it something more serious, more complex, that requires a concentrated effort towards forming an entire new set of rules in a standard language.. an expression which is at the same time stylistic and profound.. just thoughts without styel doesnt make poetry.. they are just thoughts... i think... but i am not an expert... jus thinking aloud...

poetry should be something like ogden nash:

a little bit of talcum
is always walcum...

he had written for babies...

or

The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other...

about cows

or

The turtle lives 'twixt plated decks
Which practically conceal its sex.
I think it clever of the turtle
In such a fix to be so fertile.

about the turtle

(note the play of language and the brevity of expression)

or like tagore.. but i cannot quote him here coz he wrote in bangla.....

or Dylan probably (both Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas)

"The hunchback in the park
A solitary mister
Propped between trees and water
From the opening of the garden lock
That lets the trees and water enter
Until the Sunday sombre bell at dark."

-Dylan Thomas

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doin' it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin' for a new friend
The man in the coon-skin cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten

-Bob Dylan

well i dont know... but these are poets whose poetry can never die....

so next time i think of writing poetry... i would think about learning to write poetry first

Monday, January 09, 2006

Fatehpur-Agra

two days car trip to fatehpur sikri and agra was a great escape from the day to day hectic life... the afternoon wel spent in fatehpur discovering the splendour of that place for the 5th time without losing any of the surprises i had the first time.....that place never fails to awe...and the next day early morning drive to agra through the misty roads was great...taj mahal is still the most beautiful structure ever made by man, in my opinion.... and the agra fort in all its grandeur....there were a few disappointments though.... they dont let us go into the lower main chamber of the tombs of mumtaz and shah jahan in the taj...they dont let you go up to the upper floors of panch mahal in fatehpur... and they dont let you go into the mussamman burz in the fort, where shah jahan had spent the last 18 years of his imprisonment looking at the taj

winter flowers

winter is a great time for flowers and flowers are wonderful things... can never get bored of them


deepavali


it is too late for this picture to be posted.... but i thot might as well put it up... it was a gr8 day though..... deepavali

Monday, December 19, 2005

where the hell has civility gone?

why is driving in delhi such a terrible experience? why are we all so impatient of the other people on the road? why do we all want to be the first....though we never are in spite of our best efforts...someone always beats us to the fininshing line. yet we always are hurrying up, with no consideration of the modest pedestrian who is trying to get across to his bus-stop; or the rickshaw puller who had been toiling hard entire day in the severe cold and is just a littele bit too tired now to move his legs fast to let us in the car pass by; or the guy in the two-wheeler who is freezing to death in th echilly wind and so is riding very slow to reduce the chill. why do we have to honk our ear-drums out to make our presence felt n the road? well it is every on on the road - from the pedestrian to the bus driver who needs to learn to wait till his turn comes why would i brake at 50 km/hr to allow a guy who has just jumped over the iron fence at the divider and running across the road with no red-light/zebra crossing around...can't he just walk down a hundred yards to the zebra crossing/red-light and cross comfortably? what is the big hurry? and why does the rickshaw puler has to park himslef right on the middle of a 3m wide road to pick up his passenegr when a line of cars ar waiting behind him? is the side of the road not up to his refined taste? and then we get frustrated, we roll down our windows and shout unpleasanteries to these people, they shout back at times or just move out of the way with a glare. but where is all this leading to? a time when the roads will be a jungle with the same old jungle rule applicable : survival of the fittest... and we would all end up with dented vehicles, broken limbs and what not till some iron hand beats us all black and blue and make us follow simple rules of the road...drive in your lane...use indicators...do not honk within hundred meters of a traffic signal...always cross at zebra crossings and when the vehicles have stopped...cyclists should always ride in one single file...buses should not stop in the middle of the road...and most of all maitain speed limit (here i would say 50km/hr speed limit is ridiculous...it never works... give a reasonable speed limit such as 65 or 70)...and reach your work place or home with a calm happy mind rather than in an irritated mood like we do all the time after a drive/ride/walk in the city's roads.

Friday, December 02, 2005

anarchy


made this quite some time back...haven't been able to give it a name....