26th August

Its not always the darkness of the night when you don’t see sunshine around

It may be the dark black clouds that know well that they can never quite win the sky

But still don’t give up and stubbornly stand between 

The shelters of the Heavens and eyes that seek its grace

Its not always a surrender when a river meanders around the obstacles in its way

It may be the humility of the river to river to accept opposition with respect

And its kindness not to destroy anything and everything that challenges it

Its not always a failure when you don’t succeed in life

While success tells you what works, failures tell you what doesn’t

Its not always the end of the road when you don’t reach your chosen destination

Where the road you tread ends without taking you home, the road chosen for you begins

Where there is life on the other side of the horizon

Its not always that the grass is greener on the other side

It may be the yellow glasses on your eyes that makes the grass on your side of life look less green

Its not always that all people desert you in tough times to fight alone

It may be your eyes that look only for faces that have disappeared

And refuse to see those who continue to stand by you, more than ever before

Its not always that tears are shed only in times of ultimate unhappiness

Tears are shared equally by good and bad moments

Its not always that life is difficult per-se

It may be your memory that fails you in remembering the brighter moments of life

Or your uncourteous heart that doesn’t value good memories enough

Its not always that destiny is mercilessly cruel to you

It may be that you are getting in return form the world, the unhappiness you gave it

Its not always that birds are not seen where they belong to

It may be that you too were at home when they returned to theirs

Its not always that life takes away from you what you wanted most in life

It may be that what remains with you is what you cant live without

Its not always that you are unhappy when you are not happy

It may be that you are introspecting to find answers

To questions that make you restless and whose answers make you peaceful

Its not always that its only the Divinity that tests your grit

It may be your faith that sways in the winds of uncertainty when you need it to remain unmoved the most

On Independence Day

All days dawn with a specific purpose and certain promises
Whether explicit or implicit they are all invariably important
The importance of some days is known to us of others is not
Today is a subject of the category of importance
The subject matter of unique and unparalleled days
Presumably a very special day for a vast measure of humanity
Spread over twenty four hours celebrated by a whole nation
Perhaps by more

The day that marked the stepping out of a great nation
From the chains of hostility and suppression
And came alive with a whole new wave of hope and enthusiasm
To establish its own identity within itself and equally outside
It promised so much and achieved so much of it as well
A historical moment defined a little over half a century ago
In the history of mankind
Came into existence a nation that scripted its history
On the canvas of peace with the ink of peace

The direction in which it forged ahead was engineered by
Men who re-wrote its history and altered its destiny
They were rare men of substance
They were symbols of patience, pride, endurance and patriotism
Who showed that men are not always and necessarily selfish
Who in the past didn’t and still don’t hesitate
To give the supreme sacrifice of their lives for the nation
They who will be remembered as men who defined humanity
Whose calibre places them above all other human beings.
To even talk of them and their deeds
You need a qualification - a certain degree of Indian-ness

I probably need a mirror for others to read my mind
And the world needs the earth’s memory to take it all
That day has dawned again today
Bringing with it a few rare and precious moments of joy
I don’t know how to celebrate it
And I am sure I will spend most of it
Wondering how to steal these priceless moments from the grasp
of time
I am too happy to live and see the dawn of
Another Independence Day.

What A Dreamer's Heart Speaks ??

It’s a moment of a lifetime that defines my world

It’s a moment I can barely believe has dawned on my horizon

A moment of ultimate happiness, unparalleled, immeasurable

A moment of solemn bliss, with no desires and aspirations on the other side

It’s a moment when a destination so beautiful

Has come my way in the journey of my life

A moment when the dream of my lifetime has turned into reality

It’s a dream I am too overwhelmed to even admit

I don’t know when, where and why did this dream originate

I don’t know how did I dare to dream of it

I don’t know when it became a cause to live, a reason to smile for me

I don’t know how did it became a destination

I would learn to dream of reaching with all of my life’s conviction

I didn’t realize when this dream became inseparable from my life, from me

A dream that turned silence into music, pain into beauty

Helplessness into horizons, nothing into everything

A dream that nothing within me, nothing beyond me

Can stop me from dreaming of

I don’t know why this dream honoured me by choosing my eyes to live in

But I know what life would have been without it

It’s a moment where life began and a moment where I wish

Life came to a standstill

For an entire lifetime seems too short to live this moment

It’s a moment I owe to you

Thereafter it will be a life that I owe to you

It’s a moment where life has brought me to a crossroad

A crossroad where I wish to stop in my tracks for the rest of the journey

There are as many directions in which roads seem to set out from here

And for having given me the happiness of taking the last few steps towards it with you

I wish to measure my indebtedness to you

By letting you choose whichever road you wish to take

And assure you that whenever you choose to return to here

From wherever you choose to return to here

You will find me waiting for you at this very crossroad, at this very moment

It's a treasure you have given me that even my God would have found difficult to scribble in my destiny ….

on her birthday

life is getting too hard now
for how long will i need to hold
the immeasurable depth of pain
which is driving me by each passing day
deeper and deeper, away from my roots.

All i wish is that i may not be axed,
away from my roots, deserted in the woods
and not be asked at any point of time
to leave her alone before i leave; all for all times.

What I have, but you lag

I wish you had a heart like mine

That understands the the depths of the love

I hear in your words, in your silence

I wish you could see yourself through my eyes

And realize the unparalleled beauty

Of your presence in my life

I wish you as fortunate as I am

To have found someone like you

Who can fill the emptiness in your life

With the colours of happiness and hope

Where the canvas could end but the

The artist does not lay down the brush

I wish you could live my life for a moment

When hidden behind the softness of falling raindrops

And the brightness of the rising sun

When I hear your footsteps coming like the gentle breeze

Like the frozen snows of isolated mountains

I stop in my tracks to feel the happiness,

To live the moment

That ushers such a treasure of tranquility and calmness

Into the deepest corners of my soul

That I wish my life came to a standstill

For it’s stillness defines the most consequential journey

Of my life, towards my ultimate horizon

I wish such a moment arrives in the journey of your life

Where eternity seems undesirable

I wish we could disappear into the depths of this moment together

Walking towards destinations unknown,

For distances immeasurable….

Of Dreams And Reality

I looked up straight into the eyes of the sky

There were twinkling stars there, shining like themselves

I looked at them and wondered if ever I could reach there

The stars have always been my dream destination in life

To touch the sky to feel a part of the divine fraternity

Be it for a moment that comes and goes even before I can even realize

But it has always been my ultimate dream

My dreams have always been clearer than reality could ever be

I can make a mistake in assessing reality but not my dreams

Perhaps because dreams are my own creation

And are sure to remain the way I mould them

And reality of course is like itself to which I am a mere spectator

The distinction between my dreams and reality kept blurring

And then came a moment

When I myself couldn't identify with conviction which was which

I perhaps know, nothing better than the art of dreaming

Simply because it is an easy job easier than accepting reality

From dreams to demand as I move ahead

Further and further away from reality; I see myself going

When I raised my hands to touch the stars and realize my dreams

I realized they were far away, so far

That my hands couldn't even see them

And I remained where I was, where I should be - on earth

And then I realized that when it comes to accepting the consequences

And moving on in life

Dreaming is not quite as easy… perhaps living is.

Little Plants, Big Lessons

Little the plants were, growing in contaminated conditions
The air, the water, the earth, the sky; all unsuitable
But when I looked at them, they were still alive
Alive, with all expressions to suggest they are alive
When I looked at them in the morning with sunrise
They were waving in the gentle breeze,
Whistling with fresh passion and enthusiasm
Just like the early sunrise

To look at it is auspicious and healthy
But when I looked back later in the evening
The shoulders were dropping, the plants looked weary
The scorching heat of the sun had dried its enthusiasm
The sun it waited fir in the morning caused its distress now
The changed fortunes of the little plants
Anchored, my faith too for a while

Little the plants are, unplanted they are, unwanted they are
But still they survive; they still stand firmly rooted there
Where I first saw them

And that's what I learnt from these little plants today
They live with no care, no sympathy, no attention, no affection,
But yet they survive
For the hope of water, the hope of a morrow,
The hope of a reason to live…