CASTLE

                         

As they sat together, gazing at the sea
Looking at the sand on their feet,
"What if," she said , "the waves roll high
And break our castle, neat?"

"What if we build another, far from the water
In the midst of a busy forest? , said he.
- "Then the wind may blow strong
 Start a fire along
 And ash it down to the sea."


" On top of the mountain? Away from the trees
See the warm sun rise everyday?"
- " The abyss may beckon a fall
Our voices may stall
Because it echoes whatever we say."

" Then the way is, my dear
To take your fear
And let it face you loud and clear -

That the Waves of disagreement may rise
But not wash out the tight ties...

That the Fire of passion may spark for someone else
But not consume our present love wells...


That the Abyss of loneliness may sometime call
But not pass through the strong wall
Built by the other, to protect, to shade
To color the life we together made."

- " Then we'll take whatever we share,
And build a small one anywhere... !"

CREATOR OR CREATION?

                  
                  From an isolated Adam and Eve project, we, the human creation of the Almighty, have evolved tremendously. The right biological changes and the correct use of intellect has ensured Man to be at the apex of the environmental pyramid. 

                It has also ensured him to invent, to discover, to make.
                To create!
                The Creation, now creates.
   
               We are constantly generating experiences and creating a spectrum of emotions every single day. We multi task, we assign tasks, we complete tasks.
               We manage, we regulate, we organize.

               We decide, we control.

               And when something - not in 'our' hands - happens, we lose balance.
               We get baffled. We are used to being the Apex, the Controller, the Creator.
               How can this happen to us?

               Some of us are more stronger and more efficient than others. Their strength turns out to be a weakness in this situation because those who help themselves, can never handle helplessness. But all of us, at some point in our lives, are forced to face situations which are just not in our hands.

                Deaths, natural disasters.
                Fall in economy, recession.
                Fatal diseases of unknown etiology.

                Drifting away of people in close relationships.
                Broken homes, brittle families.
                Unrequited love.

                All this makes us question what all of us were taught in school - Do we really create our own destiny?

                If eventually, atleast once in our lives, we have felt the need to say - "Yeh toh uparwale ke haath mein hain" or " What is written, will happen" - then have we actually built a false world of supremacy around us? While the strings of our life are blissfully being pulled by someone else, a higher power, that source of unending faith?

                This is not to say that our efforts have no effect or to invite complacency or stagnation in actions for growth. But when these situations strike, where we feel like a mere spectator to our own life, it is wise to take a back seat. Rather, no choice but to take one.

                The Creation must learn his limitations - not created by him, but for him. Although we don't create certain situations bestowed so kindly upon us, we can certainly choose our reactions to it. How to create a way through it, and how to create bundles of thoughtful experiences out of it, does depend on us. 

                 Even if we have not created the beginning, we can create the end. 
                 To create another beginning. 

                  
                   
      

Dewdrops

Dewdrops on a tree leaf,

Trickling down it's end.

Falling on the wet grass.

Around the bend,

The road which goes

To your home

Smells of wet mud...

While the waters roam,

Wading through which

I reach your door,

The sweet wooden fragrance...

And the lightening roars,

But with no rain.

Everything is still. 

Just like the cricket...singing

On the window sill

Which is shut tight

And I see you

Moving about

Without a clue

That it's me

And...

Then I see - your slight smile,

And no one wants to

Rest awhile...

The coat drops

The carpet's the earth,

And there's only pleasure - 

With pain, with mirth,

With lots of hope

But no expectations

And the rain bangs hard,

With the man on the station

Blowing the loud whistle

Declaring the wanted end...

While the wind blows soft,

It's love message it sends

To the fire in the fireplace

Still shining bright

With the dewdrops on the forehead

And eyes full of light...

The rain stops again

The carpet's a mess

As the dewdrops just gave the leaf

A beautiful caress...

Wait.

Every week, we wait for a Friday.
Every summer, we wait for the rains.
Every day, we wait for happiness.

Every moment, all of us are
Searching. 

Waiting.
Hoping. Giving up.
Waiting.
Finding. Losing.
Waiting.

We wait to grow up. Then we wait to settle down.
We wait for something new and edgy. Then we wait for it to become old and comforting.

We wait for love and when it meets us, we are looking elsewhere. 
We wait for opportunities, and when they knock, we are answering another door.

We wait in contradiction. We wait in blindness. 
We wait for one thing and then want another.
Or when we find what we were waiting for, we get busy searching for something else. 

We say we all move on in life, but actually all of us are waiting somewhere. 
Life isn't all about walking on but staying still. 
Lingering.
Dawdling.
And waiting for something...after which, we will wait for something else.

                                   ADDRESS OR DISMISS?

As the sun goes down in stochastic colours and the rain falls softly on the window pane, you run your fingers along the fogged glass. You doodle, write alphabets and then wipe it off with your hands. It's so still outside, the day has come to an end, people are returning home from work, kids have finished with their play. But the thoughts running in your head don't come to a rest. They've been walking in and out of your mind throughout the day. But you chose to do nothing about them.

They started the minute you opened your eyes to a bright sunny morning. But you closed your eyes again to blink them away. You showered your speculations away, pat them dry. Poured a cup of coffee over your deliberations. And chose to do nothing about them.

You drove to your workplace the same way as your mind raced - broke signals, almost killed a dog. You heard half the instructions at work because half of your mind was preoccupied, and delivered half of that because of the same. 

But you chose to do nothing about them.

Because there's so much to do already, so much to establish that there is no time to address the thoughts that might actually be hampering your growth. These unsaid expressions, most often, affect those around us more than they affect us. But we confine ourselves to a room, absorbing ourselves with our needs and wants, while the others, tired of waiting, quietly close their doors on us. 

Thoughts are always tangled in knots. But knots can loosen if you pull one right string. To know which string, you need to think. But we know that this action itself might just create a larger web. Getting caught in this web of too many thoughts brings about unwanted anxieties and hypothetical situations, which is quite unnecessary.

Which brings us to a question no one has still been able to answer - exactly how much thinking is over thinking? 

And how much is essential?

What to address...and what to dismiss?

                                           GOOD OR BAD?


There is a name in Mongolian history synonymous with unbashed cruelty and unmatched brutality. Genghis Khan - meaning 'the universal ruler' - conquered almost the entire world, but in the bargain butchered millions, beheaded cities and terrorized all with his barbaric ways. He would kill the defeated by trampling them with horses, stretching them till their bones split, slicing them slowly while still alive, burning them before they die. It is said that people hoped and waited to see how this callous man would perish - and wished him the most painful, terrible death.

Amidst speculation, he passed away of old age, peacefully in his sleep, like any regular 70 year old, surrounded by a loving family, faithful friends and a bunch of loyal soldiers.

So often, we come across people we perceive as bad, even evil, but we notice that suffering does not seem to touch them - atleast not as much as meted out by them. Their personal grief, we would never be fully aware of, but the overall picture life paints of them looks perfectly fine.While the others, with big hearts and kind words, somehow manage to always bruise themselves, left, right and center. Does this not totally contradict what we have been taught ever since we remember - that good happens to the good, and bad happens to the bad?

Where does this place the theory of Karma - which says what you do will come back to you?

An almost satisfactory explanation to this would be that in the 'end' - the good wins and the bad rots in hell. But isn't life a journey of events and not a mere destination? How good and how satisfying can a win in the end be, if the entire journey was unhappy? And clearly, not all bad things come to a bad end - luck favoured famously the brutal king.

Actually, the fault lies in that one teaching which is the cause of this conflict we all face at some time in our lives. Only good will not happen to the good and only bad will not happen to the bad. All of us have been given packets of good events and bad events, which will take place - IRRESPECTIVE of whether one is a good person or a bad one. Just because someone is labelled as 'bad' he would not miss out on this share of good happenings in his life and if someone is believed to be 'good', that does not mean that no bad can harm him.

That means that being a good person or a bad one - which is how most of us inevitably classify the people in our life - is nothing but a mere choice left to us.

The same things happen to both - how we live them and how we deal with them depends on what we've chosen to become

Strange Connections.

You're sitting by yourself in the train, reading a book. You see a man sitting ahead of you - average looking, tired - looking outside the window. You smile, he smiles, there's a small conversation about the heat, the population. You get back to reading, he gets back to the window. Both slightly refreshed.

You're busy working when a client comes along with a 2 year old giggling baby. You leave work temporarily, however important it is, smile, touch his cheeks, shake his hands and baby talk with him, without knowing if he can answer you back. You get back to work, he gets back to his giggles. Both slightly happier.

You're at the local departmental store buying shampoo. You see a woman searching for a particular brand of soap. It hasn't been that long, possibly she would've found it a minute or two later. But you offer help. In return, she advises you on a better brand of shampoo. You both get back to shopping. Both slightly grateful.

What is it about certain people that you feel completely at ease with them? You would not talk to every stranger, cuddle every baby, help every person or always appreciate advice from someone you don't know. What makes us share this comfort level with a few unknown people  - their Aura? their Energies? or simply, a Strange Connection?

Probably this could explain strong bonds of friendship between two drastically different people. Or between people who've met just a couple of times and get along now like a pair of twins. Or between people who are never in constant touch but when they talk, it seems like the distance of time was never there.

Quite often, a chance encounter with pleasant strangers makes you forget for some time, a frustrating day at work, calms you down a little post that fight with a close friend,cheers you up slightly after a personal loss. 

While we look around for help and someone to vent out our grievances to, help finds us, in small packets of small ordinary distractions, which help in providing a clear, objective thinking, even if for some time. 

While we look for big fountains of happiness, nano moments of joy pass by us every single day.

It is totally up to us to touch them as they go, live these strange connections as much we live the deep known ones and feel the sweet feeling it can bring out in us at all times - even if, only, for some time.

How Forever Is Forever?

She was Always at

the back of his mind.

Her sweet little face

gentle and kind.

He would hear her laughter

when he tried to unwind

Which would smoothen and soften

the troubles that lined,

His life. As they Promised. Forever.

She was Always running

in his thoughts all day.

Everything would remind him

Of something she would say.

He would feel her satin hair

in the dark night when he lay

Which slowly caressed

all that darkness away.

Yes, she would stay. As they Promised. Forever.

Then just two years later

he found someone else,

like finding a rare pearl when

he was happy with the shells.

And the joy he felt,

as he happily tells

Was like finding a clear fountain

After digging a thousand wells.

But what happened of the promises

he had kept all this while?

The ones he held so close

now distanced a couple of miles

Had he not let them go,

Would he have felt the smiles?

That were now collecting within him.

Probably to Last. Forever.

So often we say 'Always'

Stopping to think never

that this, too, shall pass.

How forever is forever?

Nothing is eternal.

Everything has an end.

There is no 'forever'

No 'always'.There are turns and bends.

As he pulled his joy closer

And held his pearl tight,

He said, "Nothing lasts forever..

But I promise I would fight

All your troubles, all your pain

which lies within my sight,

And I promise that in togetherness,

I will be your glistening light,

And I hope and pray - 

That our bright day - 

Doesn't see the dark of the night."

The moonlight scattered around them,

A silvery shadow cast.

Yes, he made a promise.

But a promise that would last.

Pandora's Box

Slowly and stealthily,
She dragged it
In the dark of the street.
The wind whispered warnings
Aloof she walked, grinding
The stones under her feet.

In the still of the night,
In the silence of the sea,
She opened the empty box
To make ‘I’ of ‘we’.
To just breakaway
To just break free.

Kneeling in the water,
She threw in all his memories – 
The sparkle of his voice
The twinkle of his eyes,
Torn pieces of beautiful moments
His virtues and his vice.

The box lay quiet
Taking in her fears,
Her piercing sharp thoughts,
The unrequited love she sought,
The nights of passion,
The feelings they taught.

Then she clenched the chest to her’s,
With all the fury and anguish,
She wept.
And wept, and wept.
Then folding her tears carefully
In the brimming box she kept.

She closed the box tight
And kicked it into the sea
Her Pandora’s Box – the box of troubles
Gone, will now never be
Within her
She – was free.

Magic...

The day was as it always is,

The same sun, birds and sea.

The same cars zooming past the road,

The same people drinking tea.

The same children rolling with fun

The same him and me.

Walking down the good old street,

Talking away the day,

The same old things it seemed just when

He said he had something to say.

Sitting on a nearby bench,

 With the waters lying ahead.

A sudden silence dawned over

Things said unsaid.

Hazy feelings the mind saw,

Nothing that could be read,

He looked at me, then looked away.

I looked and did the same.

Staring at the sky overhead

Where the rosy sunset came.

The wind was blowing kisses,

The sun caressing my hair

Drizzles were touching his gentle face

The sky grew red for my share.

And then he turned and looked at me

Straight into my eyes...with care.

That look was all I saw then.

Those eyes were all i could feel

They touched, and touched me within me

A dream or something too real?

His eyes had all I wanted,

His love was all I wished,

And though a word wasn't spoken.

I knew "old things" had finished.

I knew life wasn't the same anymore.

I knew life would be relished

A smile was what I gave him

And he gave me a quick one back.

His hands went round my shoulder

My head rested on his, back.

The same sunset seemed all new now

More fresh and love -  giving

The people suddenly looked happy

The place had started living.

The wind blew in a different way

The sea became so loving.

And with it came the sense of belonging,

And sorrows seemed less tragic.

And with it came the beautiful feeling, 

The beautiful feeling...of pure magic.