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Monday, 18 July 2016

Silence

Unspoken Words, a symphony of phantom sighs, 

A palimpsest of absence, where meaning softly dies. 

A current unseen, yet profoundly it flows, 

The unwhispered echoes, a language no one truly knows. 

What I breathe in whispers, how you interpret the air, 

A fragile dance of meaning, suspended in thin despair. 

Just linger a moment, in the hush of what's not said, 

And perhaps you'll hear the ghosts of words long dead.

 

Unspoken Words, a guitar weeping in the night, 

Each fret a memory, bathed in pale moonlight. 

You bring a melody, a fragile, haunting strain, 

And I, with trembling fingers, weave lyrics born of pain. 

Come, let us hum together, a dirge of what might have been, 

Let the strings vibrate with the sorrow held within. 

Let them speak of fractured dreams and love's lost refrain, 

In the quiet spaces where only shadows remain.

 

Unspoken Words, labyrinthine alleyways of the soul, 

Where shadows stretch and memories take their toll. 

I wander these desolate paths, lost in the fading light, 

A prisoner of moments, trapped in the endless night. 

I wish you could traverse them, these corridors of my past,

Feel the weight of ages, the time that slips too fast. 

My sense of time unravels, lost in this desolate maze, 

Where echoes of laughter mingle with the fog of bygone days

 

Unspoken Words, a vast expanse of cerulean blue, 

A canvas painted with hues of melancholy and rue. 

It holds the answers to every grief, delusion, and delight, 

Reflected in the stars that pierce the velvet night. 

In the tranquil hours, when the world is hushed and still, 

I gaze into the abyss, seeking solace on the lonely hill. 

Searching for the answers to the "whys" that haunt my core, 

Lost in the immensity, forevermore

 

Unspoken Words…yours and mine, a chasm deep and wide, 

A story left unfinished, where destinies collide. 

Neither you nor I can fathom the cruel hand of fate, 

That wove these unspoken words into a desolate state. 

When and how did language fade into this silent tomb? 

When did our shared narrative succumb to the gathering gloom? 

Unspoken Words, a shroud that wraps us in its cold embrace, 

Unspoken Words…a haunting echo in this desolate space. 

A haunting echo of what could have been, 

Lost in the absence, forever unseen

Saturday, 12 March 2016

Family day@IDFC Bank

What will I do in a family day get-together tomorrow? There would be barely anything of interest. I rather focus on developing a fraud mitigation strategy instead.”

 

 

It was a melancholic morning as I walked past Bandra Kurla Complex. The ancient & somewhat stale wind blowing from the west accentuated the already calm & tranquil surrounding. At intervals, the passing vehicles, cleaved the almost engulfing silence. 

 

My mind was preoccupied with yesterday’s thought. I stay alone in Mumbai and my family is in the city of temples "Bhubaneswar"; almost 2000 kms away. I reached office at 9:30 AM, had breakfast, and started working.

 

 

This had been my modus operandi for the last couple of weeks. However at lunchtime, I noticed the difference at the cafeteria. A truck full of IDFC themed colour balloons, flowers, decoration items, etc. were there at the ground floor. At least a dozen people busy in decorating the pertinent places and a cacophony. Be it lunch or snacks; I hardly spend more than 10 minutes on food. But it was different today. I spent almost an hour in the cafeteria.

 

 

By 4 o’clock the cafeteria and its adjacent corridor transformed into a beautiful amusement party place. I volunteered to help some of my colleagues to capture precious moments with their family. I could see enchanted kids partaking in numerous events and winning gifts, well, there was hardly anyone who returned empty-handed. Kids were licking away ice lollies, employees were taking pride in showing their workstations to their family members, a small girl offering her dad to take a bite of a burger; probably she thought that out of sheer happiness of showing her around, he might have forgotten to grab a bite during lunchtime.

 

I never presumed that the person on my floor whom I thought to be gloomy and always occupied with work could be so lively with his family members around. I liked his smile! 

 

Indeed life is not a chronological issue, but a psychosomatic one, in which we question the values and paradigms we live by, although life keeps surprising us.

 

 

People think that bankers are nerds and kind of boring species. Not always.

 

 

It was flashback time for me. When I was in school, I used to go out with my parents to carnivals, shopping, marriage parties where there would be a gang of kids and we used to be part of many mischievous activities and hilarious saga.



All of a sudden I started missing those moments. Probably in the process of building Linkedin profile, I forgot my childhood. Memories are good, but that’s all they were. I was feeling nostalgic, my childhood days flashing before me. A droplet tickled in my eye. I almost reached my desk when a colleague’s kid asked me “hi uncle, have you tried this ice gola? Let’s have em.”

 

I smiled and asked “which flavour do you suggest?”

 

He exclaimed “try kala khatta with orange syrup. That’s my favourite”

 

I must confess that even after so many years, these ice lolly still taste precisely the same like the ones which we used to get next to our school gate.

 

The sun was slowly setting behind PNB house. Cool breeze brushed upon my face. Well, the light rays, now unburdened from the harsh heat of the sun, had softened the shape of distant objects, and beamed quietly in the sky like airy wines. The colour of BKC was transforming into pale rose from its brighter golden brown. I looked at the sky and smiled.  Who said I don’t have a family here...I got one…a big loving one at IDFC :).

 

 

Thank you for bringing me back to my childhood.

Saturday, 12 December 2015

A Draft...

A story emerges out of life or a life emerges out of a story is still an enigma. People share their views but this puzzle is yet to be solved. Many a times, a story is based on sheer myth; festooned with fantasy and revolving around frictional characters. 

 

 

Some of the stories are based on real life experiences; often enhanced by an underlying reality. There are other stories, which have been inspired by people around. The folks, with whom we interact, adore, know and occasionally mess up with. These are beliefs, which run amid life; as it is. The subject matter in the stories is simple, yet poignant and inspiring.  It has the power to illuminate the heart and soul. Often while reading the stories, one wishes to be an inevitable part of that extravaganza (the story of course)

 

There are instances for which we feel bad; moments that make us feel guilty. 

 

 

Being human we never wish to face such predicaments in life. However it’s a universal truth that happiness comes in small packets where as the grief has its own set of maneuver. There is another dimension to life…nostalgic moments; the moments with which many have spent their entire life. 

 

 

Well, stories evolve too. It takes a prodigious trajectory from a naive first draft to a marvel accomplishment. In real life, most people are vivid by nature and sometimes in an astounding way they act illogical. Perhaps it’s the privilege of being the most complex being in the world. Amongst the complex of beings, a writer always tops the hierarchy. Because consistently s/he attempts to add novelty to his/her work and transform an ordinary stuff into an epic work of art…like a thought, a legend; the list can go on.  Being a writer, a ‘feel good’ factor is what I always search for. It calms down my ever-jangling nerves, provides peace… the most craved-for feeling these days. 

 

 

It's an attempt to incorporate some of the broad dimensions of life in the form of stories. The glitter, melancholy, solace, sacrifice and last, but not the least; love…at times all these peeps in. 

 

 

As T.S. Eliot said “There is no absolute point of view from which real and ideal can be finally separated and labeled”

 

Happy reading folks!

 

 

The Amulet

Chinmoy sat there looking at the sea, the cool sea breeze blasting his face. 

He took in a deep breath. The wind is a little strong. It might rain he thought. The sea looked murky as dark clouds gathered above and big waves crashed at the shore. He loved coming to the beach every evening after work. It soothed him after the endless data crunching and the long client meets. He mostly came alone to just sit and observe; the sea, the people, the multitude emotions and the random activities.

He could see an old couple sitting together sharing a joke over a plate of bhel a little distance away from him. A boy was selling balloons to the kids who were gathered around him. He saw street urchins running behind the mobile ice cream van, the vendors selling various street food ,the elderly taking their evening strolls and people like him rushing back home.There was nothing unusual or interesting, but he was enjoying the humdrum.

It was then a little girl ran up to him and begged for some money, "saabji kuch paise de do, khana hai". Chinmoy absentmindedly took out a five rupee coin from his pocket and handed it over to her and looked the other way. He found it very awkward when kids came to him begging. He somehow felt guilty.

Some five minutes later he found the beggar girl coming his way, this time accompanied by another girl.The new girl was older and must have been about twelve or thirteen years while the younger one seemed to have been about eight. Both of them walked up to him. The younger one looked lost and sorry, and the elder one looked cross. They were sisters.The older girl asked the younger one to return the coin but the kid hesitated. 

The older girl then slapped her sister and took the coin from her hands and handed it back to him. "Saabji maaf karna, par hum bhikhari nahi hain." (Sorry sir, but we aren't beggars) They then turned and walked away.

Chinmoy was taken aback by the suddenness of it all and couldn't react. But more, he was impressed by the small girl's self respect and honesty.He kept observing them. They went to the nearby traffic signal. The elder girl pacified the younger one. She took out some lemons, chilies and strands of copper wire from her bag and started weaving them into amulets. While the little one waited at the side sobbing, the elder girl took to the streets selling those amulets as a good luck charm to the cars. She sold each for five rupees and by the end of an hour she had sold some nine to ten of those charms.

She then bought ice creams from the mobile van for both of them and then both the kids happily licked away the ice lollies.There was a smile on his face and a warmth flooded his heart. 
He got up and walked to them to get his amulet.





P.S. : At times one needs to revisit places as memories are tagged along with. Indu thanks a lot for drafting it so beautifully! A Long time ago though :)

 

Thursday, 2 July 2015

Feet and shoes

Feet don't wear shoes these days,
Instead Huss puppies,Sketchers wear some feet

Some pair of shoes doesn’t get apt feet

and some feet don’t get a perfect pair of ‘em
Perhaps those feet felt so mortified,
They couldn't build the courage to get into a pair

All of a sudden some feet became so great

Many searched shoes for them...alas! they couldn’t  find any.
Some shoes turned out to be obsessed and egocentric
Hence remained confined within a glass selling for life

Some feet were running on road

They were restless, tired and desperately needed a pair of shoes
Well...they ran...ran a lot, became still and rested forever
Probably they ran with a hope to get a pair at least!

A few feet were blessed with a pair of wings

They learned the hard way to fly and they flee
Rarely they used to step on ground
But they possess utmost no of shoes

 

Saturday, 30 May 2015

A mime

I saw my audience from the greenroom

Gentlemen, graceful women and ecstatic kids; 
see themselves off; 
dancing their lives through the world

 

My eyes became cold and intense,

Gazes both void and esteem;

My look was scabbard in shades of diffidence,
perhaps they were searching for a familiar face

 

My lips became hushed and dead, still, unmoved, unmet;

The sound of my smile was left unsaid,

And touch of my voice was unspent

 

My white mask demeanour a sham

Tried to be as mischievous as I could

Well…I didn’t use any phrase;

Yet the mute mime remained an epigram

 

Neither had they seen the unsmiling lips and icy eyes, 
nor my silence killed the fun

They all looked instead as the mime hypnotized...

After a long wait they all burst into laughter

 

 ‘Bravo’… ‘What an act!’

An enthusiastic audience shouted from the corridor

The show got over with a round of applause,

A pinch of denigration and self-satisfaction

 

I went back to the greenroom

Removed the costume and I looked at the mask

Well…I wore masks that always smile;

To hide my feelings behind a ploy

 

One after another the audience left the hall

“Adieu my friends...

You may never again be at my sight

Merry part to merry meets again”            


Thursday, 23 October 2014

It's everywhere light tonight

It’s everywhere light tonight

Fireworks...glittering lamps…connected hearts

And of course…'the happy’ folks…

I can see them; the ecstatic, contented and rejoice ones

 

Someone from ‘that happy’ set of folks asked

‘Do you believe in reincarnation?’

I smiled and said

‘Yes my friend…I do’

 

No throttle pain n suffering

No adieu and no more fears around

Light pierce through the gloom

Illuminates the mind and soul

 

Things swivel…waits for the dead right moment

A shaft of light is procreative enough

to expunge the pain…the tear drenched face

Adds an element of love and joy


Conjugation of body and the soul occurs

It proclaims the means of life, n ya…It is!

‘It’s enough...u have gone mad’

The same folk whispered n’ ran

 

Yes…it’s lunacy to ask why and how…

to unleash the fervent n’ to chase an enigma

Some are vivid…a few are lonely and rest are alright

Well…it’s everywhere light tonight