Its been a really long sabbatical for no particular reason…Initially I was busy with Amritsar Lahore Festival and then trouble with my computer system followed by few days spent in family meetings etc. But the real reason seems to be my boredom with blogging. I didn’t feel like sharing anything. I have chosen about 32 blog friends so far and it appears quite a number especially when I am not able to visit all of them regularly for lack of time. And even I don’t see many visits on my island unless I send an invitation…which frankly speaking I am not very comfortable with. I wonder how others manage hundreds of friends..I may sound a bit old fashioned to my fellow bloggers but I always prefer a few close friends with whom I can interact on regular basis freely.
In the meantime I received a lot of invitations whenever I opened my mailbox and I appologize to all my friends for having not read their new blogs…loss is mine. But I ll make a sincere effort to actively interact as far as possible. And of course I ll share my new stock of thoughts…to clear the backlog..Does it look like a new year resolution? No it is not. I just wanted to break the ice….
Breaking ice
Posted in Blogs.
– January 4, 2007
Environmental Routine
Environmental Routine
When you can't write
Coz you want to read.
You can't read
Coz you want to think.
You can't think
Coz you want to simply gaze
Following the bird
Flying in the sky.
Or looking at banana leaves
Swaying in neighbour's lawns.
Or listening unconsciously broken melodies
Of the wind-chime hung on the second floor.
Or observing the symmetry of your own toes
Resting on the opposite chair in the sun.
Such moments of peace,
Tranquility,
Bliss
Of just being
Are rare, of late.
It is mostly an environmental routine
We live
Determined by which part of earth
We inhabit, in whose house
We reside, what work
We do, who lives
Around us, where
We want to reach
Posted in Poetry.
– November 21, 2006
Adriana Lima & The Space Craft
Adriana Lima & The Space Craft
I heard a loud thud
No explosion.
It fell on soft ground of my lawn.
Something ejected out
And landed over the fence
In my neighbour's lawn.
I found a swanky, gadgety saucer craft
Intact and working
On self-charging cells
For endless voyages and landings.
Perfect.
Now mine,
Sent by providence to satisfy
My wander lust.
Who do I see with my neighbour?
His, by the same rule.
Adriana Lima!
Playing around happily with him.
Oh! sheer bad luck.
Why?
I would've loved to be grounded
For life with her as companion.
Now what charm has the craft for me?
What pleasure shall I have
Exploring the universe?
While he will have
The best of it at home
Entirely to himself.
Suddenly he looks at the glittering craft
In my lawn and stops midway
Their water- play with garden hose
Drenching each other.
Adriana can't figure out why
The fun stopped
As she wipes drops of water
From her long eyelashes.
Her green eyes question him
But his gaze is fixed on the craft,
Remorsefully.
He now feels equally miserable inside
As I.
We can't exchange our gifts.
We can't share them.
And we can't enjoy them now!
We can only lament.
Posted in Poetry.
– November 20, 2006
Apology
Apology
I apologized to the gods
For my satires on them
Realizing that it is not them
But mortals here,
Who make things difficult and bad.
Then I took my apology back
After all they are supposed to be
The Creators, Preservers and Destroyers
Of all that is.
And all the imperfection and strife
Is part of their design.
If they want my head
Bowed in thanksgiving
For the blessings,
They have to accept
My sarcasm too
For their mismanagement.
And I am part of their scheme
To remind them.
If not,
Then who cares!
This terminator gene
That we all carry, is ticking
And till it ticks
Suffering, happiness,
Failure, achievement
Are all meaningless.
Why create gods
And make them answerable?
We are merely a part
Of a mighty mayhem.
Posted in Philosophy.
– November 3, 2006
Forbidden
Forbidden
Night is dark
Road is empty
Trees swaying, dogs howling
Light footsteps
Of a lone walker
In a hurry
To reach
His shelter
After tasting
The forbidden fruits
Of paradise.
He is not scared of the night
But dreads
In case his disobedience
Is discovered
And the gates of Eden
Are closed to him forever.
We know though we do not understand
Why gods are cruel
Like watchmen
To the seekers of pleasures.
Shall we ever know why
The tastiest fruits are forbidden?
Posted in Poetry.
– October 28, 2006
Bloggers
I was trying to understand the psychology of us bloggers. Why do we spend so much time online? If someone calculates the total time spent online by bloggers, it will be a revelation of sorts. What are we trying to achieve? Is it our eternal wish to reach out? Are we not satisfied with our surroundings? Do we yearn to connect to more and more number of people to be able to share our views and ex-pressions and also to know how others feel? Or is it just 'time pass'? Online communities are going to increase in future with more and more people getting access to computers. And so will be its consequences- I am not listing them as they will be endless. One clear writing on the wall is that we'll be more after virtual things and less connected to reality around us. Is that the way humanity is going to take to progress?
Posted in Philosophy.
– October 28, 2006
Work Out
Work Out
I have always found articles on health in newspapers and magazines attracting me and I understand the advantages of physical exercise. As a child learnt and wrote essays on topics like Morning Walk and Exercise in English, Hindi and Punjabi as part of academics. During the childhood years I enjoyed all the rural games and physical activities which is the advantage of growing up in village surroundings on the outskirts of the city ' that village, of course, has been engulfed by the growing city and has lost all its characteristics and symbols- green fields, mud houses, orchards, water channels, big trees I mean all possibilities of physical activities as a natural outcome of the landscape are now lost. And even I have shifted to a more central and so called posh area of the city, having bought a new house a few years ago.
I must admit that the last nearly twenty years of my life I have had little physical activity, lived recklessly and avoided exercise. At the same time, it has always been on the agenda to start exercise but it was always postponed due to lethargy. I tried a couple of times to join some gym for starting a routine but the attempts failed after a few days. I bought heavy dumbbells about fifteen years ago so that I could start working out at home but was never successful to sustain interest. It was always one excuse or the other- like waiting for the right weather to start, postponing due to heavy work schedule and so on. And I thanked my healthy ancestors and childhood activity for the sound health I have enjoyed so far. Now I am 41 going to complete 42 years coming December and look much younger again thanks to my genes.
What I want to share with you all and the purpose of this blog, is that I am feeling really good these days as I have perhaps never felt in the recent years. Reason! I started working out regularly at a gym at a walking distance from my house two months ago and I love it. I don't miss it even for a day other than the Sunday, when it is closed. I can already see my body responding to it with biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, wrists and legs toning up and hardening of the muscles. To add more fun to the routine and also to sustain it I got a friend of mine enrolled too who was feeling even worse than me earlier. It is such a fun that we look forward to 7 pm. After an hour of sweating it out we go for a stroll on the Mall Road and share jokes and chats. It is wonderfully de-stressing and healthy. And I am sure I'll continue this routine, come what may. I am posting it coz I am sure there are many like me who feel the same way as I do. Come on start it today because one of the biggest myths of the modern times is," I SHALL START EXERCISING FROM TOMMOROW."
Posted in Personal.
– October 26, 2006
Kahan Ho Tum 7
This is the last poem of the triology “Flowers”. Someone suggested me to write more of these…I’ll try..
Fragrant Options
Where do I keep them?
And how do I reciprocate?
And why in the first place
Did I accept from so many
Different hands
And then carried religiously
To home?
The questions are social.
I find so many places
In my room
Where I can keep them all
Nourish them, care them
With individual attention
To each one.
My entity breaks
Into live wholes
And each one enjoys
A complete living.
The questions are only social.
My room has all the
Fragrant answersPosted in Poetry.
– October 19, 2006
Kahan Ho Tum 6
Hi All
This is the second poem in the triology that I mentioned yesterday in my blog…It asks a few very delicate questions…see if makes some sense to you…I am putting it also in Kahan ho Tum series for the same reason
My Glass Jar
I don’t know if I have
Done the right thing
This unnatural act of mine
Saving all the different flowers
Even their names unknown to me
In my glass jar.
I can see them all one upon the other
Strange white cloud like webs developing
Around them.
I don’t think they are dead
Though greatly changed in colour and shape.
But whenever I open the lid
To drop one more
An unearthly fragrance
For a moment reminds me
Of so many innocent, tender feelings
Like buds that are still around
In this fake world
And all the fresh faces
And eager hands
Which during all these days
Plucked them for me.
Posted in Poetry.
– October 18, 2006
Kahan Ho Tum 5
Hi All
Beginning today I am going to post a triology of poems written long ago as a recognition of so many unspoken feelings and un named attchments when I used to interact with teenagers as part of my job and was myself very young. I am putting it also in Kahan Ho Tum series in an effort to reach out to… don’t know who..
The Flower Bud
I can see it though I am pretending
Not having seen. That small girl
Coming towards me one hand concealing the other.
She saw me the moment I entered
Here she comes. I look at her directly.
She smiles and blushes.
I too smile.
Two hands stretch out. First hers
Then mine.
"Thank you." I smile again.
She turns and runs away.
I look at the flower bud in my hand.
I wish I could ever read her feelings
When she plucked it
From some plant in her house
Then took all care to bring it
Unharmed, trying to hide from all
Till it was delivered.
Posted in Poetry.
– October 17, 2006
