UNSETTLED SOULS..

As twilight descended upon the necropolis,
Silencing the birds and the rustling of leaves,
I stood under the boughs of a leafless tree,
Laying a wreath upon my friend’s grave....

GULAB BAGH

MAXIMUM CITY.... AND I ??

As twilight descended upon the dead city and the noise of traffic reached a crescendo, I stood wistfully looking out of the window, wondering what the world had come to....

Beyond the iron bars, green flares flickered amid the constant criss cross of shadows. It was a remarkable sight in many ways, only to pierce the heart of a city which had long forgotten to look beyond its own vendetta.

The sky was an explosion of multitudinous colours but perhaps, an unhappy one. Faces seemed blurred, slowly losing their meaning of existence. Rooted to the ground, a million thoughts danced in my mind. However, I was unable to assign them a definite rhythm or a concrete vision.

As I struggle to put my thoughts into words, often stopping mid sentence and trying to gauge their intensity and origin, the world moves on. In the transformation of a bud into a flower, in the groan of trucks plying on the road, in the struggle of the poor to make their daily ends meet, a heart bleeds devoid of any emotion. And I like a parasite, consume civilization’s resources, eternally ungrateful....

...OUTSIDE THE WINDOW

The first shafts of light that escaped through the drapes illuminated the corners of the room. Sweat throbbed in my temples as the sun beat down on my face. The world outside seemed alien to me. As Beethoven played somewhere in the background, I fell into a trance, untormented by ghosts of the past...

ACROSS UNCHARTED FRONTIERS

As I stretched my legs out into the ocean
And fishes lept wildly in the air
The desolate clouds whispered in my ears
While I sought refuge in the arms of the coconut trees...

ABOVE AND BEYOND

As dark clouds manoevered overhead
And waters slapped against the shore
I stared at the vast horizon
Spectacularly transforming into taupe tones..

PLACIDITY

As the tempests played with my auburn hair
And waters gently rippled beneath the sky
I stood looking at the vast expanse,
Intimidated.

THE AGRA FORT

26th December 2007..

After convincing my father to take me on a trip to Agra, for till date, I hadnt seen the Taj Mahal, we left on a one week trip to Delhi and Agra. Taj Mahal turned out to be hugely dissapointing. Fortunately, Fathehpur Sikri and the Agra fort lived up to my expectations.

This image was taken around the time of dusk. While one could see the Taj in the background from an angle, the river Yamuna could also be seen flowing from another.

There's something about the picture which still fascinates me till date. Maybe its the apricot-tinted light or just the camera angle.

I came back home with richer memories.

HERITAGE BUILDING, MAHARAJA SAYAJIRAO UNIVERSITY, VADODARA

For a moment, far away from the maddening crowds, I stood rooted to the ground, mesmerized by the grandeur of the dome. The sun beating down on my face seemed alien to the intricate architecture exemplified on the first level of the building.

THE IMPOSING DOME

This picture was taken on 18th August 2009, barely a month after I joined Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara. While the sunlight gleamed on the dome, a part of the lower part of the building was enshrouded in shade.

KIRTI MANDIR, VADODARA

As persistent drizzles of time
Showered upon the Mandir’s flanks,
The flora embraced me with open arms
Sucking out unconstructiveness
Leaving void behind in the cosmos......

VOUS ALLEZ BIEN?

Hey people !!! I sincerely hope that this post finds you in the best of health and spirits. It’s been a very long time since I’ve updated my blog. Life has become too tremendous lately.

College is going on just fine. The professors are good and very helpful indeed. There’s a lot to learn everyday....

I made a couple of friends. They’re good people to be with and times spent with them are full of fun and frolic.

Rest is all good. I’m carrying on in a way. It can get frustrating sometimes having to deal with classmates who don’t read, discuss or debate, speak in hushed tones when you raise your hand in order to answer, are non participative et al.

French classes are wonderful. Alice madam is a gem of a soul. The class comes alive with her joie de vivre and vivacity.

Deeptha madam is another person who’s a delight to be with. Her classes are enlightening. I’m yet to meet a man as well read as Rajan sir. This man knows way too much and has the unique ability to integrate his life experiences with the topics dealt with in class...

That’s it from me. Take care and all the very best. I’ll keep you posted as and when things happen.

A bientot !!!
Au Revoir

ANANYA....

FAREWELL ADDRESS, VALEDICTORY FUNCTION 2009

12 years ago, as I stood under duress on the other side of the school gate, little was I to know that 12 glorious years later, the time would finally come to bid adieu to my alma mater. Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen. I stand here on behalf of the outgoing batch of 2008-09 to express our deepest gratitude towards our teachers, who have moulded us into what we are today and what we will be tomorrow.

We were indeed an electric lot. We had our share of those with super intelligent brains, the incorrigible back benchers whose jokes and one liners enlivened a particularly dull class, the superstars of the basketball court, the quiet reserved ones and those who were the heart and soul of every function.

Today, we stand on the brink of adulthood, where the skies of success beckon us. Words seem sparse to describe our feelings towards our teachers but the words of Nicholas Rowe come to mind: “Your bounty is without my speaking but though my mouth be dumb my heart shall rank thee true.”

To conclude, I’d like to like to read out a verse from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”:

“The road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can.
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet,
And wither then? I cannot say....”

Thank you.

HAS THE VOICE OF HUMANITY DROWNED?

As I walked along the blood-stained path
Recollecting thoughts and sights I had seen,
Memories of the worst came back to me
From the hell where I had been.

The harsh, cold wind made me heavily shudder.
The horrifying images of women and children
Being made to work mercilessly in factories
And those sold and purchased in slave markets
Bled my heart and made me cry
As I looked onto the celestial abode,
The vast, endless sky.

But no rays of sunshine did I see above,
Of peace, no sight nor scope.
Only dark clouds of hatred and brutality,
Shadowing my hope.

I stared into the vast horizon,
A vast spectre of persecution and viciousness
Lay shrouded in a deathly insipid mist,
Faraway affliction shattering the silence.

Someday, the skies will open up I thought,
The people will get awakened,
The sufferers shall recount and avenge
All the vindictiveness inflicted on them.
So shall dawn the historic day
So shall the Armageddons arise.

The tormented shall rise from their deplorable conditions
To hear their tormentors’ cries.
And so shall end the heart-wrenching brutality
And so shall end the traumatic period of imperialism
Which now lies engulfed in dread.

....AT CROSSROADS

If you stood facing death, what would be one thing, when you look back in those fleeting moments in time, that you would remember the most? The endless fights you had with your childhood friends? The teenage rebellion and aggression which often made you think about the world in disgust? The clueless adulthood which came and went by in a flash? The corporate power plays?

As I stand on the cusp of time and change, embracing limitless possibilities and opportunities, I am reminded of a childhood spent in the most secure environs on the planet. When the mother’s voice seemed like a sparkling stream and the end of the saree when above my head seemed heavenly. When the sound of the ghungroo never ceased to fade and the myriad customs were filled with joys and cries. When the backyard forever buzzed with people and grandparents shared priceless wisdom.

As time passed, all of it had to be forgotten. As I got sucked in the vortex of competition, often straying away from the values imbibed, another face of the world revealed itself. Where everyone waits for a single mistake made by the other only to tear him into shreds; where the world wakes up to the news of terror and tragedy; where people have shielded themselves against the capacity to feel for the downtrodden.....This is how far we have come.

While all of us have had our fair share of both the good and the bad, some memories vividly remembered till yesterday, now seem lost and vaguely remembered. Winnowing the painful from the good has never been an easy task. Vignettes have been interwoven in infinite intricate threads, difficult to conceive them as separate entities.

As I stand at the crossroad facing death, I envision being lowered down to my final resting place where I shall return to the soil of my beloved motherland.

PARISHES OF MY MOTHERLAND

As the smell of the harvested crop
Wafts across the landscape
Somewhere, far away
A gunshot shatters the silence.

As the heart of an Indian village bleeds
Another village celebrates.
The cries of the dead farmer’s family
Are drowned in another’s prosperity, success and hardwork.

As the ravines stretch for miles together
And the lands cry out for liberation
Morgues get filled, bodies decay
With no place left to bury them.

As the debt rises
Many others take the drastic step.
Names of the dead are noted
And are thus, lost in the pages of history, forever.

Two sides of a village
Exists in India.
One that celebrates the good growth of crops
Another that mourns the death of farmers.
One that produces aplenty
Another that is plagued with famines.
One that performs customs, rights and rituals
To appease the Gods
Another that lights the pyres of the dead.

YVONNE

As she stood near the lounge door, wearing a gorgeous white blouse and a pair of blue jeans, I stood at one corner of the room, mesmerized by her beauty....

Her melodious, lilting voice floated like sweet symphonies in the air, drowning the cacophony of voices. Her tantalizing perfume which wafted across the room made nerve endings tingle. Her luscious black hair danced as she swiveled her head.

As I stood rooted to the ground, unable to take my eyes off her, she passed out of the lounge door, leaving behind an aura of tension, fire and effervescence....

FAR FROM THE URBAN CHAOS

As I stand on the edge of a massif
Oblivious of time, the sky, moon and earth
The distance between ephemerality and death fades
As I look down at the prodigious ocean below.

The illusion of being segregated from mankind evaporates.
The endless skies above, the shimmering water below
Are in perfect concord;
Untouched, untroubled by the urban chaos.

PAINFUL MEMORIES

As I walked along the dusty bylanes of Lahore
Memories of the worst came back to me.
The sight of men bleeding profusely, shops burning and charred bodies
Shook the base of secularism in the country
Made me realize how fortunate I was
To escape the wrath of mankind
When I saw dust gathering on the pyol of a burnt house.

Ten years ago, to that fateful day of 12th March, 1996
Lahore was up in flames.
Men who belonged to different religious backgrounds
Had often prided themselves in unshaken solidarity
And then..... the very voice of humanity
Was drowned in the drumbeats of hatred and brutality.

As I looked onto the horizon
In my quest to calm the raging spirit within me
I found no answers as to why
In a world blessed by the Almighty
Is there so much of vindictiveness, agony, and turbulence.

THE BACKGROUND INCONSEQUENTIAL

As I walked along the snow-covered path
I felt a queer sense of belonging to an unknown entity.
My connections with an illegitimate part of sorority
Made my soul heavily palpitate
As I looked onto the celestial abode
The gargantuan, endless skies.

The frigid, austere winds that blew past the path
Made me heavily shudder.
A vast spectre of persecution and viciousness
Lay enshrouded in a deathly mist
Somewhere, faraway tribulations shattering the silence.

As I walked along the frozen riverbed
I heard my compunction telling me
That aeons had passed between
My happy, innocent childhood
And a clueless, wasted adulthood.

THE UNFADING IMPRESSION

As the green buds
Replaced the dead autumn leaves
I saw her peering
At the profundity of the ocean.

Her face was like the force of nature.
She reminded of those who
Crusaded for the good of humankind.

She held herself in a manner
That seemed inconceivable then
The infinite skies above,
The boundless ocean below
Seemed to obscure all forms of distinction.

And as I stood on the edge of the massif
I was reminded of a certain someone
Who, perhaps, emancipated humanity
From ethical and intellectual imprisonment.

TRAVERSING BACK AND INTO ETERNITY

As the stars play with the silvery water,
As the sun lines the immeasurable horizon
I stand on the confluence of crossroads
Unsure of the path to be taken...

As newer vistas signal changes millionfold
I wonder, full of apprehensions
Whether the chosen road
Will bring me unparalleled success and supreme happiness
Or lead me to a point of no return..

While I still contemplate on my impending decision
Thoughts of your goodness and humility
Fill my soul with warmth and nostalgia
Those endless fights, childish pranks, piercing screams,
The unceasing stream of tears and all the madness
Which seemed so preposterous back then
Now appear like intricate and inextricable vignettes
Carefully interwoven and nurtured over the years...

As I walk along the chosen path
Still wondering if choosing the other paths
Would have made all the difference,
Another bend in the road, another nook in the city
Will one day surely bring us together once again.....