Thursday, December 19, 2013

Old Monks

Served chilled in sparkling glasses
Questions, answers and impasses
Time stands still, runs backwards awhile
Where friends speak a word, walk a mile
Drown out the noise, the pride
Make sense of a journey, at the crossroads decide.
Drink the poison, roll the dice
Memories linger beyond the clinks of ice.
When the darkness ends
The dreamy fabric rends
Drudgery, once more it mounts
The old monk's confession no longer counts.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Tracks!

Wrote it sometime in 2004 while waiting for someone/something at a dhaba! I think it was during a bus journey! just saw all these tracks in the sand and with the final semester coming up in college I guess it reminded me of so many lives in college and hostel that meet, merge and leave!


1/3/2004

Dust and sand befallen
Settled in passive motion
Marks of time giving its
Monotone an expression

Tyre tracks bear witness
To vagaries of time
Emoting a story
In inanimate mime.

They meet, they leave
They merge to be one
A uniqueness highlighted
Other identities hidden

Hidden but not lost
A distinction felt, not seen.
The present really is
A freeze frame of what has been.

I move along then
To see what the future was
As they headed out to
Freedom bound by laws.

Some left united
Some stayed back to wait
Some tracks were lost to
Quirks of time and fate.

My eyes couldn’t see
Beyond the horizon;
The mind too confined
Within the limits of imagination.

The united may separate
The separated may again meet
Or the future may tap dance
To a completely new beat.

But tracks they were in dust
Their origins weren’t there
Nor was their end but
Their marks will always bear.  

Monday, September 16, 2013

Broken poems

Broken poems, scattered verses,
Bleeding quills and drying ink.
Dripping, streaking your eyes
I dream again, I see,
Eyes closed against the light.
Hearing, squinting, grunting,
The wave rises again.
Desire struggles, bonds break.
The darkness has always been.
Its morning, I can hear the sun.
The wind blows, feathers ruffle,
We take flight again.
Broken poems and scattered verses under our wings!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

The ship of 'Hope'

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224


Such was the tide, that led me here.
But no voyage can be started
Nor unknown waters be charted
Until you find a ship to trust                                                                                        
And a captain, brave and just                                                                                      
So my sights I set afar
Guided by a sky and its leading star.                                                                           
The wind in my sails ebbed and soared                                                                      
But my trusted compass kept me assured                                                                   
The rudder was still holding its line                                                                             
And the wheel kept me moving just fine.                                                                    
The beacon atop the lighthouse beckoned                                                                 
And its brightness lit the future I reckoned.
Has the journey come to an end?
Or is it just another bend?
When other tides and seas I seek
What I do and what I speak,
How I fight and how I cope
I learnt aboard my ship of ‘Hope’


The ship mentioned here represents Asha Hsopital, Hyderabad and the poem is dedicated to my teachers there on the occasion of teacher's day.


Sunday, August 11, 2013

Because you don’t leave memories behind.

Today was my last day at Asha Hospital, where I have been for over 4 years now. Where I have worked in positions ranging from the most basic to one of growing authority. But today was my last day and I never knew how I would feel until the day dawned. Asha was home, literally for a while and metaphorically for long.

The possibility of Hyderabad as a city I would live in had never even remotely crossed my mind until maybe a week before I moved to the city, just like leaving it wasn’t a plan until the time to leave had come. The city and this hospital have given me everything I could have asked for and then some more. But it was time to move on, to seek out a new land and learn some more.

What had been haunting me though was how I could repay my Alma Mater, how could I express my gratitude to my teachers and how could I let my patients know that they had helped me as much (if not more) than I had them. I had been wondering how I would leave so many memories behind and I had no answer.

As the last day went by, and I made my rounds in the hospital for my very last time, walked by corridors and rooms that I had walked by so many times I was feeling numb. I wanted to scream out my feelings but I had none, I wanted to smile at all the memories, I wanted to weep but I couldn’t, I couldn’t feel a thing. I met everyone, shook hands with them, embraced others and then packed up to leave as if in a trance.

And as I walked out, feeling empty, I knew finally, I knew how I could repay them, how I could be grateful and what I could gift this wonderful place that could balance the many gifts it had bestowed upon me. I knew that all I had to do was to remember the lessons they had taught, remember to be honest to what I had learned and remember who I owed it all to.

So I flicked my bag onto my shoulders
Took one last look back
Dabbed the corner of my eye
And then smiled to myself
And
Moved on!

because you don’t leave memories behind, you take them along with you!

Monday, March 11, 2013

Two storeys!

Two storeyed lights
On calm windless lakes,
A two storeyed Buddha
With wax-doll fakes.
Two storeyed dreams
In traffic forever.
A two storeyed heart
Trying to be braver.
A two storeyed leap
That never was
And two stories merged
Without a pause.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Yaadein hai kuch un dino ki...

Yaadein hai kuch un dino ki -
Motorcycle tez chalana aur achanak brake lagana,
Darr ke mujhse tumhara lipat jaana aur jhoothmooth ka ruthna.
Tumhe manane ke liye mera gaana gaana aur
Besuri shaam se bachne ke liye tumhara turant maan jaana.
Raat ki kaali chaadar par jadi chandni booti ginana
Aur jugnoo-on ke desh ka raaz khojna!
Raat bhar tumhari aawaz sunane ke liye jagna,
Subah tumhare chehre ko hothon pe sajake sona.

Kuch jyada badle to nahi hai aaj din
Bas,
Un dino aankhon ka rang thoda halka tha apna,
Kuch safed khwabon ki shayad milavat thi unme.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Glory Glory Indian cricket!

This is my team and I will always back it. When they lift the world cup I'll celebrate a festival and if they had been the ones skittled for 45 I'd still support them. I'd be disappointed, I'd want changes but I'd still say that this is my team. When Manchester United loses badly we criticise, we condemn, we rant but the rant always has GGMU (Glory Glory Man Utd) in it somewhere. So why not with cricket? Why comments like aajkal match dekhne ka interest nahi raha, kya cricket dekhna re etc?

Because that's what ails Indian cricket. We are an all or none society and that's how we treat our team. There is no place for planning, building or looking at the bigger picture. It's an instant, fast food era and quick fixes are all we want. And it won't work! You can replace all the players with new ones and it won't work because it's the attitude not the players that is the problem.

You cannot replace a Sachin or a Dravid or a VVS or a Sourav or an Anil. They happen once in a while and we were blessed that all of them happened at the same time. But good cricket needs a team not just brilliant individuals and for that we need people who perform the required roles not superstars. We need to lose the attitude that once you break into the team and have a good year your place is fixed in the team. No, it is not!


The last time Indian cricket was in a crisis (2000 match fixing, no captain, new players etc) there came a revolution in Indian cricket. Credit it to Ganguly or not but there was a change in the attitude of Indian cricket. We believed, we fought, we weren't just there to make up the numbers, we gave as good as we got. Players got opportunities and luckily we got some great ones. It amazingly reflected the social attitude of the times too.

But a new attitude has crept in gradually. An attitude again reflective of our society. The attitude of resting on past laurels, of selections based on past or expected performance, and based on emotions rather than objectivity. Coupled with a below par domestic circuit this has left the team in disarray. The poor quality of domestic bowling and pitches is evident from someone like Jadeja scoring that many triple tons or even Amit Mishra scoring a double.

So what is needed is a major shake-up. Getting rid of politicians, of businessmen who look for profits at the expense of the very product they are selling - Indian cricket. Taking difficult decisions that are based on merit not on popular opinion.

A change of coach is imminent. A lot has been said about a prospective coach's nationality which in my opinion is nonsense. Wright and Kirsten weren't Indians. What is needed in an Indian coach is a new vision, an ability to identify and take steps towards that vision coupled with enormous man management skills. We need a horses for courses approach probably! We need to move away from archaic principles based on instinct, gut, and feeling to modern scientific processes based on needs, numbers and current form. There is lot of demand for Ganguly as coach, based more on the hope of him being saviour again, on his past achievements as captain. But is he a good coach? We need a revolutionary not necessarily a rebel.

But most importantly we need us - the fans - to realize that rebuilding takes time and we need to have that patience. We need to stick by our men especially in the bad times, and support them and we need to stop being experts on cricket (unlike this post).