Death of a Martyr

My friends and family lie convinced,
i drape a curtain over their sights.
The person they love, they think, is
a result, of imagination's flight.

And that a wolf lurks beneath,
the finest coat of wool, on a sheep.
That one day, these jaws will snap,
on those caught in my image trap.

I lie poked, and stabbed, but still,
not to move, lest those shrill,
voices utter their terrible cry:
“ This man's life is all a lie!”

And yet, if I not respond to their,
jabs and jives, nor their stares,
My guilt, they shall proclaim.
My silence, a reason to maim,
Damnation, would they joyfully declare..

All because, I never did mould,
to the shape, ordained by the world of old.
All because, I listened to my heart,
from servitude, did I depart,
onwards to my destiny..

And because, i spoke in a tongue,
they understood, and they tried to run.
But my vision, did theirs shorten,
as it tugged at longings, long forgotten.

Ashamed them to admit,
they felt as I did.
That it's not a crime, to dream of being splendid.

That all of us, beneath the skin,
are flesh and bones, kith and kin.

That the only god, lies within,
the walls of conscience, untouched by sin.

That the wealth of the heart, greater than gold.

This new world is the same as the old.

And we live in a world, which worships vice.

Backs are stabbed, deemed a fair price.

It hurt them, when I called their bluff,

All their money would never be enough.

For one who cared not a pence,

Of how much land lay within the fence,

You set up, to cut yourself,

Off from the rest of the world.

I cry, not for the wounds,

Them, I do not mind.

Saddened, while I see,

My race remains blind.

To the glory, that awaits the one,

Who, all appearances, temptations,

will shun.

Bring forth, the knife, that will end,

Be it may, the final stab, of a friend.

Let me close my sights, on this,

World that has forgotten, it’s heavenly bliss.

age of mythology

A few myths of our age, tend to get bandied about, with much enthusiasm, both by the haves(minority) and the have nots..

One of them being, that at the end of the day, the better man, or product, or ideology will win or triumph.

And the gullible fools that we are , we believe in them, wide eyed and heartened.. all the while, ignoring the evidence strewn around, to the contrary.

Take for instance, the battle of the sexes. If you have interacted with members of the deadlier species(they’ve earned that ttile, believe me ;) ), you would have to be pretty much shallow, and in these days, unchavunistic( word doesn’t exist in MS WORD), to claim that we are better examples of homo sapiens, than them.

Yet, fortunately for us, men pretty much run the engines of the world..

Sad but true.

Not convinced? Ok, let’s take our freedom struggle.. on the face of it, Gandhiji was up against an empire, of which it was famously said, that “the son never gets to sit at the throne” (much to Charles’s chagrin).. so, they hired a PR guy, to put a spin on it( those were the only spinners England produced, for a long long time), and thru clever wordplay, changed it to “ sun never sets on the empire”..

I digress.. anyways, it was only Gandhiji and his modest clothing, up against the king and 40 % of the world... it shudnt have posed much of a problem for them English, to put him down, yeah?

Well, 59 years later, we know the answer to that.

Or, take Apple Vs Microsoft... once you have used the Mac Os(esp X onwards), you realize that the Skoda you were driving( or, in this case, Windows), was a horse cart, compared to Merc in your hands...

Yet, Microsoft spoilt Steve Jobs apples, leading to the world first virtual sin( Bill bit the apple, bwah hah hah!!) and 97 % of PC users trudge on with OS crashes, missing files, driver issues etc.. while the Mac users feel like they are the descendants of the Elves from LOTR..

Was going to mention the whole reservation thing, and how, it pulls the incentive to perform, out from under you feet, but we will leave that discussion for some other day..

Or, take the battle between USA and Russia.. it was called a cold war, because things got quite heated up, in between. On the one hand, Russia had the might of philosophy of Marx, Engels and literature like Dostoevsky and a whole lot of Vodka...

America had marx(groucho kind), angels(the baseball kind) and archie comics and DC.. plus a whole lot of beer..

Who would you have picked to win?

Yeah, poor old roshiya Motoska lost out, all because Bruce Willis and a whole lot of Hollywood stars, destroyed the language, with their accents..

So much so, that the Russian people never forgave their presidents, this insult to the GREAT LANGUAGE...

And, AK 47 and Vodka spread out, happily ever after..

Of course, one positive aspect of this was, that tennis benefited immensely , and women’s tennis actually became watchable( even if reason were non sport related)..

So, anyhowz, in conclusion, don’t believe in that stupid adage any more than u have to... and nice guys always finish last..

Like I have bitterly found out ...

requiem for a lad

you know, the other day, i was brushing my teeth. there is nothing remarkable in that particular activity, in itself, but, while i attempted, to manouver the last remains of the elachi, into the depths of my, uhh, whatever... i noticed two protrusions on my upper jaw.

boy, was that a long sentence or what..

anyways, panic set in soon, and alarms went off in my tiny, nanoscopic brain... you see, that was the moment, i knew, that i had officially crossed over, into the dark side..

i had become, shudder!!!, a full fledged, card carrying member, of that vile, hated club, we call " ELDERS!!!!!"..

The horror....

i dont know which smart ass, came up with the name of wisdom teeth.. they are anything but that.. more like, wisDOOM teeth..

you know, it's not that you have two more molars to clean up from now on. no.. that's not the problem..

the problem is, you know, once you have hit that stage, in your life, there is no turning back..

from now on, you cant officially wear torn jeans, without listening to that snaigger behind your back.

you will suddenly find that adam sandler movie disgusting, after laughing your whole teenage away, at his movies.

you will suddenly care about your scalp, but those hairy days will never return..

your biscuits and six packs, will mysteriously transform into barrells and tyres.

on that last point though, since i never had the privilege of washboards, i guess, i wont be affected..

while your teenage was spent in the wish that you would grow up sooner, all of a sudden, you will realise just how quickly the wrinkles and grey hair appear. that wasnt ever taken into account, was it?

remember how u used to make fun of that "UNCLE", who, u felt, was trying too hard to make an impression? one day, you will look in the mirror and GASP!! that uncle is you!!!


i can see it already, me wearing shirts 3 sizes larger than those i am having now, constantly combing non existent hair, trying to suck that gut in, when a member of the female species walks past, trying to talk like a person twenty years younger to me, gasping for breath when i walk 1 km, and spending most of my vacation, in the relaxing atmosphere of a spa, or clinic..

even worse, i will start liking all that art junk, classical music and will try to get a ferrari...

before u know it, mid life crisis welcomes u into it's arms..


THE HORROR!! THE HORROR! THE HORROR...

he was a good teenager, and fought for long.
but his wisdom tooth came, and his youth was gone.

R.I.P.
archie
1984-2006

what GAP?

warning: this has nothing to do with that fashion label.... read on..

you know, the other day,

my mom and me got talking.. and looking through her school and college pics, made me realise that the so called generation gap, is not aboutdifferent ideas, or attitudes.. hell no... ask you parents how their teenage days went.

they would list their favorite music, which would include western music, they would have tried experimenting with their looks, clothes.. they too, like us, would have believed in same illusion- that we discovered what love feels like..

only the names would have changed.. the bell bottoms of yesterday, have become the pedal pushers of today( i can hear the divas, goin- " pedal pushers, are like, so yesterday!!!")

the elvis and beatles have been replaced by today's pop assembly line icons.. ( fact is though, none of today's greats, could hold a "candle in the wind" to the greats of those days)

the cary grant and gregory peck has been replaced by the tom cruises of today( dont worry, i cringed while writing this line too)..

point is though, that we grow up, believing that we are so unlike our parents, that it's next to impossible to make them see the truth( " You wouldnt understand dad, you have never been in love!")..

but as i looked at my mom's photo, where her 'gang'(her words, not mine) and her, posed with their arms around each's shoulders, i was struck at how yours truly too, had taken a pic in the exact pose...

i think it's time we acknowledged the truth of our predicament.. the fact is, there exists not a generation gap, but one of communication..

few of us have the ability, to carry on a conversation, entirely in one language.. sooner or later, english or hindi, will make their presence felt..

and honestly, if one were to read the english that our grandparents had to endure, at their school level, i am not sure how many of us would emerge unscathed, from the rigours of spellings and grammar.

nothing can be( should be, could be, actually ;) ) greater proof of this, than the mushrooming of the english speaking classes all around you..

i see some students, handle math and science with ease, but tremble at the prospect of entering the group discussion or public speaking opportunities..

and how many of us could actually speak for an hour, without some expletives creeping into our talk? very few of us, i am sure..

and let's get started started on the most essential area, which has become non existent almost, today..

the art of letter writing..

growing up in an era of TV, and phones, and mailing and chatting, it's not a surprise to me, that the basic and beautiful art of letter writing, has become a relic of a glorious past..

reading the letters written by my dad to his dad, i was struck by the beautiful composition of it, and the symphonic structuring of the letter.. when i asked him, on how he could come up, with such poignant verse, he had a simple observation to make.

" each letter, to me, representd an oppurtunity, to communicate with someone, to tell them, what was my current state of mind. and such opportunities presented themeselves rarely.. maybe once or twice a month, if you could save enough.. so, each letter was crafted with care... i approached it like a scripting session.. made rough copies, re read it, and read it again.."

they took care to see to it, that each letter was one worth cherishing. and such handwriting!!! sigh! seeing the letters my parents wrote to each other, in the months following their engagement, i am entirely convinced, that insofar as handwriting goes, i am truly the black sheep in the family.

but i digress. the point i am trying to make, is that in today's times, we take every thing for granted.. but somewhere down the line, in the pursuit of ease of communication, we lost the penchant for the beauty of careful prose..

think over this.. ten years from now, what will remain of the chats, or conversations that you have had? mere text files, subject to the horrors of magnetism..

you can never wrap them up in cloth, to be looked at again whever you wanted.. you can never look at a computer screen and become wistful.. somehow, paper is the best medium for making one thoughtful..


sure, we have made tremendous economic and social progress..but still, somehow, we have become stilted, when it comes to making our fellow beings, understand what we wish t tell them..

imagine this.. even today, if in the office or class, u see a person who is extraordinarily proficient in english, the most common epithet that is bestowed on him/her is " shakespeare"..

400 years have passed, yet he remains the benchmark, by which we measure the lingual abilities of people.. and find everyone, wanting...