Life and Time…

Here I am, another week, another day
Wondering, how some more of that time has slipped away
Here I am, just a body, one among so many
That is tossed upon the sands, like a nickel, like a penny.
Why do I try so hard, to break the unbreakable
to hold back what is unattainable
to twist into shape a body that will soon wither away
Polishing colours that too shall fade away.
Why do I despair so? If all that there is to life -
Is just time…time that will soon trickle away.

You…

You stand alone, in the humid place and enchant yourself. A droplet of sweat runs down your neck… And suddenly the cool breeze combs through your hair… a sweet musky scent it carries… it caresses your face…You are thankful, you are obliged, you are overwhelmed, you are blessed. Although you don’t remember when it came and how it died…

But for the breeze, I know, she traveled many miles… just to touch you and feel you… now she takes along your fragrance; like the bittersweet memory of a long lost lover, wherever she goes… she will be bubbling with glee and happiness of having met you… She tells every new face she meets, that she touched you… and your scent to her bosom she keeps…

She does know, that she’ll soon have to die… but she doesn’t regret; for she holds you close, as she loved you the most… And every time she takes a new form, she’ll come to meet you, as the wind, the rain, the sand, the fire, the ash, the smoke or the froth… She’ll touch you, love you and will bury herself dead and be born again, knowing that her only purpose of life was and is… YOU…

Po…po…Potato…!

Fritter, fry or boil, you may,
There’s nothing like a potato today.
Cheapest veggie you can buy,
Purchase big bags without a sigh!
With inflation and soaring tax,
Meat prices reaching their max.

Potatoes peeled washed and dried,
Fry them deep in porky hide.
Or bake it well, make a potato pie,
And take it down with bread of rye.
When short of time, rush hour it is,
Mash and mix with creamy cheese.

Summer, winter and monsoon too,
A potato can be found all year through.
Potatoes today, potatoes tomorrow,
Best thing to eat to purge your sorrow.
Hear me out, for I speak well,
All hail potatoes, they shall always sell!

Lenny and Mike…

Lenny rode a motor bike
thinking he was zany smart
but when he was hit by Mike
he knew he was just a tart.

When you have your silk
In green and pink
Any colour will do
Except green and pink

daydream through a day
and sleep too is a reverie
because there is no other way
to see dreams through reality.

When people think you are a fool
and know not what gems you hide
should you then as a rule
protest that you are not a fool?

When there is someone to love
one who cares to hold your hand
and guide you through this life
is it only then that life finds its meaning?

Chilly Beans or Syrup…

Now you jumpstart another day
Soaked in chilly beans or syrup
who knows what will come your way
the chilly bean or the syrup!

If every time I shed a tear
A white pearl were to form
Then would you also cry my dear
To see if a white pearl would form
And rich we’d get from pearls galore
That from crying we would form

Little joys of kisses sought
and love’s labour lost
what is this life if not
this sweet molten frost!

Goblins at my door…

Knocking at the door,
in the middle of the night,
at half past four
when i switched off the light
came five little goblins
with red satin caps
a basket full of clanging tins
and strange coloured maps.

I blinked hard twice
and pinched
yet could not believe my eyes
I flinched!
Goblins at my door?!?
It shook me to my core!

And then, the eldest spoke!
With his wiry finger did he poke-
“howdy miss, how do you do?
We’re the goblins of the far north
we’ve come to visit you!”

And so they marched in
right upto the den
all five little goblins
with such confidence!
When I rushed back
they told me to calm
handed me some chocolate
and an ache curing balm!

“We read in the papers
you’ve been a little low
this is not caper
to you, this we shall show
we’re your angels in disguise
here to love, not despise
lovelorn maidens we cure
of this you can be sure”

so they wished me night
off they were out of sight
again I blinked hard twice,
and pinched
I could not believe my eyes,
I flinched!

I sat upon the bed
and did all that they said
I chomped on the chocolate
and rubbed on some balm
have I lost my mind
or is this a joke of some kind??

Suddenly heavy lids overcame me
I flopped on the bed
could not think or see
off to sleep I fell dead!

Letters to Elf…

Dear Elf,

There is something that I have to tell you since last week. I wish we would have sat by that rivulet and seen the purple dusk but I guess our muddy humdrum lives aren’t allowing us to do so. The sky is thick with smoke and the brook has dried, leaving us all high and low at the same time. But it’s ok; for I know that the sun will again rise tomorrow and have a glorious dusk waiting for us. How optimistic, am I not?

You remember, those tiny bottles hanging in your house? Well, I was thinking about them on Sunday evening while having my staple dinner of wine and prawns. I think they are sort of cute. Remind me to take one of them with me next time when I come to visit you but promise me you will not get mad if I break them and hurt myself deliberately.

Those pebbles that hurt me while I was somersaulting in your poppy fields have left tiny scars over my face. Whenever I smile at myself in the mirror, I see tiny dimples dancing on my rosy cheeks. Thanks for pushing me off the cliff; I wouldn’t look this pretty and attractive otherwise.

That sunlight kissed windows weren’t that bad. All you need to do is just shut your eyes and the rays will cease to enter your soul. I guess, sometimes sunshine does burn your life away.

Ah, I forgot to mention that stairway to heaven. Yes, I agree that it did take me to heaven but I guess not for long because the sunbeams killed the glory in my head and had me burning all over in pain. But don’t you worry anymore, for the pain has ceased to exist in my heart and soul. I am as cold and as white as ever. We can climb those stairs again and probably stare at stars together and not face sunbeams all over.

Those chocolate muffins weren’t that bad either. They were a little burnt though. Tell Sandy who runs your bakery to go easy on the oven temperatures next time. Those cute buttercups can be made a little soft and pleasant. I can go and help him next time you decide to bake some blueberry muffins for your grandma.

Oh, do you remember that blue-eyed boy who crossed me in the elevators? Well, he winked at me before leaving. But I don’t want you to get mad at him and give him a black eye because men like him can not go beyond winking. Next time, be calm and tranquil and do exactly as I say for I might tell you to kill him and not just give him a black eye.

Love,
A

Letters to Miko…

Dear Miko,

I suppose you’ll never get the chance to read this, and maybe I will never get to even tell you that inspite of the slight nature of our acquaintance, you have in some strange way touched my heart. I really do not know what first drew me to you, I suppose I have always been attracted to eccentric people and you have been just that, the little that we know of you. I liked that you love to walk, that you are tall and lanky, and a little weird, quiet and withdrawn, maybe shy, and so very proper and polite. You inspired me to read a little more, work a little harder on my English; listen to that extra bit of music, love my Ipod even more, read up a little more on the sixties and the seventies and so on. I loved that you made me listen to Harry Belafonte, Miles and told me about the bands, Bread and Cream. I love The Bread, by the way.

Life on a trip revolves around some very simple things for me. I wish I could tear you away from the humdrum of class, professors and friends and take you to Marine Drive once again to watch the sun set a few more times. I have always thought it a miracle that the sun would set the same time for ever and ever. I want to steal a little bit of that beauty and keep it in my heart. It is like tearing a small piece of bread from a loaf when you are hungry, there maybe many more loaves but this one particular one would always have that one bite off it. I suppose I make little sense.

I had this dream the other night, where we sat side by side facing an “electric blue” river and what seemed like the ruins of Guatemala, and certain specimens of big horned deer who miraculously changed to people right before my eyes. When this happened you just put your arm around my waist and pulled me close and kissed me gently on my cheek and softly said: what a dangerous t-shirt… ! (referring to the people I thought were deer but were actually dressed in some sort of costume possibly) All this was very nice and I felt extraordinarily close to you. For a long time after I woke I shut my mind to the clutter of the outside world and hugged onto my dream like a precious secret till slowly its sensuality began to wane.

I don’t know what this year holds for me, but of all the things that I dearly wish for, I would certainly like to wish to get to know you a little better, spend some more time with you and maybe, even get a chance to call you this – “Miko”.

Love,
A

In search of memories…

It’s exasperating to think how well I remember you, every miniscule detail – it seems to me that the essence of your being is etched into my mind with golden liquid paint. Your memory continues to sink in deeper and deeper so that one day all that my life shall be, would be an extension of this memory.

Nothing is so permanent as this, no change in this, only I continue to get molded more and more into different shapes, but my void remains but a void.

Everything that remains incomplete has a much stronger memory than those that we aspire and achieve. The broken edges jab at my heart every now and then and I long to reach out and touch something that will sooth the pain. Our lives are but reflections of the cosmos that envelopes us, it is rich with the things we touch, the hearts we love, the tastes we swallow and the rivers that we go floating down. Every life is but a fleeting moment in the endless continuum of time and space, each likened to the other, linked by a thread that is only too bare but unbreakable.

But it is not to despair, for although a meaningless life as this is, there are joys too. We look for happiness in every little crevice of this universe, standing tall as we do, each one is a manifestation of the untold truth, as the centre of the universe…at the centre of the universe; we are all the essentials of our own little world. For man, and indeed all animals, life begins from the core, our egos – the self. For it is in all our similarities and differences that constitute each self, every one of us is a strategist in the world’s warfare. In being who we are we are constantly changing, moulding re-moulding ourselves in accordance with the ideals that constitute ourselves. And it is in this Herculean change that we find the constancy that we crave for. What an odd little world.

I digressed.

The moment is lost; you are lost in the depth of my memory. I cannot close my eyes and feel any longer the wet kiss on my nose. Will my memories fade? Will another one overshadow this memory? If all our memories happen only to be written over then what is the meaning of our experiences. The present is so fleeting and yet man gives up his all just for a moment of ecstasy… a single moment of the emotion that he craves for. The tears that I shed have no meaning any longer, for that was in the past, and my present will not form a memory, as vivid as it is in passing, in the future. But a lingering fragrance must remain and I guess it shall remain… Our lives are like traces of a perfume that we had put on once, our memories are its fragrance, at its best when it has begun to fade, but a whiff returns to us its former glory filling our senses with fulfillment of remembrance…

25 on 25

Vimal tagged on this one ages ago and I had conveniently forgotten about it… and today I am so bored that I have to do this to entertain myself…I have to jot down 25 random things about myself…sigh! I guess none of them would come as a surprise to you though…read on!

1. I am obsessed with my tattoo and I am thinking of getting another one soon
2. I loooveeeee to eat pani puri anywhere and anytime
3. I am an ‘adrak chai’ freak
4. I hate coffee and anything to do with coffee…ugh!
5. I love chicken biryani, king prawns and white wine
6. Sometimes I tend to forget what I was saying and have a tendency to stop right in the middle of the sentence…and then embarrass myself
7. There are times when I am laughing all alone at  work and people think that I am a freak
8 …which I accept I am
9. I prefer cars and bikes to men and I have a tendency to hoot whenever a sexy car/bike passes by
10. I am addicted  to music and I think DJ Tiesto is God
11. I revel in chaos and disorder… and cleanliness scares me
12. I am a die-hard fan of Che Guevara and Barack Obama
13. I prefer Italian cuisine to Indian cuisine and I can cook very good pasta in white sauce
14. Sometimes I have a nasty habit of screaming at my brother whenever he irritates me at work
15. I am a rebel at heart
16. Randomness amuses me
17. I love whiskey and I hate vodka and gin (they are too girlie for me…!)
18. I wish I could swim the English Channel one day
19. One day I am going to meet Paris Hilton, slap her and teach her how to spend money
20. I love to write…and I mean totally totally love to write… as long as I have a pen and paper in my hand, I think I will survive
21. I think I took up melodrama as a subject in my college as I love to do nautanki all the time and put myself in unimaginable situations
22.Sometimes I wish I was not as wise as I am
23. I love the colour black…and anything black intrigues me including shadows, b/w photography, night, etc.
24. I want to go to Cannes one day and visit the shrine of David Ogilvy
25. I have an excellent road sense and I can take you for A———–to————–B in exactly 30 minutes
26. I hate math and anything to do algebra, geometry, blah, blah…

I pass this tag to Manushi, Nikhil (I am sure he will not do it!), Withering Willow, Sakhi, Nautankey, Reema, Chiranjib, Antara, Akeshwor, Viplove, Varghese

there…! Now go entertain yourself…!

Trumpeting the Trump life…

I’m not trying to make anyone jealous here but I have some very exciting news to share…I’m sure it’s only because of all the charitable work I’ve been doing. Well, that and let’s face it, I am kind of a big deal.

See, I’ve been sent a very special personal invitation to join Donald Trump himself at a very exciting seminar held right here in my town. Not only was I personally invited but I received 2 complimentary VIP tickets. That’s right bitches; Don and I are tight like that.

Apparently I’m going to learn about property investment and how to be a Real Estate mogul. It’ll even teach me how to be my own boss..er.. Forever.

Now, the card only had a small sample of all the great things I’ll be learning but it does put emphasis on the fact that (and I quote): “This is what I have learned the hard way, in the streets, fighting to grow my empire and fighting to stay on top”

I’m not really sure what kinds of things you learn on the streets of Park Avenue but I’m sure it’ll be very eye-opening.

I’m pretty sure the signature is authentic and the card is hand-signed, after all what better things could he possibly be keeping busy with?

Don’t worry, I won’t forget about you while I’m off living my lavish lifestyle and making millions simply by looking at buildings.

*ROTFLMAO

Well…Well…

Something that I had read sometime back…

It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn’t know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren’t exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don’t recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren’t really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job… and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.

Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn’t. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure.

You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can’t meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you’re doing this because you know that you aren’t a bad person. One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic. You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself… and while winning the race would be great, right now you’d just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that every one reading this relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times, trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out. Send this to your twenty-something friends… maybe it will help someone feel like they aren’t alone in their state of confusion…

We call it the “Quarter-life Crisis.”

Letters…

Dear Homeless Man,

I hope your tap-dancing lessons are going well! I found out today that you have a twin brother, who looks exactly like you. Does he have the same Nike Shoes as you? If so, I think I may always think you are the same person. Sorry for the confusion, no wonder you looked at me like I was the crazy one when I asked you if you ever got a new oar.

I saw you and your brother fighting today. It saddened me deeply – families are the most important people in your life. Perhaps you were fighting over a female? Trust me, that bong woman who yells at people on patios and tries to grab their food is not worth a family feud.

Sure, if she stopped doing the crack and brushed her hair a little she could be pretty. If she ate something she could even be quite lovely but I’m sure there are more ladies for you two to deal with? I thought I’d let you know that that new wave you are doing with your hair? Very Donald-Trumpesque! Dress for success they say!

Kudo!

Alice