Midnight's Children

Streaky shadows silhouetted against the moonlight,
A stark contrast to those in bright sunshine;
The dark night hides well all apparent flaws,
That the sun brings to light at daytime;

Unwanted, undesirable creatures at noon,
Amble freely in the dead of the night;
The entire world seems their oyster then,
without a chain to shackle 'em at all;

An unclear future akin to foggy nights,
With a childhood lost somewhere in time;
Their Today is full of agony and misery,
Yet they eagerly await a (better) tomorrow to come;

With hopes in their hearts and dreams in their eyes,
They aim to face all challenges like a braveheart;
But for now life is brutally tough for them,
Fuelled by the cruel darkness of the night.

Hope Floats

Relaxing on my smoothened couch,
I ponder upon the intricacies of life;
Why is it that some receive happiness,
Whilst others have to face strife.

The Utopia which we dream about,
Very seldom does it materialise;
An iota of joy comes only after,
Enduring a sea of sorrows, I surmise.

But always being beseiged by grief,
Is arguably everyone's biggest fear;
Sure enough, a few wretched souls,
Intermittently shed a dewy tear.

It's just law of averages I guess,
And no one can be joyous forever;
So maybe the best we can do in testing times,
Is to try and keep our act together.

At the end of it all I've just realised,
It doesn't cost much to be sanguine;
For, surely, the gloomy clouds would,
Give way to bright sunshine ...

"25"

A quarter of a century has passed me by,

All of it just in the blink of an eye ...

It's been a roller-coaster of a journey all the way through,

A never-ending adventure starting each day anew.

Today, I take some time out and ponder about it all,

Of transpired events in these 25 summers, winters, springs & fall.

I look at what has been achieved & what's yet to be done,

There've been a few regrets too, though I'd hoped there'd be none.

It's not just about things but people too that I've met thus far,

The people that have either left an imprint on me; or left a scar.

It's all about loving your parents & family is what they say,

With their blessings & His grace, success has always come my way.

How could I forget the friends & foes that came into my life,

Some gave me happiness, whilst others just brought me strife.

I sure have caused a few heartbreaks; and got my heart broken too

A tryst with love that I've been waiting for, is now long overdue.

Yet, I am content with the way life is moving right now,

And there's a burning desire to freeze this time somehow

I don't want to move forward so there would never be a past

The present : all i hope and wish is that, it would forever last.

Yet, I know that the future will be here all but in a few clicks,

Today I have turned 25, and tomorrow I will be twenty-six :(

As I said, it's been one helluva blink of an eye,

And an entire quarter century has just passed me by ...

Unsaid Words

Try as hard as I may,
I just don’t seem to find,
Words that could go a long way,
In helping me to make you mine.

Moments have been spent thus far,
Without ever letting you know,
Just a smile of yours lights up my day,
I just couldn’t tell, I just can’t show.

Feelings that I’ve tried to hide,
My eyes always did reveal,
Yet you never took notice of them,
Never looking beyond the veil.

Hope to tell you what’s there in my heart,
Before the day when I’m gone & dead,
Yet nothing seems to come out ever,
And just three words remain ... unsaid.

Irrepressible Paranoia

Something just doesn't feel right today,
The bright day seems like a dark night today,
Not too many things matter much anyway,
But even things that do, ain't alright today

Something's tormenting me in my mind & soul,
Donno what is it that's scaring me to the core,
There's this voice at the back of my head,
Telling me things it's never told me before

These voices inside are brutally pointing out,
The mistakes in life that were made by me,
There's this guilt crawling beneath my skin,
Trying to burst out, Trying to break free

I've tried and I've failed ... and I've tried again,
To drown all noises comin' from within,
I'm left with a nothingness inside of me,
And all of my walls seem to be closing in ...

I'm imagining things now where there are none,
There are shadows creeping up beside me,
Whispering in my ears and letting me know,
That I will never be what I want me to be.

There's nothing that could rid me of this paranoia,
There's nothing at all that can make it go away,
I knew it right from the beginning, now didn't I?
That something just doesn't feel right today ...

Where Are We Heading To ???

My soul stands still,
In the abyss of your dreams,
Where heaven stops ...
And hell begins,
Where angels fall ...
With their bloodied wings.

I am not talking about insanity,

Nor is this just an imagination,

It is right here on Earth,

That intelligence bites,

And technology kills ....

It is right here on Earth,
That we are digging our own graves,

And submitting before the Satan,

Whatever has been bestowed on us,

Without the slightest notion that,

That day is not far away,

When The powers above wreak havoc on us,
Turning us all into dead carrions,

And cleansing this Earth of all its scum,

For making it a new & better place to dwell .....

PS: The unnecessary bloodshed, the unending enmity & ill-will between communities & nations & above everything else, the dark spectre of terrorism will probably ensure that the Biblical prophesies regarding Judgment Day might come true sooner than expected. I know it's a nihilist & pessimistic outlook but there's no evidence to the contrary. People still long for that iota of joy in this strife-torn world of ours .... May God bless us everyone with the happiness that we desire ... and deserve.

We Move On ....

Time, with fingers that weave misty minarets,
And speaks in secret alphabets,
Never ending, never ceasing,
It creates & it produces immortal thoughts,
And is the harbinger of change.
A thought, an idea, a season, a color,
And a breath of sweet perfume,
A few fleeting, transient moments,
Followed by another, and another, and another …
The written word captures the nuances of color,
In a frieze frame of pen and ink,
The merry flow of words,
In them the feelings are expressed,
But something somewhere remains unsaid,
We move on ……

A seamless sheet is spun,
With the wefts of here and now,
A testimony to us and ours,
Time has flown and swept us along,
In its inexorable winds of change,
It is invincible ahead of us all,
Never conquered, never vanquished.
It has led us to the end of our spool,
Eventually it’ll help us add to it,
Year after year & decade after decade,
Many more words will be weaved,
On the high tide of time,
And feelings will be expressed.
We move on ……


PS: This piece of poetry was written for & is dedicated to my senior batch at Symbiosis Institute of Business Studies (SIBM) - the Batch of 2006-08. You can also read the same entry (and more of other stuff!) at SIBM's official blog - http://www.sibm.net/blog.

The Spectator

A persistent knock of sorrows I hear,
On the dilapidated door of my life,
And everytime this door gets opened,
I am all but left in a dolorous state.

The dreams, the wishes, the hopes, the desires,
Are brutally squashed and savagely battered,
A feeling of despondency engulfs me,
And I long for a prompt arrival of death.

The days now drag by endlessly,
And the nights also just creep along,
The skies above remain dark and cloudy,
(Sunshine being only rare and transient).

Destiny is wreaking havoc with my existence,
With everything just falling to pieces,
And I look on as a mute spectator,
To this cruel game played by my fate.

Stranger In The Mirror

When I look at myself,
In the mirror on the wall,
My image always seems to ask me ...
"Who was the one I saw last fall,
And who is this person I'm seeing now?"

Maybe it's just an optical illusion,
Or maybe my image has gone insane,
For how can someone change so much,
It's something that is at best arcane.

But, on taking a closer look I notice,
That my image has hit the nail on it's head,
For nowhere do I see any hint of a smile,
And even the glimmer in my eyes is now dead.

My face looks like a leaf in autumn,
With all the mirth & laughter lost somewhere,
I look a pale shadow of my former self,
Wondering what went wrong & where.

And as I look at myself in the mirror,
A question rankles me in my mind,
A question for which I don't have an answer:
"Who is this Stranger in the Mirror?"