Kashmir

                        Triumph or disaster?

Is it what I feel?

What I’m left with at the end?

A thing or an emotion?

A subtle sense of pride

Of besting the beast?

Or the harrowing pain

Of the tear in my stomach

Leaking more pain than I ever could handle?

Is it the result?

Or my reaction to the result?

What if I won Kashmir but

Lost the election?

Is it universal or personal?

A zero sum game

I am a hero sometimes.

It is how I sleep at night.

It can be neither

but actually it is both. 

                                        

Enough is a Feast

 

Every human being needed to eat, stay safe and warm and be away from harm. Homogenity drove us together. Then a problem of surplus ensued and greed followed so much so that civilization had to be formed with rules and laws and punishment. Groups of people who all had the same needs wanted more land to thrive, another group of people with the same needs fought them back. War ensued frequently , what was once simple was never once more that. Power breeds corruption and so now the flocks of people had to face attacks from outside AND civil wars inside.

The drudgery of daily life and the meaninglessness of it all drove the common man to hedonistic temptations. Soon the pursuit of wants over needs became the motto of the society. By indulging in these short term gains, the search for self actualization was lost till it was too late to search anymore. Only terminal illness or major disaster brought any reflection at all. Whole nations just wanted more instead of loving less.  

We started differentiating with each other more, even when people went communist there were no equals. Repressed anger exploded societies. Human beings now have naturally selected within themselves to differentiate between their own species. Hierarchy has existed at every institution always to the detriment of the perceived weaker sections.

Moments of individual kindness and collective crisis of the conscience are rare but what keeps this species afloat. Even when in an era of purported peace all we do is turn a blind eye to every other atrocity so that it won’t burn our bubbles to shreds. War or peace, we need to be conscious and content more.

Breathe

Completed 12 years of blogging last week :) 

As Shattered promises of tomorrow

Splattered all over my bedroom

I pulled out my pipe

Decided to exhale smoke

Rather than inhale hubris

for a change.

And listened to the tunes of yesterday

Since history is doomed to repeat itself

Maybe this once

it will bloom by itself.

Any which way

I am not going anywhere

I have nowhere to be

Except be me in this moment

Right now.

And inhale in all the terrible glory

Exhale all the grime and gory

Soaking in the momentousness of surviving today.

Silver Linings Playbook

By Samyuktha J

Once upon a time

she did give a damn.

She reacted to every crime

On every page of that depressing newspaper.

The creases on that paper

Started residing on her forehead &

 the corners of her mouth

Her smiles few and far between

Had the air of melancholy

Of a loss felt before it was born.

She grew apart from her people

Better than to fall apart she would say.

Then one day I saw her at Joe’s and shocked to hear her sing

Once upon a time

I did give a damn.

Now I would rather dine on my dime

And definitely some more wine.

Life is too short and my dog’s life shorter

Can’t waste any on things that I cannot change

And definitely not on things designed to make me cringe

Salut and Bon Apetit!

My inquisitive eyes were question enough

She smiled a benign smile

Her eyes crinkled with joy.

“One Sunday morning

I was reading the paper in no man’s land

I didn’t feel the heat nor the beauty of what was around me

Nor did I feel my loneliness or the danger surrounding me

I was feeling older than my age and carrying the burden of the world

When I suddenly looked out of the paper

And saw a wolf in front of me.

Peaceful and wise staring at me

I found beauty in the beast

And possibilities of violence

If I moved too much.

Then I Realized the whole point of my life

Was to look at him ,

look at what was around me

And not darned piece of paper!

I tore it to pieces and was searching for a dustbin in that wasteland

And when I turned back he wasn’t there anymore

But atleast I was."

I smiled. 

 I know she did give a damn

but this time

To what really mattered

To what was in front of her

Life~

Written for the sunday muse

A trip through October

                                                                                              

So September ended

And someone woke me up

As previously promised

~ Oh! The ever painful pinky

Always randomly hitting stuff

And bringing up pent up sh*t

Aren’t you supposed to be a secret? ~

I tear the daily calendar sheets

And suddenly here we are…

There is more torn than less to tear

IT IS OCTOBER

The month of Mahatma Gandhi

A magnificent man who

Truly walked the walk

All the way to Dandi

And paved the way

Towards democracy

with secularism ,

He took a bullet for it too.

#respect

Then comes navratri

9 days of steaming hot culture

Which defines  South India for you.

Sundals , ancient dolls and Carnatic music

All wrapped in a silk saree

That is golu for you.

 And to cap it all off

We have the crowning jewel of Indian culture

DIWALI – the festival of lights

The big boom of crackers,

The smell of ghee emanation from all the delicious sweets

*Ah all the calories

I already feel fat now*

The colour popping from all the traditional clothes

Can make even a blind man shy

This is India at its most glorious

All are invited

With family

Please RSVP!

I tear more sheets

and

The month is over now!

Absolutely no work done

I carry around a few more kgs

And a bucketload of memories J

Written for PU's Pantry of poetry proses : October prompt. This is my october for you :) added prose in poetry form to justify the prompt :P 

Join the fun. How is your typical october?

Inferno

By psiipilehto

Vigilance is the price paid for liberty we say &

Melt the midnight candle

Till the brain explodes

Worrying about dystopian futures

Becoming immediate realities

Wake up next morning

Already too haggard

for the hard day ahead .

Already on the edge

On espresso

Hit the Roads

Shame the shameless culprits

The Nazis ,

The pervy uncles &

Nervy mothers

Quote Dante , Kennedy & Dan Brown all at once:-

The darkest places in hell are reserved for those

who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.

No one listens.

Like the Germans once didn’t

How late is too late?

The twilight hits

The morale a

 bit too swift …

What if this struggle isn’t unique?

Just the disgruntlement of every

 Angry young person

Ever.

Maybe its all the coffee and student debt

A wilful distraction in lieue of personal poo poo

Get pacified by dinner.

I was just hungry

For what? I still don’t know..

Tomorrow will be a better day

At least another day.

Then the midnight hits.

For PU's Midweek Motif Vigilance

Yet.

Attention fellow humans!

We are all caught between that place

You know

The one in between being safe and sorry

The question is :-

 do we really want to be there?

Or has it been drilled in our heads through millennias

 to just be so?

IS that safety blanket really that cozy?

That we refuse to wake up from our catatonic states

And see what is happening around us?

Orange headed and clad leaders

Destroying democracy

And we don’t care because it doesn’t really concern us.

My house isn’t seized

My family isn’t separated

I don’t feel the heat of this so called fascist force

Yet.

Just keep snacking on the comfort of your perfect life

Till it all keeps crashing down

Kashmir just got bifurcated

Against the will of its people.

For us it is just a piece of land

To jizz jingoistically about

And shout bharat mata ki jai

Would you like you state being broken

Without your elected leaders having a say?

Oh it hasn’t come down to that surely

Yet.

That seems to one helluva comforter

Where can I order the same?

Written for PU's midweek motif "safety"

You can read on the Kashmir 370 issue here among other places