I think...

I think…

I think we, Humans, take things for granted.

Things that people do for each other.

Things that people do with each other; and also,

Things people do to each other.

We take them all for granted; till.

Till these things are pulled away.

One tiny shred at a time.

One fine stray string of linen, hanging to the side of the shroud.

Shroud that covered them, once.

Pulling the string, dissembling the shroud, painlessly (or may be sans-cognition) at first.

And then with vertebrae splattering pain, emanating from memories.

But then I also think that some of them have cracked the code.

To an extent that it is no longer a strain to cope up.

Or heartburn to fizzle out.

It is no longer an ache that unsettles like lovelorn souls.

Or perturbs the very core of beliefs and priorities.

It is also no more a tussle between individualities.

Or the undercurrent of ego and the Notion of self-respect.

It is also a far cry from the slip of words that used to bruise.

Or a mistimed repartee that misfired because, well, it was mistimed.

I think some of them have cracked the code of embracing each other’s shortcomings.

And letting them seep through their judgments, without the risk of being judged.

And then I realize that these people have understood well.

That the strength of people who are together lies in;

The empowerment that they bring to each other.

And the efficiency with which they can accumulate and disperse love.

The urgency that they can show towards concerns, while still keeping arm’s length.

And leniency they can bestow when anyone falters, even to the dismay of personal preferences, at times.

The love that is so underrated that it becomes the undercurrent rather than just a strong-urge.

And trust that comes with experiences and not emotives, over time.

That it is ok to lose battles, even the most important ones.

And be comfortable with the loss, collectively.

I realize that such people have understood well the concept of togetherness.

And have reached the stage of taking pride in the same.

I think, we need more such people.

I think, we should become such people.

Thursday Noons - Not yet Weekend!

Thursday noon is the most treacherous of the lot. 

Hanging amidst the promises of Weekend; 

and rigmarole of one and a half work-day. 

Very finely balancing its existence. 

Like a Chandelier, up the roof, with micro-thread. 

There and still not. Almost. 

Thursday noon, playful, and still matured. 

With half of the mind plotting schemes;

And the other half clotting remnants of crazy week that it was. 

Smiling at its own yet not accomplished triumph. 

Of having survived. Another day. 

Thursday noon, semi-intoxicated. 

With the proposed plans for Friday evening. 

And Saturday, at times. Dabbling with choices. 

Or making them all realise. One at a time. 

Till heart soothes down. With an innate calm. 

And soul pats the back, muttering - "Well done". 

Thursday noons are just fine!

 #CerebralScintillations

Hard-liners never sit on the fences!

For reasons beyond the scope of this specific blog, I have always believed that the very genesis of intrinsic confidence is the power to stick to decisions. Taking that one decision and sticking to it, irrespective of how difficult the journey proves out to be, as long as you are convinced on the broad premise and it renders you peace. That broadly summarizes what has never failed to make me feel stronger, better. And while there have been multiple such decisions that I have taken, primarily over past 20 years, two such decisions standout very clearly, despite of both of them being random to the extent of being hilarious.

§  Year 1994: A 13 year old kid joins his new class (and new school) and gets introduced to his ‘naïve’ classmates reading erotica, hurling vernacular cuss words, harassing girls (sadly) fearlessly and crossing (invisible) boundary of the school (running out of IAF Barracks with two sections in the same room) to venture out into No-entry zones to kill time (or Date).  The culture shock leads him to commit to self that this is what he will never succumb to and it’s been 23 years he has been sticking to it. This was the first tryst of a teenager with vices and their counters.

§  Year 2001: A 20 year old engineering student, addicted to consuming excess common salt needs a push to get rid of the addiction and devises a plan. During the next academic-break, he is dining at home and starts putting salt in the food till his mother notices and decrees that so much salt is not good for health and he should stop putting salt over cooked food. That was the last time he put salt over ‘cooked’ food, even if it is salt-less.

Weird as these examples may sound, their impact on the personal-construct has been immense and hence they still find a recall. Also, for some people ‘Selective Exiting’ leads to ‘Affirmation of Willpower’. As it is articulated in some of Vedic references as well. Try your luck may be? Drop in your experiences.

P.S.: Exited Twitter today. To begin with. 

Metamorphosis!

Walking on a weird trapeze. 

Of being a rouge in the skin of porcelain. 

From being Refined, Chivalrous, Articulate, Clean-shaven.

To Street-smart, Intuitive, Inappropriate, Stubbled

Boys become Men in so many entropic ways. 

Either because of Life. 

Or because of Love. 

And both justify the transition perfectly fine. 

How have you transitioned by the way?

~ M

And that worries me to no end!

Us humans are a very strange specie if you come to think of it. There are times when we let go of our possessions so easily that it may baffle an ascetic but at times there is so much of possessiveness, so much of affinity that the mere thought of disconnecting is unsettling and unacceptable. This further translates into translation loss between definitions of Self Respect and Ego. And translation loss between individuals when it comes to such definitions viz - my self respect is somebody else's ego and vice versa. And the whole concept of Trust per se. I have all my life believed in Trust being a non-negotiable function and not subject to any interpretation. Its Black & White. It is there or it is not. If It is there, then it is there. Almost forever, till it is broken. Broken by an act of default in the relationship. And never by circumstances or distance or discomfort or introduction of new relationships or random vibes. Trust once established is there. Or it should have never been there. People should then accept that there was no trust in the first place. It was possibly an idea of trust. A fancy, malleable  idea of trust that was suited to the need of the hour and very surfacial. The moment relationship started facing heat, it started melting. That 

"Readers, please note. In any relationship, under a normal circumstance, if things start getting heated up, Trust is the last metal to Melt. If it is not so, please step up and accept that there was never a thing called Trust in the first place"

Coming back, what is important is that people are patient. Towards each other. People should relax a bit and let the tide of emotions pass before taking decisions that may leave a dent and at times an irrevocable vacuum. People should hold onto trust and take cue on next step from there. Absorbing the negativity for a while and then just let Trust be a spongeblob, soaking it all in, post-facto. Or just letting Trust bear the accusations upfront and keep their souls light and sans-retribution. People should believe more in the power of Trust than they believe in their own understanding of situations. People should let intuitions run their course before actually reacting. People should be more considerate. People should always put themselves in their people's shoes and then feel the impact of their words and heat of their arguments. People should always Trust their People, indefinitely. Or they just should not believe in the concept of their People. 

Time, this Time, is such that we respect 'Now' more than the 'Past'

Inability to see future clouds our vision, our decisions

And haste of taking decisions makes us achievers but losers

In Long Run, and in Short. 

And that worries me. And perturbs me no end.

Because figment by figment, we will end up chaffing out the layers of relationships.

Layers that protected and nurtured it, over time and tides.

And which now lays naked, on the ground, crying hoarse, for respite.

And that worries me to no end!

---

Time-Travellers

We are all Time-Travellers in a way.

Believing more in Sojourns than in Permanent residences.

Trusting our instincts rather than decisions.

And preferring to commence travel by announcing rather than arriving.

Ruining beautiful thing that Travel evidently is.

We are all Time-Travellers in a way.

Reading Poems, without fastening the seat-belts.

Not believing in the concept of “Poetry in Motion”

Or the giddiness or joyous spring in the stride that a good poetry can bring.

Only scathing surface of the entire sea-bed that writing entails.

We are all Time-Travellers in a way.

Spending our days wandering and nights recuperating.

Rather than spending every single moment of breathing lifetime on traversing.

Travelling inwards, as we travel further, taking deep casting sighs.

And not entrusting our own sense of direction or destination.

And hence at times ruing for not been able to reach the destination

While actually having passed-by the milestone way back, since we were distracted.

We are all Time-Travellers in a way.

And we arguably have learnt to be proud of it.

----

We deserve a much more Fulfilling Life!

We deserve a much more Fulfilling Life!

Days that challenge us to the hilt

But nights that soothe down the fatigue, with gentle caress

And a quilt pulled over the head,

Even in summers, to cut-off from the world

Finding solace in sweat or shivers

We deserve a much more Fulfilling Life!

With Fuel tank filled to the brim

And music, stories streaming in the Car

Anti-thesis to the world outside the window

Or maybe drawing out a parallel sublime world

Creating a new reality, a more acceptable one

We deserve a much more Fulfilling Life!

A travel itinerary that looks more like a rough map drawn by a 7 year old kid

Lines crisscrossing, points overlapping, colors palm-printed

And still making sense to the whole purpose of travelling

Because travel should take one deeper rather than further

Because itineraries choke the conduits to explore beyond imagination

We deserve much more Fulfilling Life!

Full of Mud, Mess, Mingling but never Monotony

Amoebic but with a sense of purpose

And long-hauled walks but with enough rest in-between

Breathing in the air that emanates culture and literature

And exhaling exhilaration that only a seeker can feel

We deserve a much more Fulfilling Life!

~Icarus

My Reader!

My Reader!

I look for you in the quiet spaces between the words.
The mandatory spaces that set two contrarian words apart and make the poetry come alive.

I hold my breath while deftly negotiating the curves of the commas and polite paucity of full-stops.
To reach you. You, who waits for me to walk up and whisper in ears. Mostly in poetry.

I don't know yet if I reach you or you pull me to yourself.
Like while reading a book, its cover wants to peel itself off but reader is either too absorbed to care or too casual to notice.

You are that reader. I am the cover.

Shall we read together? Shall we?

----