tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17738824680183870432024-02-19T16:48:44.001+05:30INK-STAINED SOUL... The World In My Head, Straight From The Heart ...Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-61787216552063663072018-07-10T14:18:00.000+05:302020-07-11T13:54:59.422+05:30Misty Afternoons<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
Bright afternoons</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
cloaked in mist—</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
Like wisps of sorrow</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
that roll into the heart</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
in Spring,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
Snaking across beds</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
of dewy roses</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
and fulgent dahlias,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
To slumber in</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
the yew tree’s silence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
Happiness is an epidural—</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
A brief respite of light<br />
in this ceaseless labour<br />
To birth new selves<br />
with each sunrise.</div>
<br /></div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-79173980355827568922017-08-07T14:21:00.000+05:302017-08-07T14:25:47.940+05:30THE FORBIDDEN BIG APPLE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
I am crossing the
seven seas</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
To wash off your
smell</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
From my
mothball-stuffed drawers that I</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
open and
close—obsessive-compulsive,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
In classrooms and
coffee shops,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
Conference halls
and airports,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
On the streets or in
bed--</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
A fresh-rain aroma
of musk and dead roses</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
brewed in desire
and betrayal,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
Suffused with midnight
kisses and racing away</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
on white steeds in
chivalrous reins.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
But I do not know
if all the waters</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
Of all the oceans
can ever achieve that task,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
and I know all I
really need to do is take off </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
these glasses that
I hold in tremulous hands—</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
these rose-tinted
glasses that have </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
made me hope
against despair,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
love against
knowledge, want against wisdom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
But oh, I wouldn’t,
I couldn’t</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
bring myself to do
that,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
Though it breaks my
heart every fortnight</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
into slivers of
china on a varnished floor;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
Because then, when
I am happy,</div>
<span style="text-indent: 0cm;">the whole world wouldn’t be New York.</span></div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-930778934653392032016-11-10T23:30:00.002+05:302020-10-12T01:12:46.373+05:30ANOTHER 9/11<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">As American alchemy
transforms</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
Third-world sweat
and blood</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
into their
Starbucks and McDonald’s,</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
and builds empires
upon the debris </div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
of war-torn
nations,</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
buying bread with
bullets,</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
so the 9/11s of
Chile, Egypt and the Jews of Nazi Germany*</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
get erased along
with the fall of the Berlin Wall,</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
To make way for the
3000 dead in New York</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
on an azure
September morning.</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
All lives are not
equal.</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: 0cm;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: 0cm;">Yesterday, on November 9, America
waved into the</span></div></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
world’s gobsmacked visage</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
a racist,
misogynistic, hate-spewing Trump card:</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
That too was a
9/11. For the rest of the world.</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
Yesterday, we had a
9/11 that crashed the</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
economy, converting
coveted notes into</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
paper and nothing
more.** As banks and ATMs shut down,</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
as if in mourning, and
social media brimmed </div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
with Trump-struck
woe,</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
I felt for a moment
the world shared in my grief—</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
A humongous
pathetic fallacy—</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
My own 9/11 that
splintered my days </div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
into before and
after, hijacked my life and</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
flew it into the
skyscrapers of </div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
Ceaseless Avarice,
to burst into flames,</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
To hurtle down sans
grace,</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
And to splutter in
the ashes, facedown in muted sorrow:</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
Tragedy must be a
class act, or spectators get bored;</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
No listeners for a broken
piano, so you better soar.</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0cm;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
A wannabe phoenix,
this was my 9/11.<br />
<br />
NOTES:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 0cm;">
*Refers to the
US-backed overthrow of the democratically elected Chilean President Salvador
Allende on September 11, 1973 and the bloody dictatorship that followed; the
signing of the Camp David Accords that signalled Egyptian and Arab humiliation
on September 11, 1979; and the Kristallnacht pogrom by Nazis upon German Jews on
9 November 1938.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">**On 9<sup>th</sup>
November 2016, 500 and 1000 rupee notes were demonetized in India, leading to
widespread panic among the common man and bringing the economy to a stand-still</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-24747136507460039942016-07-31T11:37:00.000+05:302016-07-31T11:39:52.984+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>SONGS FROM THE HILLS<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
There’s a certain
cold blueness</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
that wraps round the
mountains,</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
slides down the
pepper vines</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
choking the spiky coral
trees,</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
blooms with the
elaichi buds in the backyard,</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
and brews in the
black tea</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
that you sip,
shivering under blankets.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Sweaters and mufflers
can ward off the chill,</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
But what do you do when
the soul feels cold?</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
**********************************</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Wisps of mist
swirling over peaks</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
to embrace the snowy
puffs</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
valiantly swimming
through louring grey skies</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
that leak day and
night, drip-drop-drip,</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
In a fine
powder-rain.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
*************************************</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
These hills, they
hold secrets as ancient</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
as the hills
themselves.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The oldest and the
truest of them all?</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
“To love is to lose,
and to lose is to love,”</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
whispered the
wrinkled hills, with a sigh</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
that echoed in the wet
valleys.</div>
</div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-54084781739802220862016-04-09T13:49:00.001+05:302016-04-09T13:49:46.440+05:30Poetry in a Time of Terror<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tonight I cannot write</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of love won and lost,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dreams dreamt and burnt,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Palm fronds silhouetted in the
moonlight,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Salty rivulets coursing down my
back</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
in the summer heat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tonight I cannot write</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of twilights in russet splendour,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jacarandas raining down on my
graves,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Labyrinthine daily mundaneness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tonight, when flowers are doused
with kerosene</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and set afire; when the craggy
moon spews blood; when nightingales</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
are strangled and sparrows hanged;
when humanity is splintered</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to make coffins for the young
with old eyes;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
when fetters festoon every heart
and hearth; </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
when streets resounds with the
footsteps of fear;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
when they stifle, muzzle and
muffle, with the mob behind</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
baying for blood—your blood—which</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
would be ideal to varnish their
nation</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
which once was yours as well;
when to think is to feel</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
is to question is to die—instant
annihilation or a slow</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
dismembering of your memory, your
history, your very being.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When ghettos spill over and
smudge coffee tables, desks</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and benches, parchments and
temperaments; when the dappled tree</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
shades where we walked scream an
eerie silence; when the letters</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
vaporise from the books we read; when
the lakes</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
freeze in the centre, afraid to
lap their shores, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and the peacocks forget to squawk;
when the cold stars sing dirges</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
for the newly dead and dying, in
a land where </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
they alone live who have already
died—</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Things fall apart; the centre
cannot hold.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tonight, with my son at my bosom
breathing baby’s bliss,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I weep for the ashes of my yesterdays,
and for his tremulous</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">tomorrows that shriek
with outstretched arms.</span></div>
</div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-67764822681548530162015-12-12T17:49:00.000+05:302015-12-12T17:49:46.445+05:30TWO<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-9j3mUREWSoKgEo6bZD5hgtAkX9aIYZ15v7z6powkCVXddr2SlneLeNh5t83a3xW_IYFXNafgTxlc7scpg_77yEyRKGs_5wT5lmZHbHIoPorVzzAaQbRErDrdpG3BIVb4OHEe0nUsY_Y/s1600/mynahs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-9j3mUREWSoKgEo6bZD5hgtAkX9aIYZ15v7z6powkCVXddr2SlneLeNh5t83a3xW_IYFXNafgTxlc7scpg_77yEyRKGs_5wT5lmZHbHIoPorVzzAaQbRErDrdpG3BIVb4OHEe0nUsY_Y/s1600/mynahs.jpg" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two
little mynahs</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sitting
on a hedge:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One
for sorrow,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two
for joy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A
little girl who believed</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in
fairy tales,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blue
lotuses lived</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in her
midnight eyes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bread
and butter,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Woe
and mirth,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lightning
and thunder,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Breath
and death.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Life
is measured out in pairs—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A duet
tuned to disaster:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two
tablespoons, please.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What
do you do with a poem</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">whose
couplets</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">refuse
to rhyme?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Would
you tear it up</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">into a
million flakes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that
snow down upon</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">your summers and springs?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Would
you torch it alive,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let
the howls hound you for life?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Would
you incinerate it,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Scatter
the ashes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">beneath
your dreams?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Or
would you keep rewriting</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">till
your blood runs dry</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and
you run out of reams?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A
sunrise frozen in a teardrop,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A
bulrush gasping in a heath,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A forlorn
slice of moon in a bedraggled sky,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some couplets can never rhyme.</span></div>
</div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-17387725514476898832015-07-05T12:32:00.000+05:302015-07-06T22:46:43.950+05:30Education for Life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="text-indent: -36pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I waddle daily</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">to the carefree laughter</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">of youth—freshly flowered—</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">beneath the casuarinas,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The staccato banter and songs</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">drifting down the corridors,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The brightly sparkling eyes</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">that gaze upon endless vistas,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The polite smiles and good-mornings.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You kick and twist and drag me down,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">rippling beneath my pulled-down <i>dupatta,<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Altering my life’s centre of gravity;</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But I brush away the cobwebs and smile,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Acknowledge their greetings,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe in memory of days</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">not long ago when I too</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">was one of them.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">They say of woman:</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Born weak,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And on top, pregnant.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I say:</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Born strong,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And on top, forged in fire.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I see the passion</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">pulsing in their veins,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The dreams</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">that deck their hair,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The stars in their eyes.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not so far removed in age,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But alas! I care no longer</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">for the sprezzatura</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">of roses and cards</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and chocolates</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and moonlit verses</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and all that jazz.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I talk to them of human frailty</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and mortality,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And beauty and infinity;</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I teach them the nightingale’s
rhapsody,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The desire to cease upon</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">the midnight hour with no pain,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To soar upon the viewless wings of
poesy;</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Metre and alliteration, stress and
sprung rhythm,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dialect and diglossia.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I see their eyes glaze over, some of
them,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lost in illusory enchanted lands . . .</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I wish I could gently shake them</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and teach them</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The clanging, jarring</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">onomatopoeia</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">of reality,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The falling tone of vanity and ideals</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and hopeless romance,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The enjambement of disillusionment,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The deconstruction of truth.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But then I know I mustn’t.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I must let them feel it, taste it, live
it</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">for themselves.</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For what is life, if not these brief
preludes</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">before grimness punctures the heart</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and greyness punctuates your laughs?</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If not the steely resolve that rises</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">like a phoenix to soar over the ruins</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">of the present to swoop down on that</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">liminal land of luminosity</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">that lies between knowledge and
despair?</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And I know that is what I must teach</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">these tender blooms before winter comes,</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: center; text-indent: -36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And you, my child, in the years to
come.</span></div>
</div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-83634690453782033322014-07-11T08:17:00.001+05:302014-07-11T08:17:20.255+05:30HOME<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Home is —</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Flowers growing </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">from cracks on
mossy walls,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raindrops bathing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">dusty window panes,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A milk moustache</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and day-long
pyjamas,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Footprints in
autumnal quiet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Words </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that do not fly
away</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">at your soul’s
footfall,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Silences</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">without jagged edges</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that cut your
fingers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Slanting sunlight</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">serenading you on
the porch,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All-season monsoons</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that splash, spray
and sway,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Greenness that
drowns</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">out your blueness,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A meadow to graze
your roots.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arms that aren’t
afraid</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to embrace</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">your aching
brittleness,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hot chicken soup on
stormy nights,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stars that sing
lullabies,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sunrise at midnight.</span></span></div>
</div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-63080484044812157512014-07-02T10:33:00.001+05:302014-07-12T15:03:43.065+05:30TWILIGHT AT MOULA ALI<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Buttery mellow evening</div>
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slathered across the city</div>
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enfolded in enigma</div>
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hundreds of feet below.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Tranquillity tossed with</div>
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windswept dreams</div>
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against a preening sky,</div>
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That slowly dabs her cheeks</div>
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with hues of pink and mauve,</div>
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Checking herself out in</div>
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smoky lakes underneath,</div>
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Like a coy girl setting out</div>
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on a first date.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The azaan glides out</div>
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from minarets far and near,</div>
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Rending the stillness,</div>
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Rippling in the soul;</div>
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Dollops of divinity</div>
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dripping through the dusk.</div>
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And now the city lights up,</div>
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Hopes flickering to life,</div>
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One after the other;</div>
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Thousands of concrete lives</div>
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sprawled out beneath us,</div>
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Like earthen lamps set</div>
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afloat on a swarthy river.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt8WlMnknXm1bBQywDC5N9yj6taeuT0lxlb1DgsS7XBMoF0nAK9dNflJIzU0jJ290oxg9DRNsTdllVjIhKnA8RnUA0v0EzjMgBIvK5KWDy1KIdbGF0KE6wuTBaeN3b3LfznNDVeRfFZOU/s1600/moula+ali.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt8WlMnknXm1bBQywDC5N9yj6taeuT0lxlb1DgsS7XBMoF0nAK9dNflJIzU0jJ290oxg9DRNsTdllVjIhKnA8RnUA0v0EzjMgBIvK5KWDy1KIdbGF0KE6wuTBaeN3b3LfznNDVeRfFZOU/s1600/moula+ali.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Streetlights and headlights,</div>
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Neon billboards and lamp posts,</div>
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Suspended afar in the velvety darkness–</div>
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Disembodied voices from the past</div>
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singing silences of yesteryear.</div>
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<i>Pyaar</i>, <i>ishq</i>, <i>mohabbat</i>…</div>
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Fireworks burst upon the firmament</div>
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in colourful melancholy,</div>
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Love works in ways you cannot fathom.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Rooh</i>, <i>ashq</i>, <i>maut</i>…</div>
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How would it be</div>
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to float off this edge,</div>
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to the lights that beckon below,</div>
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Like a feather waltzing in the breeze,</div>
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A petal swirling down a stream….</div>
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Love is not for the weak-hearted.</div>
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Tender is the night,</div>
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She yields no answers.</div>
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Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-18194113738275832982013-10-14T20:10:00.002+05:302013-10-14T20:30:21.651+05:30MATURITY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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You say I have matured,</div>
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Well, maybe...</div>
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But-</div>
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Ripened by Experience,</div>
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Weathered by Age,</div>
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Tempered by Time,</div>
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Or beaten by Life?</div>
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Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-1433307957273896462013-10-10T16:29:00.000+05:302013-10-10T16:30:31.141+05:30INTO THE LIGHT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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She was worse than dead,</div>
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Or so they told her.</div>
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Defiled, impure, plundered...</div>
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Worse than dead.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Her life was now torn into</div>
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before and after:</div>
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Before-</div>
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she had coffee with her colleagues,</div>
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baked brownies with her niece,</div>
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wore his favourite colours.</div>
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After-</div>
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she drank sympathy at tea breaks,</div>
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bored her niece with her silence,</div>
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wouldn't meet his eyes.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Worse than dead.</div>
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Should I just kill myself</div>
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to make it better, she wondered,</div>
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Standing at the brink of the cliff,</div>
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the wind yowling in her ears,</div>
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the cold scalding her skin.</div>
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Maybe then the ice would thaw</div>
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and the birds would sing....</div>
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Deep in thought, she slipped</div>
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into a dreamless slumber,</div>
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The razor in her hand.</div>
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Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-16191322934387244262012-09-01T19:44:00.000+05:302012-09-01T21:51:47.505+05:30GENESIS<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Where do poems come from?<br />
From azure blue skies<br />
and candyfloss clouds,<br />
Rolling green fields,<br />
And soothing sonatas?<br />
From a candlelight dinner,<br />
Or a walk in the woods,<br />
From being content,<br />
Ensconced in love?<br />
<br />
Do they drop like dew at night,<br />
Like iridescent rain drops from leaf tips?<br />
Do they waft in like the aroma<br />
of freshly brewed coffee,<br />
Gently, like a sleeping baby's breath;<br />
From the velvet feel of the perfect bliss<br />
of perfect moments in an imperfect life?<br />
Or do they bound in with glee,<br />
Like laughing children or feisty kittens?<br />
<br />
Occasionally, they do come like that,<br />
From all of that.<br />
<br />
But much more often, they come<br />
from fearful stormy nights,<br />
When you're all alone and the power is out,<br />
and you clutch a pillow,<br />
your jagged breath louder than thunder.<br />
<br />
They come from a terrible loneliness<br />
that chokes you as you make your way<br />
through a festive throng,<br />
From pain that swamps you<br />
as you stand in a crowded bus,<br />
Among a hundred oblivious faces.<br />
<br />
They come from standing at the crossroads<br />
on a chilly evening while darkness rolls in,<br />
Not knowing which road to take<br />
to reach home, before you remember<br />
You don't have a home.<br />
<br />
Yes, the most powerful ones,<br />
They mostly spring from stifled screams<br />
and tattered dreams:<br />
They emerge from squalor and despair,<br />
And carry the stench of death.<br />
<br />
They come when you dare to mute<br />
the vibrant hues around,<br />
Step aside and look at the greys,<br />
the frayed ends, at the risk of being<br />
Sucked into the black.</div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-39318251507699340972011-10-26T22:35:00.000+05:302011-10-26T22:35:08.124+05:30GHAZAL<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Let us go away, you and I,<br />
Far away from the spying sky.<br />
<br />
Here stars and jasmines bloom at night,<br />
But blood streams from the sighing sky.<br />
<br />
Love must waft in like evening breeze,<br />
Must burst like rain from heaving sky.<br />
<br />
I need no adornment but you-<br />
And stars plucked from the dazzling sky.<br />
<br />
Your love finds me wherever I hide,<br />
Even underneath the sprawling sky.</div>Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-67562138539210270952011-08-14T16:25:00.000+05:302013-11-01T15:29:29.634+05:30Cut Off<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<em closure_uid_mz5h34="175">' As flies to wanton boys, so are we to the gods,</em></div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<em closure_uid_mz5h34="174">they kill us for their sport.'</em><br />
<em closure_uid_mz5h34="174">- </em><span closure_uid_mz5h34="174">Shakespeare,</span><em closure_uid_mz5h34="174"> King Lear</em></div>
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<br />
I often lost his voice on the phone-</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Bad network</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Disconnect</div>
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Re-dial</div>
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Dialling</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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How would you even know</div>
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if I die, he used to jest.</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
I'd reply with silence,</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
it silenced him for the moment.</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
We hanker to buy with</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
bleeding bits of the heart,</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
The cologne of love:</div>
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Sometimes so costly</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
it leaves you with no heart at all.</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Just a pulsating void</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
like the bleeding silence</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
at his end when I said</div>
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"I love you";</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
And then, (finally),</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
"I love you too, three, four, five..."</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
He loved his bike.</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Faster, faster,</i> Death cheered him on;</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
School kids race in the rain,</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Splashing mud on me.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
As the boat gently bobbed<br />
away from the shore,<br />
Little did I know<br />
it had no oars.</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<br />
They laid him to sleep</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
and threw earth over his dreams,<br />
My cat gave birth to three<br />
kittens that day.</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Dust to dust returneth;</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
I to him.</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Dial</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Dialling</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Beep beep beep.</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Re-dial</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Switched off</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Cannot be reached</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Out of coverage area</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
Does not exist.</div>
<div closure_uid_mz5h34="156" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-12076950960433591952011-03-28T23:08:00.000+05:302011-03-28T23:08:02.299+05:30On the Ferris Wheel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">We rise higher and higher,<br />
Green canopies ramble<br />
beneath us;<br />
Wet petals sleep on rainy sidewalks-<br />
Windblown lilac dreams gently<br />
heaving with teary sighs.<br />
Bright lights, bright awnings,<br />
Bright nameless faces<br />
Peer up at us.<br />
City lights of sleepless nights,<br />
An unknowing faraway glimmer,<br />
Unfeeling, like the blinking stars overhead.<br />
<br />
Up and down, up and down,<br />
Faster and faster, we move,<br />
Slicing through the dark,<br />
Brushing past branches,<br />
The cool air rushing into<br />
the vortex of my being-<br />
A vortex that sucks in<br />
You, Me and everything else.<br />
<br />
We move in circles, so does life....<br />
Or does it? Some points of beginning<br />
can never be returned to,<br />
Some trajectories, once distorted, <br />
can never be retraced.<br />
Some paths, once lost,<br />
are lost forever;<br />
You see, some circles are never finished.<br />
<br />
Some things are just not meant to be:<br />
Some things like You and Me.<br />
<br />
Home lies somewhere there,<br />
Home sweet home, shrouded with innocence,<br />
Somewhere there, at an unreachable distance.<br />
<br />
We swing up, and swoop down<br />
Like eagles to prey on<br />
Life, that crawls along below;<br />
And that's all that's meant to be,<br />
as we step out, laughing-<br />
God knows why....<br />
</div>Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-62390527994971397172010-11-28T20:19:00.000+05:302010-11-28T20:19:56.245+05:30A Try at TranslationThe song 'Ithaloornnu veena panineer dalangal', from the classic Blessy film 'Thanmathra' (released in 2005) that tells the poignant tale of an Alzheimer's patient, is one of the most beautiful Malayalam songs I ever heard. I am struck by its sheer poetry every time I listen to it. Hats off to Kaithapram mash for the amazing lyrics. Given below is my humble attempt at translating the song. Hope all of its beauty is not 'lost in translation'. :)<br />
<br />
<em>Like fallen rose petals joining back together</em><br />
<em>And humming in tune,</em><br />
<em>The fair moon blooms in my palm like a flower,</em><br />
<em>A new song arises from these tear-drained silences.</em><br />
<br />
<em>Even the sun that everyday comes</em><br />
<em>To reign during the day</em><br />
<em>Descends the steps at midnight</em><br />
<em>And vanishes.</em><br />
<br />
<em>Don't cry, my beloved,</em><br />
<em>Don't shed tears,</em><br />
<em>The sun will come again</em><br />
<em>At dawn to this sky.</em><br />
<br />
<em>Arms of the wet darkness</em><br />
<em>Full of lightning bangles,</em><br />
<em>Rain drops casting pearls on the lotus leaf;</em><br />
<em>Just a second to remember,</em><br />
<em>An age to cherish in the heart.</em><br />
<br />
<em>Even this memory's a celebration</em><br />
<em>Life's a song.</em>Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-72378240464748013762010-08-25T13:27:00.002+05:302010-09-20T18:55:23.896+05:30At Peacock LakeThe glassy blue of the fallen sky,<br />
Creased with myriad ripples<br />
That bound forth<br />
To the waiting arms of the shore,<br />
Like little children to their mothers,<br />
Singing of peacocks and wild winds<br />
That make the reeds, thickly spread<br />
By the water's edge,<br />
Dance in beauteous glee-<br />
A wave of gold-tipped green.<br />
<br />
And into my heart ecstasy drips,<br />
Till I can swim in it-<br />
Lake of bliss.<br />
<br />
<br />
<em>Peacock Lake is one of the loveliest and most popular hotspots in our campus and obviously, I am not its only fan. You might also like to see </em><a href="http://ramlipin.blogspot.com/2010/08/peacock-lake-one-of-most-favourite.html"><em>my friend Lipin's brief take on it</em></a><em> . He has also put up a snap of the lake.</em>Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-49439065280795100852010-08-18T17:38:00.001+05:302010-08-18T17:42:29.134+05:30AMBIVALENCEYour black is my white,<br />
Your blue is my red;<br />
The cold knifes through me<br />
And lays me dead,<br />
In a grave where<br />
Love blossoms<br />
In bloody trails.<br />
You killed me<br />
The day you embraced me,<br />
Even as an unknown part of me<br />
Leapt to life in your arms.<br />
In your life, I find death,<br />
In your death, I find life;<br />
And yet without you, my deadly beloved,<br />
An I-less I am I.Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-69145051683975370262010-08-05T11:42:00.004+05:302010-08-25T13:32:41.491+05:30NIGHTThe night speaks<br />
In a thousand tongues<br />
I cannot discern,<br />
Rising above the cries of the crickets-<br />
Midnight's minstrels.<br />
Pale blue melting around<br />
Feathery canopies reaching<br />
For a trembling dawn.<br />
Muted roars pulsating<br />
In the night breeze<br />
Charged with the cold<br />
And peacock squawks.<br />
And the swarthy goddess<br />
Lets down her hair<br />
And dances in a frenzy,<br />
Punctuated with laughter<br />
In a tongue I recognize-<br />
Cold, hard, mirthless mockery.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>P.S. :</b> Before you get bothered, let me assure you- yes, I did mean <i>peacock</i> squawks.The Hyderabad Central University campus (where I am presently) abounds with peacocks. Peacock cries also function as the rooster's "clarion call" here! And if you have been reading my blog regularly (fat chance there, I know! :D), you will already be aware of my fixation with everything about the night. One of the best things about HCU, I feel, is that it's safe to roam about within the vast (2800 acres) campus even late at night. This poem seeped into my mind on a solitary late night ride back to my hostel from the library. And this also happens to be my first post after landing in HCU. Life is quite hectic here (and fun too), but I'll try to find the time to update this space regularly and visit ur blogs too. Hope you are all doing fine. Take care. C ya! :)Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-44070817125382127762010-06-29T19:48:00.002+05:302010-06-30T10:04:30.543+05:30Fireflies at Night<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">Fairylights strung</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">on the night</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">on invisible wires,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">Softly flaming winking fires.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><br />
<span style="color: yellow;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">Stars fallen from the sky,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">yellow and ripe;</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">Entangled in black leaves</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">on black boughs.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><br />
<span style="color: yellow;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">A glittering crown</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black; color: yellow;">adorning the night's frown.</span>Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-32551277515733140152010-06-25T12:51:00.009+05:302010-06-29T19:50:16.999+05:30Confessions of a Nocturnal Creature<div style="text-align: justify;">I have been a night bird for as long as I can remember. I have a nocturnally programmed biological clock- I simply absolutely hate getting up early in the morning and I don’t mind staying up at night till even the crack of dawn. Even as a kid at school, I used to prefer studying late at night. Evenings were kept aside for games, the telly, updating my mom on all the happenings at school, fighting with bro, romping with my cats etc. and I would hit my books only after dinner. Finishing homeworks and assignments, studying for test papers etc. happened in the late hours of the night and sometimes continued into the wee hours of the morning. And then the next morning, I would sleep in for as long as possible, which equated to one hour before it was time for the school bus. Holidays gave me the sumptuous luxury of curling up with a book in bed and staying up until I had finished reading it and then sleeping until the sun was way up in the sky and I was declared a disgrace to girlhood by my irate mother banging away on my door!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This scenario continues, more or less unchanged, even now. If it’s not books that keep me up at night, it might be the net or a phone call or an extended text conversation or listening to music on my mp3 player or gazing at the stars on my terrace or just my mind rambling in a labyrinth of thoughts. My average bedtime is midnight and average wake-up time 7 am. My sleep hours sometimes get cut down drastically, to just around a couple of hours, especially when exams are round the corner or some ‘emergency’, ahem, that comes under the heading ‘everyday crisis of an urban Indian youngster’, crops up at night and dealing with it robs me of my precious sleep, and the next day is a working day at college.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My late-night (and late-morning) timings draw raised eyebrows- in wonder, astonishment, bewilderment or disapproval, the last mostly from aghast relatives- from all except my very close friends who have come to realize and accept over time that my ‘day’ begins around 10 at night. And that the sun usually rises for me not before 8 am- and since college is over for now, the sunrise is delayed by at least an hour or two for me…sometimes, the sun, ever the courteous gentleman, does not come knocking on my dreams till noon!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is something about the night that fascinates me. I love the silence, the stillness, the cool night breeze, the rich creamy darkness, the comforting solitude. I love listening to the cicadas, the rustle of leaves, the flapping of bats’ wings, the distant strains of songs from temple carnivals somewhere. I love gazing at the star-spangled night sky, searching for familiar faces among the twinkling crowds, being bathed in silver moonlight. I love the ethereal fragrance of jasmine buds blooming at night. I love listening to the even breathing of my parents in the adjacent room, to the reassuring rise and fall of their unconditional love for me. I love the cosy feeling of snuggling in bed with a favourite book and getting lost in the words while the world sleeps. I love the way my thoughts resound with incredible clarity in the quietude of night and sediment within me. Well, there is another side too to this- comforting solitude can sometimes morph into terrifying loneliness; thoughts can sometimes resound too loudly for one’s liking, can push you off the cliff into yawning valleys of your deepest darkest fears that are usually shrouded by sunlight. Yes, these may happen. But you cannot deny the eternal awe-inspiring splendour of the rolling blue ocean just because it turns stormy and violent and takes lives at times, can you?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have often felt that the city takes on a different persona at night- something like a split personality, maybe? It’s definitely not the same staid city I encounter at daytime that I see after the sun has set. There is a different energy pumping in the night air, flashing off the neon billboards and brightly lit shop windows, throbbing in the sights and sounds of night life- the music wafting out of restaurants, omelettes or chicken sizzling in the frying pan in ‘thattukadas’ (roadside eateries that open in the evening and function all through the night), the phosphorescent halo of street lights and the grey roads dappled with their yellowish pools of light, the multi-coloured lights that gleam on dark hazy outlines of buildings far far away, and if it’s not too late at night, the vehicle headlights that mill the streets like an invading army. I can never have enough of these vignettes of night life and that’s why I stare out the car window like an excited eight-year-old, much to the amusement of the rest of my family, whenever we are driving back home at night after an outing. Not to mention the exhilarating sensation of feeling the cool wind in my hair. I am not speed-crazy in the least, but I have to admit there’s nothing to beat the revitalizing, elevating, out-of-the-world feeling of whizzing away on a two-wheeler through a deserted, smooth, pothole-less, well-tarred stretch with the night air rushing through your hair and freezing your cheeks. It’s one of those experiences, like the divine smell that steams up when the first summer shower kisses the parched earth, that transport you out of your mundane everyday existence to heights of unparalleled unreasoning bliss.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Night life, however, is still the prerogative of males in my hometown Trivandrum, and throughout Kerala, I believe. You hardly find any women out at night, unless accompanied by their husbands or fathers. My own taste of it was always with my Dad. Not that I have a problem with that, but I rue the fact that even in this twenty first century, women cannot be guaranteed safety at all times. There was this short film festival here a few weeks back, to which I had taken a delegate pass. I could not watch a single film that was screened in the evening and hence missed out on some of the best entries at the fest, all because my girl friends and I had to get home by 5-6 in the evening. Now isn’t that just so unfair?! These are the times when I seriously wish I were a guy- I envy the freedom and independence that they have!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, there are friends and well-wishers who repeatedly advise me to change my timings. They are the early-morning birds- who supposedly “catch the worm”. They tell me that I will be able to do my work more efficiently early in the morning since the body is recharged and the brain refreshed after a good sleep. I can understand the logic of their argument but, unfortunately, it has never worked out that way for me in practice. I have tried going to sleep by 10 and getting up at dawn and valiantly sitting down at my desk to study, ‘recharged and refreshed’. But I don’t know how or when or why, I find myself back in bed and sleeping away to glory in less than half an hour! Two or three failed attempts later, I gave up and went back to my nocturnal schedule, because that’s what works best for me. I don’t mean to say I will never ever change my routine, I know I may have to sooner or later. But until then, I’m perfectly happy with things the way they are, with my nocturnal self.</div><br />
Yours truly,<br />
Miss OwlJinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-55990888163566874102010-06-16T17:12:00.002+05:302010-06-29T19:52:04.328+05:30A Lament<div style="text-align: center;">You tell me not to mourn</div><div style="text-align: center;">The passing of the morn;</div><div style="text-align: center;">That brighter dawns</div><div style="text-align: center;">Of brighter morrows</div><div style="text-align: center;">Hover in the east,</div><div style="text-align: center;">That similar gilted sunshine</div><div style="text-align: center;">Still shall streak my life.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Oh, can't you see,</div><div style="text-align: center;">I cry for these moments</div><div style="text-align: center;">That slip from my hands</div><div style="text-align: center;">Like grains of sand,</div><div style="text-align: center;">The harder I try to hold on,</div><div style="text-align: center;">Not because I don't know</div><div style="text-align: center;">The shores still stretch on;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Not because I fear</div><div style="text-align: center;">There shall no more be light.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">It's just that I know</div><div style="text-align: center;">The sunshine shall never again be the same-</div><div style="text-align: center;">You are wrong there-</div><div style="text-align: center;">It may be brighter</div><div style="text-align: center;">Or duskier,</div><div style="text-align: center;">But it can never ever be the same.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">The cadences of our laughter,</div><div style="text-align: center;">The notes of our song,</div><div style="text-align: center;">Shall never be the very same;</div><div style="text-align: center;">No, the sunshine shall never</div><div style="text-align: center;">Be just this bright again.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">And that's why I ache</div><div style="text-align: center;">As these moments march fast</div><div style="text-align: center;">To the twilit past-</div><div style="text-align: center;">Memories that fade like the hues of sunset.</div><div style="text-align: center;">That's why I wish,</div><div style="text-align: center;">Futile though it be,</div><div style="text-align: center;">To slow down their procession</div><div style="text-align: center;">To Eternal Nothingness;</div><div style="text-align: center;">Or better still, sprinkle on them stillness.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">For, once gone, I know,</div><div style="text-align: center;">They are forever lost-</div><div style="text-align: center;">Irretrievably lost.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Irreplaceably lost.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Because the sunshine shall never</div><div style="text-align: center;">Be just this bright again.</div>Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-2560171212597521382010-06-10T22:55:00.002+05:302010-06-29T19:53:34.875+05:30From the Window Seat<div style="text-align: center;">Lakes of molten steel</div><div style="text-align: center;">Chug past my sad twilit eyes</div><div style="text-align: center;">And stream down my cheeks.</div>Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-40520465826138815112010-06-02T02:21:00.005+05:302010-06-16T15:39:10.651+05:30Re-birth<div style="text-align: center;">I am born anew</div><div style="text-align: center;">From the offal of a past</div><div style="text-align: center;">Butchered by Fate's hands.</div>Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773882468018387043.post-26570416919494096242010-05-19T03:43:00.001+05:302010-05-19T03:47:23.649+05:30The Gul Mohur in Full Bloom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTCCAaq6teB022z9KvPRyz6nl7ZVEMwT5lZ1Fn9r23a0G2anWHjJms0lQW-VjwdYUO77sle5BYr16yurkBxeXopWNzFi27L6kX-KNia6b01gGtkHjTH8XSrQFN3scBEqn8DB-JrKQIqlE/s1600/531831236_e8e3934330.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTCCAaq6teB022z9KvPRyz6nl7ZVEMwT5lZ1Fn9r23a0G2anWHjJms0lQW-VjwdYUO77sle5BYr16yurkBxeXopWNzFi27L6kX-KNia6b01gGtkHjTH8XSrQFN3scBEqn8DB-JrKQIqlE/s320/531831236_e8e3934330.jpg" wt="true" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">The flaming brilliance</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Seeps through my eyes,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Into my soul</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">And paints it red-</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Leaving me entranced.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">This sublime splendour</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Holding me spellbound</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">This masterpiece with perfection wound;</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Immortality spilled</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Onto this mortal world.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Were I to squeeze out</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">All of my heart's blood,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Blend it with gold,</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Drench with a creative flood-</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Could I this grandeur</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Ever recreate?</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Can man this glory</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Ever emulate?</span></div>Jinju S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04053310170511346303noreply@blogger.com6