12. Little Thoughts

It is so easy when it is you I am talking about. The thorns don't disappear, but the fragrance of the roses remain, vivid and real as I walk along the path, no more bare-footed but shielded against the harshness of the some-broken but paved path. Life is so much more fun when I have you as my witness to all my trials and tribulations, joys and happiness, success and revelations.

I have never been in love before. But it is as if I have always loved you.

You make me feel like I can fly...

Some old lines penned so casually, but felt so deep within...........

Crude yet simple
No complications, no strife
A new page, a new leaf
A newly discovered life...
~
A little of a lot

Or a lot of a little

Wanting never ceases

Nor the need goes

Can feel the shivers spreading

From my heart to my toes...

~

My mind barely agrees

The heart rarely relents

But they never argue

When I dream about you...

~

I dream with closed eyes

I fantasize with them open

And you didn't reach them

But surpassed, and deepen...

With Love.

11. Either-Or?

People and their idiosyncrasies. Some have really passed the point where they can just be excused as the eccentricities of the different.

An individual cannot have a favourite sport if his nation (country of citizenship, rarely of birth, after all the latter is something we are always trying to live down) doesn't participate in it. To hell, with rest of the world.


And of course, just because you're following the other sport, it is understood that you are unaware of the glory that your nation brings you. You just cannot if you enjoy a sport in which your nation doesn't participate. Didn't you know, your attention and information span doesn't even cover the range of a teaspoon?

Then, you cannot laud your favourite sport without demeaning another just because the one that is your favourite has been (for now or always had been) overshadowed by the other sport! So snub the others who don't share your favourite. Otherwise how else will your choice gain prominence over others?

It always comes down to comparisons and a case of either-or, so challenged we are in our outlooks that we do not understand that there is room for more than one interest in our lives. And of course, another person doesn't come and agree with us, we have to challenge them, we are nothing on our own. Always seeking approval for what we like, what we believe, what we are (?)... Do they even understand how their own mindsets come across?

What will it take to broaden the outlook? To understand the sun doesn't rise and set with your choices or ideas... What will it take to understand that it is not about right/wrong or either/or but there can be so many combinations of individuals other than the high-and-mighty you?

10. After-Before

Why do all the Women (heroines) in Indian serials (and movies) after getting married (fighting a losing battle, trudging across so many tribulations) always change into an entire different persona than before?

Why do they have to give up on the jeans and the trousers, and kurtas and tops always to start wearing only the sarees, in the most traditional way, in the most traditional look as if   given that, no one doubts the authenticity or the integrity of the bahu?

Is it that, with big words spouting of our mouths, we haven't really changed an iota in our outlook towards the women of our society? Are we no better than before? Do the "dress-codes" still make us judge the women accordingly? Is there still no freedom? Is it a true reflection of our own attitude towards the brides and daughters-in-law?

9. Cruel

Cruel, cries the Mind
As it struggles with the pain,
Inflicted so mercilessly,
Thinks the Mind,
In its moment of respite
In mindless bitter gain.
The Body screams in protest,
When the mind bends again
Cruel, it cries in agony
And succumbs as well,
Locked bodily in its hell.
The Heart was resilient,
So it was just a whisper-
Cruel, the Heart says
Just with a trace
Of its breaking faith-
A breaking heart-
Just before it splinters
Into a thousand shards!
But the Soul remained silent,
Unmoving, yet vigilant
A soft murmur, an utter 
Against the wind,
I understand, it says
And I forgive your sin.
You can hurt my brothers,
But never touch their soul

Cruel, you may be-

But I have my peace

We will have our escape

For you, there won't be any.

Cruel, it said sadly

As it flew yonder away.

8. Mom

I could say I love you. A word about what you mean to me. Paragraphs of how you are my miracle. For you, your support, your sustenance, your persistence... Your dreams for me, your faith in me, your hope in me. What you helped me be. What you let me choose for me. For me. For the world.... You, you and you... How could go on for eons and still never succed to expressing what you are, how I behold. 

Yes, I could say I love you, that you are my blessing, my miracle, my God.

But I'd rather show you.