Obverse Verses.

Still waters that run deep
A lone ship in troubled waters.

The rising sun in the skies of dawn
A shooting star in the dead of night.

The conflicts of a restless mind
The pinings of a mellow heart....

Nostalgia for the memories of moments gone
A phantom pain that haunts from the past...

The lasting promise of a true love
The irony that mortals do not last.

6 Feet Under......

Come monsoon or summer shine
My eyes are always filled with grime.

My days are long, and I long to stretch
But I can't, I'm an unfortunate wretch.

My family and friends don't visit me often
Deep inside, they think I'm simply rotten.

My neighbours, they too never drop by
I take comfort in knowing they lie close by.

It's the occasional stranger that makes my day
When they take a detour and wander astray.

For when they linger over the words on my tomb
I have but fleeting peace in the earth's womb.

SANDS OF TIME . . . .

Sitting at Marine Drive, I gaze at the sky and the sea, and that perfect illusion of the horizon in between. A little street kid skips along and tries to clamber up but the parapet is too high for her. I pick her up and sit her down beside me. Her delighted grin lights me up. She has a perfectly ruined white rose in her grubby little hand and is now busy pulling off all it's petals and letting them drift into the breeze. I smile to myself as I think of the picture we are painting - Fluffy clouds strewn across a purple pink sky, the glittering sea ahead, and two strangers amongst a thousand others watching the golden sunset together.

I feel content. It is beguiling to simply sit here and enjoy the salt infused sea breeze and marvel at the vastness of the sight that I behold. There is always a moment here when time holds still and the grains of sand in the hourglass cease to drop. I close my eyes, tilt my head back and let the last rays of the setting sun soak my face. I know this is a cherished moment, bound to invoke nostalgia once it has passed.

As the sun sets, I think of the many moments of my life that have passed. The liaisons and transgressions that I've had, the misadventures I have embarked upon, the mundane that I have endured. I hope there is a cosmic entity up there witnessing the saga of my existence and imprinting it upon the universe. I want these moments to reverberate through time and space, the memories reflected in an ethereal looking glass. And at some infinite point of time, in some alternate universe, I want the sands of time to hold still again, so those luminous petals may drift back to me...

THE PHARAOH & THE PHANTOM

Armed knights around the castle stand
Allegiance pledged to the mighty hand.

Peasants beseeching the strength of the armour
Dangerously veiled ambitions of a modest farmer.

A revolution that threatens to dethrone the reign
Though mighty be the orb, the rebel is not in vain.

The kingdom gripped with anarchy that refuses to drown
Uncertain lies the fate of the face beneath the Crown.

The sceptre and soldier, both wearing a mask
One pacing the palace, one toiling at the task.

When the deed is done & the story retold
History is not obliged to favour the bold.

He who rules the Day, needs not the Lantern
He who Conquers the Night, is but a Phantom .....

WE, THE PEOPLE

The land of Colonial rule and carnage
The land of Mughal loot and pilferage.

Tales of tyranny with horrors of the past
And revolutions fought in the century last.

Plagued for decades with poverty & paucity
Peppered with scams of deceitful audacity.

Grappling with sati and female infanticide
Struggling with scars of rape and homicide.

Ridden with endless terrors and blasts
Leaving the people stricken and aghast.

...........................................................................................

Then land of Ganges & the land of sages
Steeped in the wisdom and history of ages.

Celebrations of Rama & the festival of Lights
Literatures of the Sutra amid culinary delights.

An amalgam of religion, castes, and creeds
Kaleidoscope of mortals, deities and deeds.

7 Union territories with 29 diverse States
The citizens standing tall as steadfast mates.

Borders nestled between the Saffron & Green
United by a spoked wheel on the White serene.