Towering Hopes

“Hope is a good thing, may be best of things and no good thing ever dies.”

The world that we know of is slowly changing. We need to overcome the darkness with every sliver of light, quell melancholy with moments of joy and fight despair with our neverending hopes…

Walk with me, will you?
Down these gentle slopes,
And up those steeps too –
To all those towering hopes.

Let’s begin our journey here –
Under these starry nights;
We cannot just disappear,
Into the blinding lights.

This won’t make us crumble,
We shall know no pain,
We may stagger and stumble,
But only to rise up again.

This too shall pass, true!
And bring with it a new day.
Let’s build our home anew –
You and me, we’re here to stay!

Dark Clouds

Even the darkest cloud eventually runs out of rain.

You need to just weather out the storm.

 

Mundane Life

“At times, one needs to pause a fast paced movie to understand the meaning and significance of a scene…life too was moving too fast. So this pause is helping us understand what all of it actually is for. “

Thank you for inspiring me time and time again…

I hardly blink at those blinding lights,
Or marvel enough at the serene sights.
The vista is too much for my mortal mind,
There’s only so much I can see before I turn blind!
The thousand smells, both sweet and sour,
Are fleeting memories, now in a blur.
I hardly hear the cacophony of the crowd –
No sound a whisper, no sound too loud.
The million impulses fatigue my brain;
Life’s turning out to be dreadfully mundane.

Stop the clock and its ticking hands,
“Let me breathe!”, my tired soul demands.
For once let this runaway time stand still,
And live my life before it all goes downhill.
I’ve been here surviving for so very long,
I’ve forgotten where I rightfully belong.

A Childhood Memoir

The most remarkable stories are those that relate to our lives, and they are even more memorable when they are ‘of’ our lives. In my lonely flat, in my leisure, I often reminisce about my childhood — my carefree life with my extended family — the past that I wish to relive. One of the fond memories of that period is of a particularly chilly winter Sunday.

Limericks: Wish I knew!

If I knew of the secret tricks,

I could write my own limericks:

Funny but subtle,

Without inviting trouble,

Tongue-in-cheek takes on politics.

Last Night Together

“Parting is such sweet sorrow…” With each separation comes a time of celebration of the dying moments, a final flourish of ecstasy and euphoria.

Draw the curtains, dim the light,

We ought to celebrate this night.

Play the record, hum a tune,

Sing a song about the moon.

Take my hand, waltz with me,

Into the night with a frenzy.

The night’s young, so are our souls

Tonight’s the night we lose control.

Time is scarce, moments precious

So, this night is about only us.

Hold me close, kiss my lips,

Forgetting all our past hardships.

Don’t be scared, don’t shed a tear,

We shall rejoice till I am here.

Tonight is last, there’s no tomorrow,

At daylight, you must let me go.

Humor: How I sang a beautiful song in the most hideous way, and still got applauded!

This happened to me during our induction process when I first joined IBM. We were all graduate hires, fresh out of college, not yet recovered from the college hangover. 🙂

So, there was a female instructor (probably for Oracle PL/SQL) who was teaching us more on the values of life than the subject matter at hand. Many were dozing off due to all the ‘gyan’ (remember the college hangover) and weren’t really paying attention to her anymore.

Suddenly, she had a moment of divine realization and asked one of the girls in the front row to sing. Maybe it was her way of breaking the monotony and waking the sleepy heads up. The girl sang well, if I remember correctly. We clapped. Suddenly, the lady points at me in the distant corner and says ‘you look like you have a nice voice! Can you sing for us?’

An Evening with My thoughts

The balcony of my hotel room overlooks the beautiful lake of Mirik. The small stone bridge across it resembles the imagery created by the western fairy tales, and the pine trees lining the lake and the cool weather of this hill station will make anyone forget the country we are in. In the morning, I had seen the gathering of the tourists in the field adjacent to the lake, the locals selling their fares, the horses busy carrying the loads of these excited visitors and couples and families boating on the lake.

But with the drawing of the night, the busy spot has retired to a calm and meditative environment. The darkness enveloped the cold hills, but the clear November night sky lit its numerous lamps. The full moon, with no man-made rivals here, is glowing with all its majesty. Its reflection is dancing on the lake’s restless water, and the crests of the ripples are crowned with the silvery sparkling light. The boats tied to the small jetty were also moving up and down with the ripples. There seems to be a secret divine music playing, inaudible to the mortal ears, but its rhythmic manifestation is visible to a keen onlooker.

Insomnia

What do I do when I cannot sleep?

Do I sum up the stars or count sheep?

When I cannot close my scarlet eyes,

I keep looking for the fiery fireflies…

Weary and weak, evident from the yawn,

Waiting impatiently for the break of dawn.

I take the pills to sedate the pains–

The effects of caffeine in my veins!

Sing me a lullaby, my ears do yearn;

But I only hear the second’s hand turn.

Tossing and turning on these sultry nights

I count the number of passing headlights.

Seeking a bit of solace in the thought

I am not the lone nocturnal distraught!

Hoots and chirps, croaks and barks,

This world comes alive only after darks.

Creatures are wide-awake just as me!

Only that I have been too tired to see.