THIS YEAR TOO ...…

Like previous years,
This year too
The effigies of Ravana
Along with Kumbhkarna and Meghnatha
Will be consigned to flames
Onceagain
With loud and deafening crackers
And thousand thunderous claps,
Cheered by all:
Be it old, young or small.

But once again
Attempts would surely fail
To burn them all
As the trio has melted
Into the body of Ramas
And has got slowly multiplied
Keeping their Soul intact, undetected,
Making it difficult for burning Fire
To penetrate the core.

Laxman keeps drawing a line
To save Sitas
But all without fire.
Now none fears
That dreaded idiomatic line.

Year after year
The trio is gaining heights
And growing in numbers,
Flames are also rising high,
Dark smoke leaping
To touch the sky.

Today every Rama is doubtful
As Ravana within is holding forte,
“V” that once stood for villain,
Now stands victor.

Next year again
We will get ready
To burn them all
Like a bonfire
And dance around that pyre
Knowing it well
It didn’t work and won't work
Till the naval is hit once again
With the arrow of corrective fire.

Time is ripe to know
What is Rama and what Ravana is?
This myth has to be broken now
As happening makes it everyday
A biggar speaking tree.

IN THE NAME OF TRADITION

Like Yesterdays
Even today
The sky is not so blue,
The wind is not blowingso soft,
The rising Sun is hotter,
The evening,more dusty,
And the moonless night is darker
Than ever even with stars.

Things are right
Till you don't apply your mind
And blindly follow
The pre-laid medieval path,
And move ahead
With meek obedience
Holding their fingers
In your hand,
Listening to the music
They play,
Seeing the world
Through their eyes,

Once you grow young
And make-up your mind,
Try to find your ways,
And do something
That you wish to do
In coming days
You will go horribly wrong,
In the world
Where people seek
To have their way,
Want to have their say.
If denial comes,
Souls are snatched.
No heart is found,
No mind appears,
No remorse is seen
In the watery eyes.

Don't know why ?
Those arms and embrace
That cradled you once,
Wherein you slpt
All fearless
In the fairy world,
Turns tormentors
At once?

No body knows,
Wants to know
Why young generation
Always have to pay
For their freedom,
For their choice.

Perhaps
This is in our blood
That streams through......
Each and everyone
But seeks no change.

PAST MADE ME

PAST MADE ME

Whenever I open 

The back-door and walk out 

On the long memory lane, 

I always see A lush green village 

Full of mango trees and palm 

On the bank of a rainy-river, 

Damned forever 

By a mighty dam. 

Now not flowing so fast, 

Lying motionless

On her sandy bed 

Between her banks 

Like a grand-old-mother, 

Looking at her grand children 

Playing fearlessly all around.

 

There..... 

On the silky sand 

Spread like the dust of gold 

Lies our childhood 

Making and breaking structures, 

Throwing balls of sand 

At each-other, 

Or one-another, 

And laughing to see 

Sand mingling with sand. 

In the morning. 

Under the rising sun 

A small boy standing 

And watching 

A velvety green paddy fields 

Swaying with the blowing wind  

Full of water and fish at roots underneath.

 

I see a young child 

Dipping his hands in the water 

To catch a fast fleeing fish, 

Or running after the jumping frogs. 

And catching the firefly 

To make lights of my own 

After the sun goes down.

 

Today I am far-far away from her, 

But in my long memory-chain 

Even with her thinning stream 

She never ceased to flow, 

Nor did she left caressing 

My incessantly drifting dreams. 

 I Still love her presence 

As she keeps my past abreast......