ಹುಡುಕಾಟ

ಚಿತ್ರ ಕೃಪೆ: ಸ್ವತಃ 

ಏನು ಬೇಕೋ 

ಅದನ ಹುಡುಕಬೇಕಲ್ಲವೇ?

ಏನನ್ನೋ ಬಯಸಿ 

ಇನ್ನೇನೋ ಬೇಕೆಂದು 

ಮತ್ತೇನನ್ನೋ ಹುಡುಕಿ 

ಇನ್ಯಾವುದರ ಹಿಂದೆಯೋ 

ಶರವೇಗದಿ ಓಡಿದರೆ  ಹೇಗೆ?

ಬೆಳಕು ಬೇಕೆಂದರೆ, 

ಬೆಳಕು ಹುಡುಕಬೇಕು. 

ಮಿಂಚುಳುವಾಗೋ 

ಮೊಂಬತ್ತಿಯಾಗೋ 

ಚಂದ್ರನ ಕಾಂತಿಯಾಗೋ 

ಸೂರ್ಯತೇಜ ರಶ್ಮಿಯಾಗೋ 

ಮಗುವಿನ ಮುಗುಳ್ನಗೆಯಾಗೋ 

ಯಾವ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲೋ 

ಬೆಳಕು ಬಂದೊದಗಿದಾಗ 

ಅಪ್ಪಿ ಒಪ್ಪಬೇಕಲ್ಲವೇ?

ಇಲ್ಲದಿದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ -

ಸಂತಸ ಬಯಸಿ 

ಸಂತೃಪ್ತಿ ಬೇಕೆಂದು 

ಅರ್ಥ ಹುಡುಕುವ 

ಮನ್ನಣೆ ಹಿಂದೋಡುವ 

ಇತ್ಯರ್ಥವಾಗದ ಬಾಳ್ 

ಜಂಜಾಟಕ್ಕೆ ಕೊನೆಯೆಂದು?

The fire

Photo credit: Myself!

ये इश्क नहीं आसां , इतना तो समझ लीजिये
एक आग का दरिया है , और डूब के जाना है
- जिगर मोरादाबादी

 

There is a fire deep inside my heart -

A fire that heals me though it burns me.

As you walked in, I hoped it would douse,

Only to realize, healing entailed burning to ashes!

Conversation starter!

Picture Credit: Myself!

When they ran into each other after being busy in their lives for years, the Angel and the Devil greeted one another and hoped to find the right conversation starter.

"How are you?"

"Happy, sad, unsure, confused, exhilarated, broken, joyous, afraid, thrilled, jealous, healthy, perverted, grateful - in varying proportions at various times. Sometimes surprised that though shades of my moods contradict themselves, they co-exist!"

"Oh, I hope I got the apt conversation starter."

"Well, how about you?"

"Neither all those emotions at once, rarely any specific emotion at once. A chaotic simultaneous amalgamation of emotions on the non-linear spectrum of human life, bathed in shades of celebration, amazement, existence, monotony, frustration and fragility!"

"I guess it is a hell of a conversation starter!"

ದೃಷ್ಟಿಯ ಸತ್ಯತೆ

ಕುರುಡಾಗಿದ್ದ ಸುಖ ದುಃಖಗಳು ಕಣ್ಣಾಸ್ಪತ್ರೆಯ ಕನ್ನಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ತಮ್ಮ ಪ್ರತಿಬಿಂಬ ಕಂಡು ತಾವು ಬೇರ್ಪಡಿಸಲಾಗದ ಸಯಾಮಿ ಅವಳಿಗಳೆಂದು ತಿಳಿದಾಗ ತಮ್ಮ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಯ ಸತ್ಯತೆಯನ್ನೇ ಪ್ರಶ್ನಿಸ ಹೊರಟವು.

(Seeing their reflection for the first time in the mirror at the eye-hospital, conjoined twins, Happiness and Sorrow, which were blind all these days, went on to question the truth of their vision!)

Late night, long talks.

I miss those late night long talks.
Sometimes boys, sometimes girls.
But we were in those times, close friends.
Thoughts on the world and ourselves,
Flirting with taboos, woes, ideas, dreams.
Non-judgmental, as if lying naked,
Raw and true, sharing what the heart felt.
As if only over those calls we made love,
Unabashed, uninhibited, uncertain, aimless.
All over the place, random like natural energy;
Those talks were like beautiful entropy.

I am afraid, dead are those days.
We have got old and fallen into patterns?
Organised, uniform, well directed we talk.
Like we wake up, we behave and we work.
Like we learn, we earn and we burn.
Like we like, we tweet and we share.
Like we diagnose, we test and we treat.
Like we buy, we sell and we play.
Like we swipe, we flirt and we seduce.
Like we call, we chat and we mail.
But, I feel it has been long since I talked.
I miss those late night long talks.

Coming of the adored!

Dhriti, on her first birthday!

"aagamaarthamtu devaanaam
gamanaarthamtu rakshasaam,
kurve ghantaaravam tatra
devataahvaahna lakshanam"

(I ring this bell
Invoking the divinity,
So that, from within and without,
Virtuous and noble forces enter;
Demonic and evil forces depart.)

My darling,
As you hold the bell
And enact the prayer,
The atheist in me is afraid,
If the God, whose existence
I have denied all along,
Would appear from thin air
In response to thy cutest call.
The adored coming all the way
Only to adore the one who calls!

क़ुबूल कहाँ?

"You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep spring from coming."

- Pablo Neruda

खुदा के वास्ते मज़हब के रक्षक 

फ़रमान निकाले बैठे हैं की - 

काफ़िर के दिल-ए-गुलिस्ताँ में 

परी के नाम का फ़ूल न खिले।

कुदरत रहम करे बेवफ़ा दिल पे,

बहार-ए-मोहब्बत को ये क़ुबूल कहाँ?

(For the sake of God, 

The protectors of religion

Have issued a decree that -

No flower shall bloom in 

The name of the Fairy-Angel

In the garden of the Infidel's heart. 

When has the spring of love concurred 

To let nature pity the capricious heart?)

Smile back!

19th century depiction of Alexander's funeral procession based on the description of Diodorus.
Image courtesy: http://www.alexanderstomb.com/main/imageslibrary/alexander/index.htm

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." 

- Henry David Thoreau

Every time they chastise the happy-go-lucky kid,

And call her lacking in ambition, warn her of the risk

Of how she shall perish being herself, in a world, 

Fuelled by the ambition of "everyone" around her;

Hope she shall smile back like the monks who held up 

Their worldview to the Emperor, the Conqueror, Alexander!

Legend has many narratives, mythical or otherwise.

One is the story of how the Emperor was bemused at the 

Jain monks who went on with their lives, indifferent 

To the largest and the most powerful of the armies, that 

Ever marched past those lands conquering, escorting 

The invincible, the Emperor, the Conqueror, Alexander!

It is said that the emperor desired “to know why”,

Why the monks were so indifferent, how could they be?

The monks were summoned, the glory was described -

The scale of the ambition, the battles to conquer the world,

The years of travel, tales of the resolute army led by

The dauntless, the Emperor, the Conqueror, Alexander!

The stories whisper of how the monks smiled and

Offered the Emperor a view of their world, when they said -

“Be it any form of life, whether in air, water or on earth;

Whether an insect, an animal or a reeking mammoth carcass,

Whether a man or a woman seeking alms for their living,

Whether thy majesty, the Emperor, the Conqueror, Alexander,

One can at any moment possess only that much Earth

That one can stand on and that too till the moment passes.

These marching majestic armies, their so-called victories,

Mere nuisances to the people, the armies and even to thyself.

Despite all you think you conquered, you shall die, perish

Like us all; You too, the Emperor, the Conqueror, Alexander!”