Sing that old song

 

When the night is long,

Just sing the old song,

When the fog is deep,

And the climb is steep,

Sing it loud,

Sing it long,

Just sing along.

Why is February short?

 

February is short,

Most welcome it,

For spring is not far behind.

And, those in the death row ask,

Why is February short?

Finding Love

 

He called out her name

When things were still unsettled,

Her name echoed

Across hills and vales.

And since things were still

A bit unsettled,

He got buried

In an avalanche of love.

As he used up the pockets of air,

The pockets of life,

He wondered how it would be

To die of love.

She heard him, of course.

She threw her axe into the volcano,

That it be baked, and be wrought,

She outstretched her arm,

And caught the lightning in her fist,

And strode towards land,

Leaving a tsunami in her wake.

The lightning would show her the way,

The axe would dig up all her love.

But, it was one thing

To give all your love,

Quite another to find your Love.

May your love boomerang

 

Thursday gyan:

May your love boomerang.

For, what is unrequited love?

Love, that did not boomerang.

Ash Wednesday

 

Today is Ash Wednesday, the Wednesday before the start of Lent. TS Eliot concluded his poem Ash Wednesday with these lines:

Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit

of the garden,

Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood

Teach us to care and not to care

Teach us to sit still

Even among these rocks,

Our peace in His will

And even among these rocks

Sister, mother

And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,

Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.

Today is Ashish's Wednesday too. And, he wrote  a few years (plus a few days) before:

तुम्हारे और मेरे बीच 

इतने जन्मों का फासला तो होना ही था,

किसी जन्म में तुमने हाँ कहा,

किसी जन्म मेंने ना कहा,

जिस जन्म में तुम रो पड़ी,

उस जन्म में मैं हँस पड़ा,

इस जन्म में तुम्हारा स्पर्श हुआ ,

पर मैं जाने किस भँवर में खो गया।

और कुछ जन्म तो बीतेगें ही,

मेरे देश में वह मुश्किल मिलता है।

-25 Feb '86

Recess is over.

 

On finding classmates after half a century:

Half a century is a long time.

And the spaces between us

Has filled an eon.

And I shake the dust off me,

And I try to look sharp.

Lest you don't remember me.

And you look at me quizzically,

And say:

What's with you, mate?

Let's rush to the Class,

Recess is over.

Don't Judge the Sky

 

Don't judge the sky

By it's colour,

Don't judge the trees,

By their yearnings,

Don't judge the travellers

In the mist yonder,

By the path they have taken,

Trudge your own path,

Over dead leaves and thorns,

And leave a wake behind.

Binaries of light and shadow

It was reported in the press that Susan Wojcicki is stepping down. I ruminated on some questions:

From where is Susan

Stepping down?

Is it the Mount Everest?

Is it the pulpit?

Or, is it the podium

Where there is no silver or bronze?

Or, is it from the altar

Of truth and untruth,

From the binaries

Of zeroes and ones,

From the binaries

Of light and shadow?

 

Difficult for me to say zero

 

Why is it so difficult

For me to say zero?

When I have nothing

I say, I have zilch,

When with zero doubt,

I say, not an iota of doubt,

When I begin a Game,

I say, love all.

Today's Wednesday is God sent

 

Today's Wednesday is God sent,

Coz it's the last ere Lent.

Many a dreg may your liver rent,

For, next Wednesday onwards

Will be Shudh Paani from Kent.

*Shudh Paani:  Pure Water

**Kent: is the brand name of a water purifier in India

Find me in the debris

 

Dear God,

How will you find me?

In this vast expanse

Of multiverses?

I am just a tiny tot

In a small planet called earth,

In one such Universe.

It must be so difficult

To find me in the debris.

But come fast

Before the day is over,

For, you are my Valentine.

This too shall pass

 

Let's not be daunted

If it's the thirteenth,

For, tomorrow is the fourteenth

Who knows what

February, the fourteenth

Holds for us.

This too shall pass.

Violate traffic rules now, pay fine later.

 

Today, 11 Feb 2023, I received this post:

Dear Residents

Today is the last date for paying half of traffic fine.

Please give wide publicity

Regards

Col

This is in consonance with the current philosophy of buying things: Violate traffic rules now, pay fine later.

Into his peril

She walked into the night,

And left breadcrumbs

In her wake.

The gusty wind

Blew away the crumbs,

Leaving no wake behind.

But who will blow away

The tiny red blobs of love,

That she left behind?

He followed the blobs of love

Into the night,

Into his peril. 

Why does the earth shiver?

 

Why does the earth shiver?

Is it because of cold,

Or, is it out of fear?

There is a hole

In the heart of the earth,

Because of the oil and gas,

We pumped out,

And the oysters we foraged

From the deep seas,

Yet we know that

All the oil is hanging

In the air now,

Like a halo.

And all the insides of oysters

Are hanging around dainty necks now.

So, no mass was lost.

Then, was it the wrath of the gods

That made the earth quiver?

Made the earth quake?

Collateral Karma

 

Is there such a thing as

Collateral Karma?

Eight thousand met the Maker

In a similar way:

Buried and asphyxiated.

Did Karma visit a lonely sinner

But Karma's wrath also visited

The other seven thousand odd?

And did the epicentre radiate

Collateral Karma?

Bot will be left, and only bot will write

What I have to say,

I have to say today.

Tomorrow will be another day,

When artificial intelligence,

Will artificially inseminate

My mind,

And chatGPT,

And Google's Bard,

Will have something to say,

On whatever I say.

Won't be no copyleft,

Nor copyright,

Bot will be left,

And only bot will write. 

Days are made of many hours

 

Days are made of many hours,

One, my finest,

Some are happy, 

Few are sad.

Nights are made of many hours,

Some are long,

Some are very long.