The Kiss of Life

Resuscitate dreams

Those turn insipid

And colourless

With touches of time

Restore hope

Buried beneath

Debris of despair

Recreate love

That loses its sheen

With ravages of age

Recreate the sense of wonder

It abandons

Us in humdrum

Of existence

Reclaim parts

Of the soul

You masked to face the world

Unearth the vulnerabilities

You concealed in

The confines of mental walls

Awaken the nomad within

Whose soul got chained to

Dredges of security

Break the chains

you tie your wary soul into

 

Related articles

• There’s An Answer To Your Dreams (dlmchale.com)
• Where Do I Find My Comfort? (kellybaesen.wordpress.com)
• The view from the window of my soul (thewhyaboutthis.com)

Reflected Patterns

Snippets

And fragments

That don’t fit together

Jarring notes

Aching to find a symphony

Lingering moments

Melting into bittersweet memories

Inexplicable agony

That slips into

Unknown dark alleys

Threads that weave

Into patches not patterns

Yet we amble on

Ascribing meaning

To ambiguity

Till the pieces

Begin to fall in place

And fleeting emotions

Find a resting space

And when look back

At the patterns

Of agony and delight

The reasons, the rhyme

Starts to come alive

In hindsight

The waves of time shall turn

( image courtesy :Google)

Drowning

In an abyss

Of our thoughts

Floating in a swamp

Of fear

Walking on

The trapeze of trepidation

We seem to forget

That the pieces

Don’t always fit together

It isn’t always going

To be fair weather

The storms will pass

The darkness will

Mellow into light

Just hold on to

The last strand of hope

Ride on the swiveling

Wheels of faith

The waves of time

Will wash you to

A safer shore

Rocky Road Ahead

The road you chose

Is a lonely one

The Twists and turns are sharp

There are bends and

Boulders lined on the way

You might encounter fellow travellers

Who walk with you a distance

And diverge to make their paths

The road will get rockier

There will be storms to conquer

Don’t look back in nostalgia

Don’t pause in fear

Don’t slow down to withdraw

Just keep walking

Walk till you see the beacon

Walk till you learn to live in the moment

Walk till you know the transience of life

Walk till your darkness melts into light

Our worlds are different

We inhabit different worlds

You and I

Our realities run

Parallel

Like the tracks of a train

Our ideologies

Collide and clash

But seldom meet

We run like

The banks

Of a river

Our minds

On different tangents

Our perceptions

In dissonant notes

We walk side

By side

Yet our eyes

View the world

So differently

The world

Will never

Let us meet

If we ever do

We will weave

A new world

Where differences

Will find respect

And change

Will be embraced

Related articles

• Why Changing Others’ Minds is So Hard (psychologytoday.com)

Rekindling Life

She cried

Silently into the night

Where no one could hear

They had blown

Away her castles

In the air

With whispers of conspiracy

They had burnt down

Her dreams

On the pyre

Of convention

They had stepped

On her hopes

With a stampede

Of disapproval

Her dreams

Her hopes

Her world

Lay scattered

Like shrapnel

The fragments

Lay broken

With jagged edges

That could only pierce

Her soul

Yet her irrepressible

Spirit

Found a reason

To soar again

Mend her broken wings

With care

With fragility

She gathered

Her fragmented

Hopes

She gathered

The ashes of her dreams

And the remains

Of her world

She looked at

Morning sky with

A renewed gleam

Of hope

Because tomorrow

Held in its

Womb

The promise

Of a new dawn

Patterned with

Hopes of building

The life of her dreams yet again

Life’s Lessons, Longings and Impressions

Life’s unpredictable, unfair and yet a beautiful journey If you have an appetite life has a lot to offer. You just need to open your arms to feel it, experience it in entirety , all joys and sorrows, all hopes all dreams . As I inch towards 30, I have this incessant urge to reflect on all the lessons life’s brought my way, to gather those nuggets and capture them somewhere. Most of my growing up happened in the last decade. Before which I was comfortably sheltered in a cocooned existence. But the past few years shook me out of complacence and forced me to get my hands dirty and learn more about life, about letting go of what I was to become what I could be. To shed my perceptions, biases, to look at life up and close. To learn some more and reflect less. Here’s what I thought I could share in a long self indulgent monologue. You can read it at the risk of falling asleep with such hackneyed, done to death lessons.

• Travel, stir the wanderlust within. Roam the world, see all you can. Experience all you can. Traveling is the shortest route to discovering what your soul needs and it is what helps you unwind and break monotony like nothing. Travel to rejuvenate yourself and travel to resurrect your relationships with those who matter. Travel with a partner; a companion. Travel alone, travel to quench the thirst for knowledge, to find meaning in life.
• Read: Books will be your only constant companion in life’s journey. Read when you’re happy. Read when you’re low. Read to know the world and yourself. Read till words dance like images in your mind, read to nourish your mind.
• Love till it hurts. Love to give unasked, with your entire being. Love yourself, love those who matter. Love your weaknesses, love the darkness in those you love. Love teaches you acceptance and compassion. Don’t stay trapped in hurt, forgive those who hurt you and move on. You can really love another once you’ve accepted yourself, warts and all. Don’t close your heart and mind to possibilities.Keep them open to find love.
• In the race to make a career, buy a house and acquire all material possessions. Don’t forget the people who matter. Don’t lose yourself to the madness of a rat race. Life boils down to being more than having. Make time for yourself and for others.
• Don’t stress and sweat over the small stuff. It is best ignored. Think about the bigger picture. There’s no point gathering excess baggage with guilt, resentment, anger. Life’s much more so shed them before it’s too late
• Make time for your parents. Call them often. They need you more as they age, spend more time talking to them, connecting with them.
• Take time off from the virtual world. Switch off the phone, that tablet, the laptop. Take a deep breath and have a real conversation with yourself, with a friend, co-worker. Anyone. The virtual world can never replace the physical one.
• Measure your words; use them with care. You never know when you’d be forced to take them back. Use them to reach out, express, share, but rarely to lash out, hurt. Life is an echo.
• Retain that child-like curiosity, the eagerness to know and learn something new. Its the best anti-aging solution.
• Every now and then do some housekeeping of your physical as well mental space. Let go of things you don’t need and have no use of. Let go of relationships that are meaningless and don’t make you happy or teach you anything. The older you get; your world will shrink and will be restricted to the people who really matter.
• Don’t bend backwards to please people. Or to be someone you aren’t . Sooner or later they’ll see through it. Just be yourself, unabashedly sans apologies. There will be people you meet who may not like you for no real reason; you can’t do a thing to change that. Don’t try and change their perception, they are entitled to it, as you are entitled to your own.
• Let work give meaning to your life.Put your heart and soul into it. Find a calling that intersects with your passion and work will be fun. But don’t make work a synonym for life.
• Don’t ever give up on your dreams, your hopes. They define you. Go all out to make them real. Chase them. If they break, find new ones. But never give up on hope. Have your feet firmly rooted in reality, yet give wings to all that you want from life.
• Never be a naysayer. Be open to change. It can be fearful and intimidating, yet change turns out for the best. Almost. Always.
• Create something. Learn to draw, write, paint, create a life. It gives you the kind of joy nothing can.
• Find home. Quell your inner restlessness. Home isn’t necessary a place. It’s a state of being.  A place within which nourishes you, feeds you, give you comfort and strength to face life’s blows. Every now and then look within, retreat to the place you call home and find strength to walk again.
• Take both praise and criticism with a pinch of salt. Yet learn from them. I used to be an oversensitive person who could cry at the drop of a hat or when I saw people point out mistakes. I am still learning to deal with criticism. Take the lesson but don’t carry  the hurt.
• Learn to see the people you love as they are and not with rose tinted glasses. Accept their weaknesses and strengths. Learn to see your parents objectively so that your life isn’t a shadow of theirs. Carry the best they taught you; but try and sift out the worst.It comes with growing up.
• Everything takes time. Dreams will realize, the life you want will come your way. But give it time; don’t be in a hurry to get anywhere.
• Speak up when it is needed. Speak up when you want to be heard. Silence isn’t always the best alternative. And don’t flinch within while saying no say it politely yet firmly. Most  of us women find it hard to do so.
• Live in the moment. It is easier said than done. I am prone to fret over the past or keep nursing dreams for the future. It ultimately serves no purpose. So give into the moment and soak in the experience. Don’t focus on making the moment a memory with a photograph or Facebook update. You immortalize it by living it wholly.

I could go on and on and this virtually started to sound like my own wish-list or bucket list of things to do and learn. But for the sake of time and at the risk of sounding like an overzealous preacher, I must stop here. What is that you draw from life ? Do share it.

Related articles

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• What is the Meaning of Life?! (lightningtornadofalconpunch.wordpress.com)
• Ten Lessons I Learned About Relationships While Travelling (ariannasrandomthoughts.com)

An eternal wait

Broken dreams

Abandoned hopes

Lay strewn about

Fledgling passion

Half baked idealism

lie buried

in the recesses

of a memory lane

we no longer walk down

Languishing

under the dredges

of reality

Tempered with

the bittersweet

burden of existence

they lay there

waiting in earnest

to be resurrected

Longing for

the walls

of resistance

to weather down

They wait

for waves

of hope

to bring

them back to life

 

 

Celebrating Womanhood

Don’t see my
courage in it
It’s a conspiracy
of silence

My endurance
is no virtue
Its a defense
against years
of conditioning
and violence

Don’t worship
me while
you bruise
me in
spirit and womb

Don’t walk
all over my being
and
put me on
a pedestal
or engrave my name
in a temple or tomb

Don’t see my
patience as my strength
its a veneer
a sheer facade

Inside I’m as
real as you are
I’m human
and all flawed

Don’t attribute to me
the glory in being
worshiped as
a goddess

I too crumble
under pressure
and duress

Don’t
think my
love is
unconditional and
so is forgiveness

I too need
love and care
when life’s a mess

Don’t give me the labels of
an emblem of perfection
or a multitasking wonder

I am entitled to succumbing to
impulses and committing
a blunder

Don’t give

me a day to express

myself

And then an year

on a dusty shelf

Don’t burden
me with medallions
and tags
these were
never true

Just love me
accept me
and walk
with me

I’m as good
as bad;as real as you

This is for http://www.womensweb.in/articles/celebrating-girls-celebrating-women/

A Place I can call home

Where masks aren’t needed
to veil vulnerability and tears
Where there’s room
for hope
a space to
assuage your fears
Where the cup
of love keeps
brimming over
and windows
open up to
the dawn of change
Where the heart
can follow
its voice sans intrepidity

Where peace and love
nestle to give birth to serendipity
Where the walls
echo with resounding
laughter
and the corridors
radiate warmth

Where hope
and faith
can light up every
nook and corner

Where trust
and faith matter
more than pride
or honour

A place I
can call my own
It’s a place I
want to come home to

 

 

Of Letting Dreams Die….

“Dream and give yourself permission to envision a You that you choose to be.”

Ever so often I have noticed people give up dreams, longings and wishes because the significant others in their lives usually parents and spouse don’t approve of them or don’t take them seriously. And we human beings especially women  are ever willing to be martyrs to keep peace in the relationships that matter. We choose to  just give up the wishes and use others as the convenient excuse for doing so.. It is so convenient to pass on the buck. I wonder why would we do that ? Perhaps in the first place the wishes we harboured or the dreams we nurtured didn’t count enough or didn’t matter as much for us to pursue them till they saw the light of day. Or could it be the fact that we lacked sheer courage and perseverance to see them come to reality . Dreams are not for the cowardly, they need some spunk and a lot of spine. And the  courage of our convictions to see them right through despite dissent and opposition. When we give up a dream or passion in the name of pleasing others, a part of us dies within. Gradually as we keep giving up our spirit becomes dull and lifeless sans any passion, sans any purpose. We get stuck in a rut and conveniently blaming others in our life for not letting us do what we really wanted to. The trouble begins to brew when we start expecting others to give up their passions and dreams since we did too.While in the first place if we gave up something supposedly of our own volition why would we coerce another person into doing something similar? Such illogical expectations are the root cause of a storm in most relationships.

Life was never supposed to be easy, and relationships can be anything but simple. With their myriad hues, layers and subtexts. But the bottom line is you can never share or give happiness if you’re not a fulfilled person yourself. So there’s no point letting go of what you want for the happiness of others. Because when you feel thwarted and miserable that is all you would have to offer.

This rant is for all the women including me. It was high time we stopped being martyrs and started reaching out for all that we want, instead of seeking parental approval or approval from a partner. Carpe diem ladies!

Holding Hope

When the contours

of a dream melt

in realms of reality

When darkness

outlive light

and seems

to last an eternity

When the heart

gets trapped

in shadows of despair

When

things go wrong

and life

looks beyond repair

Open your

eyes to see

people who still care

Outstretch your palms

and let hope

hold your hand

Dust the crevices

of your mind

to see possibilities galore

Open your heart

to find a new life

knocking at your door

 

Tell me….

Tell me

of the darkness

that envelops

our souls

Tell me

of the dreams

and desires

that we buried

in the backyard

of reality

Tell me

of the emptiness

that swallows our core

The helpless ire

that clips our wings

Talk to me

of that

simmering rage

that scathe

our beings like a

forest on fire

Tell me

all that can bring

to the surface

the storms

that brew beneath

the tranquil seas

of our mundane existence

 

 

 

 

Longing for Joy

In fits and starts

In scattered parts

In fragments

In figments

In moments

In fleeting longings

In deep desire

In raging fire

In silence of the soul

In transience

In permanence

they visit us

fleetingly

Joy, hope

and happiness

We owe them

some space

We owe it to

ourselves

A quiet corner
A room

in our hearts

to spread their wings

and settle down

Tick-Tock, Were 30: A review

At the brink of turning the big 30, the title more than caught my fancy and I couldn’t resist requesting a copy from the generous  Women’s Web .

From Milan Vohra our very first indigenous Mills & Boon author , this book is a light breezy read on a spring afternoon. The key characters include  Lara Bagai and her boisterous and versatile gang of friends.

The clock is ticking towards Lara’s thirtieth birthday and the whole gang is coming together to celebrate it since she’s the last one to reach the milestone in her gang. Its a pact they made back then to meet when they all finally turned that age. There’s anther pact o Lara had made one tipsy evening with Nishad. to marry each other if neither of them were hitched by then.

The last thing Lara wants is to give Nishad the pleasure of knowing he was right-about Ranndeep being so wrong for her.Ranndeep, all-male, pro-motor racer whom she’d been so sure of at the time. So there was only one thing to do. Lara would have to drum up someone else to pass off as her love interest for now.Enters the  flamboyant Perzaan, Turkish dude full of surprises. And unfolds a saga of quirky characters, and a gaffe with audacious hookups and mix-ups.

The characters are so well etched that you can literally conjure images in your head -from the perennially constipated Thin Rita to glad eyed, Sai. The author engages you with a good dose  of  humour and colloquialisms, you will somehow not grudge the length of the book. It keeps you hooked till the very end. At times the book is successful in making you a tad nostalgic about your own college days. All in all an entertaining read, but could have done with some smart editing in places though.

Foot in Mouth Syndrome

Beware! An epidemic has hit our country,and all the politicos and god-men seem to be succumbing to this !It is the foot and mouth disease.  Mohan Bhagwat, Kailash Vijaywargiya, Ramesh Bais, Bapu Asaram and Abu Azmi have suddenly crawled out of the woodwork or rather oblivion and are smattering all kinds of regressive mumbo-jumbo on why rape happens in the country and how can crime against women be avoided! I wonder how did they gather the guts to voice such ridiculous opinions. They along with their ideas deserve to be curated in a museum; such masterpieces they are ! One mouths the fact that women need to stay in their lakshman rekha, the other claims crimes against women happen in India not Bharat , the other says the rape of adult women is “Understandable” but that of minors is heinous crime !! It isn’t for nothing that they call silence golden; if you don’t have anything appropriate or sensible to say why can’t you just keep mum instead of shooting your mouth left right and centre?

We are a society in flux; the ancient and regressive coexist with the desire to embrace all that is liberal and modern. We’re also a very hypocritical culture we worship the female form yet we’re on the list of the 5 worst countries to be a woman !! What is most worrisome is the fact that Patriarchy is so inherently built in to our DNA that such regressive opinions actually have takers and people who endorse them. Only a handful people actually question such archaic and denigrate opinions. It is actually because such degrading opinions prevail in our society that crime against women prevails. As long as the patriarchal mindset prevails and the gender power equation favours men, crimes against women will continue to plague our degenerating society.

Reminiscing The Year That Was

Meandering

Between creases

Between boundaries

Between spaces

Between emptiness

Gushing

Between love

Between anguish

Swinging

Between hope

Between Sorrow

There is time

That flows

Sometimes like a silent river

Passing beneath

Bridges we build

Washing away

Walls we erect

Sometimes rolling like

A reckless stream

Sometimes

Roaring like impassioned waves

We do all we can to

Slow it down

Outstretching our hands

Tightening our fists

Around the sands of time

Thinking it’ll stay still

Yet it slips away

Sliding away from

Beneath   our  feet

Leaving stamped   memories

Weaving lasting moments

Leaving the creases

And crumples

Of age on our hearts

And faces

We do all

We can to defy its traces

Embracing Change

With the passage of time and with a brush with experiences I am coming to realize familiarity, security, comfort and security are double-edged swords. They lure you into shirking change and pull you towards maintaining status quo. We keep holding back fearing the imponderable what if change doesn’t bring what we visualize.

We stay put in that mental cocoon holding on to how life is, rather than walk towards the life we want to create for ourselves. Howsoever staid, monotonous our present reality is we cling to it only for the sake of staying safe in familiar terrain. We continue to corrode our beings and implode, yet are unwilling to let go of what is known territory. It can be a relationship, a job or any situation we stick it out thinking if we take a leap out of it there can be more misery waiting for us! We become so comfortable in our miseries.

Can’t help but think of what I heard while growing up saying no to change is saying no to life and to personal growth. Without change we reach a dead-end and just keep floating around instead of going with the natural flow of life. I’ve never been great at adapting to change or testing new waters but time and again the irrepressible optimist in me rears its head and eggs me to embrace the waves of change with open arms and just swim with the tide and above all to embrace life with an open mind. Not quite there, nevertheless trying to learn..

4 years !

Can’t believe its been four years today since the day I discovered the joys of blogging . This blog has seen me through several phases: good, bad, mad, ugly, sad and temperamental. It has been a sounding board for me, a place where I could say anything without the fear of being judged or caring about social censure. I also dabbled in some rather amateurish poetry, when I look what at some of the stuff I wrote I can’t help but cringe. Nevertheless I guarded this space since it was my own, a year or  two down the lane I discovered some wonderful people through this blog, whose writing I still troll and read. I might not be quick to comment yet I read and get plenty of food for thought.  I just returned today in the hope that I can be a more disciplined and structured in the way I write.I just hope it doesn’t take another 4 years for me to learn that

yearning

I cling

To every

Strand of

Hope

I clutch

In my

Palm

The fragrance

Of each

Moment

Fading

Into evanescent

memory

I echo

In the mind

Our mindless

Banter

And endless

Conversation

I conjure

And paint

Incandescent memories

With a

Vivid imagination

Fragmented Existence

 

We live

In pieces

In moments

Trying to

Fill a deep void

Trying to

Make

Fragments

Fit in together

To punctuate

Awkward silences

With meaningless

Banter

Sometimes

The pieces

Fall in place

Like a perfect jigsaw

Sometimes

They scatter askew

Leaving a raw

Feeling inside

Yet we quell

The demons

Of the mind

Pick up the

Pieces

Dust our knees

To walk again

Till its

Home and

Purpose

The wandering

Soul does find

The Spell Of Hope

You can

Cast your

Shadows

On my smile

Quell

The ring

Of my laughter

Pierce

My heart

With barbs

Or a jibe

Little

Do you know

I’m not one

Of your tribe

The arrows

Don’t pierce

Me

Your shadows

wouldn’t  touch me

Cause love

Is an armour

Faith my  shield

Hope my spell

Residual Memories

Sometimes

I pause and think about

The carcasses

Of a relinquishing past

Of fledgling ideas

That couldn’t fly

With broken wings

Of forgotten memories

That slipped

Into dark alleys

Of consciousness

I outstretch my arm

To feel their contours

To breathe life

Into them again

But they fade away

And choose to

Visit me

Fleetingly

In bizarre, vivid dreams

But somewhere I know

They lurk inside

In the darkness of my soul

And wring at my heart

As an undeniable

Irrepressible trace

Of residual memory

Related articles

• Walking in dark alleys (lomotravel.wordpress.com)
• Psychologists link emotion to vividness of perception and creation of vivid memories (medicalxpress.com)
• Why Vivid Memories Can Feel So Real (livescience.com)

Micro Poetry

The heart is my canvas

imagination  ink

I splash it with varied hues

Sometimes the green of envy

or love’s blushing pink.

 

There are moments

you wish would last forever

But joy must flow

and so must sorrow

In life’s meandering river

 

It was in  your eyes

That my lacerated soul

found resonance and

the obfuscated mind

answers to all  dissonance.

Stories Scars Speak

The wounds

That once

Festered and

Bled as

If they’d

Never heal

Now have

Turned into

Scars and

Are starting

To peal

They unfold

A narrative

Of their own

Of times

When

We tripped

Slipped

Or walked alone

From

Scars they

Will turn

Into stars

That we’ll

Wear on

Our soul

Cause they

Were our

Bridge to

Becoming whole

Related articles

• Love Your Scars, Love Yourself (bellasugar.com)
• My scars tell a story (kevilynj.wordpress.com)
• scars are beautiful. (scarsandallyoga.com)

notes to self

When the

tide of time

does turn

and

after burning

the finger

there

are lessons

that we

earn

Each  stop
in this journey

we traverse

isn’t meant

to be

that eternal halt.

There will be

euphoric highs

and abysmal lows

Just go with

the flow

Take them

both with

A pinch of salt

A Place I can call Home

Like

The directionless

River I meandered

Through life

Floating

Through

Life’s winding

Lanes

Trying to

Find

The familiar

Warmth

I could soak in

That elusive corner

I could sink in

The tides

Of time turned

And in

On moment

I learned

It isn’t

In this

World’s

Noise and din

The place

I can call

Home

Lies coiled

In the recesses

Of my soul

Deep within

Of undertones

The masks begin

To fall

The cracks start

to show

Yet we turn away eyes

In a nagging

Hope that things will change

Close our eyes to reality

Shove those anathemas

In a dark corner of our mind

Or under the carpet

We are the harbingers

Of a legacy of

Conflict that

Stays under

The wraps

And simmers

In the shadows

Frozen In Time

 

They

Get trapped

In your consciousness

Frozen

In the landscape

Of the mind

Sometimes

Leave indelible

Scars

And you

Become a

Spectator

Sometimes

Give you

Anecdotes

And you

Become

A Raconteur

Then

Through

The alleys

Of time

They revisit

You

Enticing

You into

Facing

Them again

Flooding

Memories

Of that

buried pain

Beyond Words

Beyond

Words and

Verse

There’s

A space

We together traverse

A Companionable

Silence

Beyond

The shackles

Of politeness

And grace

Where we

Don’t need

To put on

A face

Where we

Sense

One another’s

Dreams and desires

Intense

Where we see

The yearning

And longing

To walk free

Where we feel

The darkest deepest

Feelings we

Struggle

To conceal

Where

We lay

Bare

Our souls

Which we’d

Veiled

With superficial

Layers

lessons from life

Reaching

that place

when I no

longer feel

the need to punctuate

your silences

with meaningless

banter

Scaling that

peak where

I choose

to hold

on to only

those

that matter

Finding

all that I

seek

lies within

Learning that

letting go

makes you

happier than

a mindless win

 

A walk through the mountains

The waft

Of wind

The gushing

Stream

The mesmerizing

Mountains

The waft

Of wind

The gushing

Stream

The

A Thick Forest (Photo credit: Jon Person)

mesmerizing

Mountains

A walk

Through the woods

The sparkling

Night sky

Stir something

In me

Encircling

My being

Like a

Raging

Forest fire

The cedars

And pines

That line

Up the verdant

Walkways

Bring alive

Faded

Memories

Tucked

Away cosily

In the recesses

Of my mind

Fragmented

Slivers

And fragments

Of me

Which I

Would

Rather not see

Which I

Did bury

In the recesses

Of my consciousness

The troughs

The ugliness

Which I chose

To drown

In the placidity

Of a forlorn sea

Rear their heads

Like a loch ness

Monster

And then

I gaze

Into your eyes

And see

A mirror

To my own splintered soul

Partly broken

Partly whole

If I could

If I could

I would become

The mellifluous song on your merry lips

The creative urge on your fingertips

The wind that sets you free

The sturdy shadowy tree

On a sunshiny day

If I could

I would tell the world

All that you hold deep

In your heart

All that

Tears you apart

If I could

I would paint

All your dreams

With colours of reality

Of Armchair Critics and Activists..

Off late I have been mulling a lot over why are so we quick to criticize, cut people to size and jump to conclusions ? I haven’t been able to find quite an answer. But I have seen that the more I get lost in this online maze of opinions, the more I realize bashing people, trashing ideas and unwarranted sarcasm seem to be the most popular forms of expression and almost the norm on most social platforms. I may be exaggerating but that’s something which comes naturally to the generalizer and speculator in me ! Verbal barrages, sparring and duels seem to be the only ways we seem to  communicate virtually. If Facebook is for the narcissist in each of us then Twitter is the ideal place to satiate our intellectual aspirations and leanings. And by intellectualism we  seem to think we need to be perpetual naysayers, voice our opinions on everything under the sun and berate anything “popular” . This pseudo sort of rebellion ; where does it really lead us? Like our predecessors we seldom have the courage to stir people and take the streets to propel a cause or take a stand but we seem to think being critical is all it takes to be classified as an intellectual. Tearing someone’s piece of work (literary, art or cinema) to shreds is something most of us have the ability to do. But do we look within, trying to think what is it that we’re capable of creating?  No we don’t we are so busy with our pert virtual noses in the air; metamorphosing into a generation of know it all, verbose self-proclaimed critics and armchair intellectuals.  It’s as if anonymity and the freedom of the online world turns even the minions in us into a mammoth Goliath .We  don  personas few of us can relate to in real life ( Sometimes I feel we barely have a real persona, the virtual avatar swallows up with us being perpetually online)

No I am not Kapil Sibal’s advocate nor someone whose been at the receiving end of such criticism , so sorry to disappoint you  it isn’t  my effort at salvaging a wounded ego. I am very much a part of this online tribe and I too am guilty often of what I describe here. I am all for freedom of speech and thought; bringing about change, taking stands on social issues and all of that. Sometimes I do feel we need to be a little mindful and perhaps a tad sensitive before we launch into tirades against anyone or anyone’s creative efforts.

Armchair activism and being socially aware; the ability to be objective  are something I would love to imbibe. They ignite the much needed fire in our minds. Give our banal lives a passion,and a zeal for us to think and look beyond our arrogant metropolis existences.

But when activism and objectivity begins to border on unnecessarily maligning people and spewing venom for the sake of making you’re presence felt. I think it’s time for me to watch my steps. I can speak only for myself for who am I to sit on judgement on everyone else?

Reflections Or Shadows?

In traces

Of imagination

A parallel

World Of my creation

I was inimitable

And unique

In realm of thought

Alone I could

Conquer

Each emotional

Trough and peak

With wisdom

That sometimes

Experience does bestow

And perception which

Only time allows to grow

I learnt to

To search the soul

And then

Did the bell toll

The more

I fought it through

The more

I became like you

You

And I

Are mirror images

To know

Myself

I need to

Reach you

Build Bridges

They inextricably

Intertwine

These patterns

And knots

Of your

Life and mine

Half a life

Spent struggling

To be the

Unique other

I now

Bask in the comfort

Of being a reflection

Of  you; my mother

The Road To Redemption

They lie

Strewn about

On the road

To redemption

These

Shreds of

Me

Fragments of

What once

I used

To be

I

Look

At these scattered

Traces of what

Once most mattered

I see  those

Naive

Mistakes

How I

Burnt

My own

Stakes

Yet I got

Up each time

With my  chin

Up

And eyes

To the skies

Knowing

I have to brush

Off the dust

And Walk

I must

To rise

From ashes

And be reborn

With my

Eyes searching

For yet

Another dawn

In Circles

Life

Keeps going

Round and round

In circles

It starts with

A nought

And then

Makes you

Believe

You’re getting

Somewhere

Until you

Realize

It’s a ride

In a loop

And you’re

Back to

The first square

That Extra Mile

In the humdrum of daily existence

We somehow forget to walk

That extra distance

To make sure our dreams

See the light of reality

That all those desires

And hopes don’t get

Crushed under the weight

Of sheer banality

It’s just takes that

Little drive

To see those

Raw thoughts

And ideas come alive

A little strength

And some pain

To discover

the hidden beauty

In the perfunctory

And mundane

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