5. Change...

Once when I was flirting through
The narrow streets of Benares
I chanced upon a beggar
The face of whose said a lot more
Than what his words could
His eyes a velvety green
His forehead glaring with wrinkles
A chin full of beard,
A mouthful of smile.

What was he smiling for,
Wasn't he poorer than me?
He didn't have any clothes to wear,
Was he mocking me ?

"A paisa babu," said the old man,
"I haven't eaten in a day."
I glanced at my designer watch,
"I don't have change" my chest inflated,
Lying through my teeth
Perspiration dripping from my forehead
Wiping it with a silk kerchief.

Suddenly my cellphone rang
The tone, a latest Hollywood theme
The call I was waiting for,
Through my sunglasses
Glaring at the sun; its sin of shining on my face
I looked up and cursed...

Frustrated on the darned fate
That dared to cross my path and
A glimpse of insecurity flushed through my eyes
"It'll be OK babu" he said;
He found the indignant courage of
Looking at my face...

Somewhere from the narrow streets
Brandishing a shiny knife
A devil arrived and broke my pride
As I fell down bloodied, unconscious
My world whizzed around
My life passed my eyes
As I drew a last breath I saw his face again...

The day I regained my sense,
Nowhere was my palace to be seen
Instead a little girl nursing my wounds
Inside a shanty; my senses alarmed
'What does this mean ?'

"Babu you have no family ?"
Asked the girl, as the beggar entered
"We brought you home as no one would"
I felt a rush of sorrow
Mixed with a reappearing disgust
Not for the beggar this time but me,
I would have left a man alone to die too ...

Alarmed at my vice
Searching for redemption
"Baba I lied earlier" I looked down,
"I had money I didn't want to part with"
Overridden with guilt.
"You had no change son,"
The old man smiled down at me,
"Now you have".

4. Beginning of the End...

Have you ever felt
The world crashing
All around...
Down to your feet
Your arms swaying
Like the purple breeze
Desperate to catch hold
Of anything nearby.

Have you ever stood
By the words of someone
You had loved
Someone you wouldn't now meet...
Your heart wrenched
Out from your chest
Desperate to live by
Promises trodden on by proud feet.

Have you ever thought
What happens when
One word
One gush of breeze
Can flame out a life,
Desperate to forgive yourself
Of the mistaken brazen sin.

Have you ever cried?
I haven't...
I tried to, but the swooning
Swarm of egotism
Slapped the tender heart
Bitter to the bottom from
The misery it couldn't withstand.

Have you ever seen
The look on a face...
That face
You're looking at
For the last time
Like the pink sprouts of paddy
Chopped down,
Not desperate anymore.

Have you ever prayed?
I haven't...
But now the wishful reproach
That the inflamed selfishness
Simmered on
Will be no more.

The darkness begins to descend
Bringing to light the era that was spent
Gushing toxin into a life
Just a few strokes of which remain
Goodbye my friend,
This be the beginning of the end...

3. March of the Yogi

Ah there! My friend behold
Marches the yogi bright
Blazing like the sun, his countenance
Radiating the Divine light.

He has no place in mind,
The whole earth his territory,
He marches towards truth
Feasting on a soulful victory.

His mind now, completely a tool,
His soul now, the only thirst left
The Blissful Eternal,
Oh! Will he always be bereft!

He looks at everything now,
Smiles to himself surmising
"Ah, of my Father's creation
Mine is Everything but nothing."

Marching ahead to the dawn of Bliss
On the road to Complete Submission,
Not a drop of tear-his master's command
On the steadfast ascent, to the ultimate fusion.

2. Shattered Glass...

Fragments of broken glass
Scattered all over the morning grass
In the wake of sunrise glitter
Like the fabled fortunes of past.


Days when we were children
And had no worries no scars -
Have vanished to give guns and gallows
Instead of playground - the altar.


Fools! Are they? Are WE fools instead?
They cry for their woes, we don't -
They pick up weapons, so that
We hear them - we don't.


Vultures! like there always are
A monkey between two cats,
Who for their selfish desires
Sacrifice these grief - blinded rats.


Rats? They are!
To follow, not to choose
Between the unheard of unseen peace
And another quicker but violent truce.


But man is a lover of peace
And of course not a rat!
Does he deserve in his chest
A deaf bullet or the warmth of heart?


So, the day shall come when
The night gives way -
To a dawn of love and bliss;
Return to the future, led by the shattered glass.

1. Purple Haze...

And then,
You wake one fine night
And realize, whatever you've
Been living till now
Was a sham, a lie.

The beams of untruth reflect
From my shadow,
Deep purple haze
All around my poor life
My little life, a joke.

Things you know
You remember all fall down,
Crystal clear and lead
To nothingness, just redundancy
And your all action is subject.

Still I can't pick up
The pieces, my vision
Blurred from delusion
All throughout the purple haze
Running around in submission.

And then,
You wake up a morning
And the clouds bring down
A shower, faint at first
To clear the haze around.

Somebody
Came up to me and
Lightly held my arm, but
I spat on it and wrenched
Myself out of the showery grip.

Running aghast at the
Purple Haze, you stumble
Upon a stone
Cut yourself a thousand times over
Air ringing with mock bemoan.

Now when I crave for
The purple haze, he
Still holds my arm, but
Its not my step any more
Neither is it my charm...