Lots of memories lay concealed in this tree and its shade, which stood in the corner of our school. As a 10 year old boy, I climbed and fell down countless times – some an act of dare, some by accident. When the school was rebuilt, 13 years later, the tree is kept as it is, and I couldn’t be happier! It has reached new heights (literally), unlike us though.
Getting transferred from Chennai to Bangalore during the monsoon of 2018, the hectic traffic and morning rush of B’lore while commuting in cabs seemed quite tiring. There I come across a himalayan granite, KA-XX XX 2472.
She was beautiful on road and off it. Within months I felt like I knew her in and out, the chain pulling the sprocket felt with every small throttle, a rare bond between a human and a machine. A characteristic throttle lag, unique exhaust sound and her stability made me fall in love with her. Some of my best nights in Bangalore was spent with her. A half-an-hour drive for just cup of tea may sound inane but not with the time I get to spend with her on empty roads, while the city was sleeping.
Although I have another Himalayan now, I still contemplate those nights, and with it, the feeling of cold wind brushing the face amidst that imposing exhaust rumble.
There’s a silence that we all yearn for
There’s a darkness we all seek
Away from this busy place, a vaccum,
A little space is what we all are looking for.
Months & seasons pass unsaid
Marching towards an end so obscure;
While we’re running the race we’ll never complete
With no one to farewell when your time’s deplete.
We long for the silence, a sense of nothingness.
To fall in that dream – the well of unending depth.
Where even a whisper is noise, an oddity
The warmth of absolute calmness, an empty silence…
The sun rose with such terrifying suddenness;
The day seemed normal, clear and humid.
But why does it feel like time’s marching too fast?
Is it just me, or is there anyone else so aghast?
Trees shedding leaves, welcome our troubled faces
They remind me, oh, how the seasons pass by
Every single year, every winter season,
They welcome these students, lost in rumination
I took many pens- a gel, a ball, and two pilots
Praying to god, “Please, let there be a question on millets”
So begins the ordeal of UPSC Mains,
The riddle of headaches and god knows, how many other pains.
Don’t you hate it when within days of updating an app, it turns obsolete and we are forced to update as if there is a significant change in its utility?
Things have changed today from yesterday
Yet the eyes barely notice a difference
Habitus exerts it’s coercion, a nudge
But I refuse to give in to the force and budge.
I’m thinking & worried at the pace things change
Yesterday did not seem so bad or strange
I know in time, I’ll give in to this coercion
But for now I don’t want an update, so ‘No Thanks!’
How fast did the time go
I once saw people walking down the road
The one that leads to the graves of their dreams
Burying a part of them along the way
They mourn, but carry on…
Running the daily race to escape
The inevitable oblivion that consumes all.
Who’ll sing and speak of the ones –
Of the ones that fell on the way
Of the flags that reached no summit
Of the trees that give no shadow anymore
Of the breaths that cease in darkness and cold
This indifference is hurting, a void in our hearts
Numbness is all I feel,
Down with the sickness that no one can heal.
Did I miss any directions?
Did we miss any signs?
I remember a home
Filled with happiness and warmth.
In this wilderness, amidst nowhere,
How my friend, have got here?
The Cynic Loggerhead 