Silence

Silence is absolute
Silence is omni present

If there's death, there's life
If there's life, there's hope
If there's hope, there's survival
If there's survival, there's birth
If there's birth, there's a womb
If there's womb, there's silence
Inside

Silence is absolute
Silence is forgiving

If there's darkness, there's light
If there's light, there's day
If there's day, there's night
If there's night, there's loneliness
If there's loneliness, there's sadness
If there's sadness, there's silence
Inside

Silence is absolute
Silence is punishing

If there's peace, there's war
If there's war, there's strife
If there's strife, there's violence
If there's violence, there's fatalities
If there's fatalities, there's death
If there's death, there's silence
Inside

Silence is absolute
Silence is despair

If there's meeting, there's parting
If there's parting, there's longing
If there's longing, there's heart break
If there's heart break, there are tears
If there are tears, there's inner emptiness
If there's inner emptiness, there's silence
Inside

Silence is absolute
Silence is black

If there's youth, there's age
If there's age, there's disease
If there's disease, there's mortality
If there's mortality, there's pain
If there's pain, there's suffering
If there's suffering, there's silence
Inside

Because
Silence is life
Silence is DEATH.

P.S.: Got the 1st prize, Memoire 2000

Dog in heat

The other day on my way to the college I saw this middle aged couple walking up the rather steep incline of a fly over. Both of them were thin and a bit worn out by the daily struggle of survival that the poor have to go through in our country. The husband was walking ahead and the wife dutifully followed a few steps behind with her head and face covered with the palo of her saari. Though it was around 10am, but it was already pretty hot in the sun.
Now the part which caught my attention was a dog. A thin brown, around 6 months old dog. The husband was walking briskly with the dog tucked up under his right arm. I didn't notice anything wrong with the mutt. Infact it was all grins, panting away nicely in the heat and seemed pretty happy with the arrangement.
I used to assume that love for animals is a hobby of the rich and the poor have a rather practical, symbiotic relationship with the livestock they keep. But this man with his dog in his arms turned that theory around.
To keep a pet and take care of it when you are well off and have a support staff is easy.
To keep a pet on your own, to feed it when you yourself look semi-starved, and to carry it around when it's hot deserves Respect!

Chillad happiness

This is all it takes to make me happy. A room with this kind of authentic, unique, and original light. It's there in my room in this hotel room in Kathmandu and I love it!
So local, so rural, so different from the ubiquitous hotel rooms you see all over.
Totally chillad, totally happy.

The Guru

This is a kind of misleading title because it has got nothing much to do with the guru guy but because it ended with him that is what I remember most distinctly.
The dream starts with me roaming around in Jammu on foot. I come across some police officials hanging around a parking lot chatting. There this one senior official, probably a DIG, is bitching about the new DGP, and how unreasonable he is to his junior colleagues. They get some message on the wireless and they all rush towards the police headquarters in a convoy of white ambassadors and gypsys.I for whatever reason follow them. How? I have no clue as from what I remember I had no transport or money and the place I have to go to is at the top of a hill with a very steep approach road.
There a police annual day or fair kind of thing is going on with school kids performing, police march past and a 21 gun salute with some kind of mini canons. After the event gets over I am on my way out and meet the school kids psycho therapist, a young man around 28-30, slim built, 5'8" with specs and in formal wear. As we are crossing his place it starts to rain and he calls me to wait till the rain stops.
I am shocked to realise that he stays on the roof, without any cover, we stand under two different overhangs to protect us from the downpour. There is a thick transparent polythene sheet put from the top to protect us from rain while standing and I make designs with my finger on the fogging on the inner surface of sheet. This standing in the rain makes him all emotional once it stops. He starts crying and points out towards the area of the roof where he sleeps on the bare ground. I am pretty stunned because with the school kids he seemed so positive, upbeat, well educated and relatively well off.
The rains have stopped and I see that the view from the terrace is spectacular! At the horizon I can see a thin horizontal band of red evening sky and thick dark clouds on top, covering the sky. I take out my cell to click it as I had seen this very sight once before in a trance.
As I am about to click the snap there is some kind of commotion towards the front of the house, we both to look down to see who is there. From the way the guy jumps back to get out of sight I realise that the house owners have come back and this guy is some kind of a squatter.
A female is telling a man to go up and see whether that guy is still there or not. Around 3-4 men come up, one is an elderly gentleman and the other two are boys around 16 and 20 years old. And there is some servant or someone with them.
Just as they are about to speak to the squatter a swami suddenly appears from the front side of the terrace. He is in a saffron robe, in his mid 60s, with a salt and pepper stubble and head covered with his cloak. For some reason it becomes obvious that the guy is there on the roof with the swamis blessings. The men touch his feet and it's then that I realise that there is a blue coloured plaster up to the thigh of his right foot.
The swami then realises that even I am there and we make eye contact. He gives me the "I know who you are" intense stare.
And then I wake up!
I don't think it will be that difficult to recognise a swami with a blue plaster on his leg if I ever come across such a character in real life.

The Shadow...

As Victor Hugo once said "To think of Shadow is a serious thing."

What is a Shadow? Is it an extension of your soul? Is it the dark representation of your purer side? Or is it just a mirage, a fiction, a figment of your imagination? An illusion which you start believing in? Or is the Shadow, the one you take for granted till the time it's around. You see it next to you all the time, you are comforted by it's presence, it reassures you, it stands by you no matter what and yet at times due to it's intimate presence you even forget that it exists.
If at a metaphorical level you imagine a day as a lifetime or a period in your life then your Shadow is there with you for the better part of the day, around you, with you, and constantly in touch. During noon time, which can be taken as your peak you lose sight of it and shine in the spot light, the glory of the overhead sun. The Shadow is at it's closest, just below you, but you are blinded by the sun and the brightness around you.
The Shadow leaves you when everything is dark around you, or maybe it is dark because your Shadow is not there with you.You miss it the most, lament the time you took it for granted, yearn for it to come, but you know whatever you do it is not coming back then.
At the dawn of a new day the Shadow is the longest/largest , a time of new beginning, a passage from the dark into light, a time of joy and celebration. At that time it is the most significant and you are so aware of it's presence, you are so relieved to see it again, so overjoyed in it's presence. The Shadow is right ahead of you, leading the way as you march into a new day.
At dusk, the time just before it will be total dark and there will be no hope, the Shadow is yet again large, dark and forbidding. You need it the most, you miss it the most but you know it's just a matter of time before it will slip away. At that moment no matter what you do, what you say, you won't stop it from slipping away and will stand there looking at it fading away slowly. The Shadow is behind you and you are left staring, waiting for the blackness to come and envelop you, while you stand there all numb and mortified.

If you can't sleep, I'll be there in your dreams.
I'll be there in your dreams, if you can't sleep at all.
And in your dreams, I'll touch your cheek.
And lay my head on your shoulder.
Goodbye Shadow........