SELF COMPOSED POEM : "LA KALYUG MEGHDOOT TRAIL:

SOURCE: SELF IAMGINATED DARK SIDE OF AN INDIAN MONSOON
GENRE: SARCASM & EUPHEMISM
STRUCTURE : CANTO FORMAT WITH ALLITERATION
METRIC : VARIABLE
WORDS: 400 ( APPROX.)



LA KALYUG MEGHDOOT TRAIL:

Light changing radically
Relentless flat tropical yellow ;all flowy
Gives way to an ashes-of -peach colour
So psychedelic , so blur

This light we can see only when
The SUN GOD manages to , after the cloud battle
A few straggling rays down the lane
Those too , refracted by dust motes & rain drops rattle

The bunch of moving water bodies
Scuddling white clouds in the proscenium of the human eye
All milky , eye-pouring toddy
In the never-before-never-after sky

It poured like a farcical comedy
Leaving the rich car struck
Next , they in hotel rooms -" MARGARITA TOO SALTY "
This monsoon is a moronic muck

It poured as if raining donkeys
The "lesser rich " -got bus & train struck
Mobile phones , mint boxes & tiffins get exchanged
They are no more junk-ies
The strings of their soul-ly guitar
Are all playing a philharmonic chord
All voices get overlapped
But no one feels the cacaphonic herd
The gentlemen stand up
Just before the pregnancy struck mother sits down
On the seats of heavy sighs
She wants to avoid the swollen legs.


It actually completely poured
The " lesser-than-lesser rich"
Feel their blood getting sucked
By the AARDVARKY LEACH
The belongings are piled
Children all perched
The granny under a blue sheet
Is plasticly waterproofed & CURSED
school children hoisted on backs
Human chains lead all from stranded buses
All the way into the water get pushed the planks
So that a stray cat gets uncursed


The fisher folk dress galore
Get into the sea away from the shore
Their ANNADAATA & ANNAPURNA
Offer coconuts in SADBHAVANA
But it is INDRA WHO HAS TO DECIDE
who would live & KISE HAI MARNA
The same fisher folk all gay and showy
Still dance -the leaves & flowers brightly holy,
A schism in their heads
Still abuse weather gods- as duds
The real criminals par excellence
Still sipping MARGARITAS with no pretence
The weather gods so un-equanimous
Distributing joy & sorrow with a bias


The true spectre of penury haunts the month
All fortitude gets a brunt
The darkness & deprivation not only corporeal
The hollow also breaks through into the soul

Once upon a time it was known
When in a world washed with innocence
Equine wishes got fish drown
We waited for the monsoon incense .


JHIRR....JHIRR....-its raining
GUDU..GUDU..GUDU..-INDRA'S wheels turning
Out come the palm tree umbrellas
From the side of the agrarian fellow
What fun shore hopping in a row
With no umbrella over you , so mellow
But wait , OH!!-The song of the peacock
Has lost it's way, is so shallow .....


---------------END----********--------END---*******____________________

the island snap in fiji ignites the ' go green ' signal in me :

The recent past has seen a great metamorphosis in me , courtesy the image i saw of some place in fiji , submerged in water .An immediate repercussion of environmental degradation experts say .It has rung in alarm bells within me .A similar jolt was struck on me when mumbai had those life-stopping rains some time back, which at that point in time had forced me to dedicate an allegorical poem on it(http://sidbhai.blogspot.com/2008/04/self-composed-poem-la-kalyug-meghdoot.html) , also posted .

On a personal note i have started to walk to office , have asked my folks at home to run washing machines only at full load , buy clothes only when it is required and not get lured by the attraction that the shopping mall offers.( only visit it when i am in dire need of clothes ),have also manipulated my flush knob to save some water.

I remember my days in calcutta when in bengal i saw those sooty fume-emitting sugar industries .Those bunch of irresponsible idiots burnt the rejected bagasse as fuel for further use .It was simply out of convenience that they did that .I also have started to hate aluminium just because the whole process of aluminium manufacturing is extremely detrimental to the ecology.The bauxite is converted to alumina ( Al2O3) , and then after the smelting process made into aluminium ingots, before finally turning up as aluminium.The smelting process emits a huge ball of those obnoxious GHG which contribute to the warming .I was kind of flabbergasted by the very thought of how the 3rd world countries are left with doing all the dirty jobs and the 1st world countries , just because of monetary might do only the final real value-addition jobs that are clean as cheese.And now after the ' carbon credits ' concept , the 1st world nations have a real medium to replace their moral guilt with money , by buying CCs for anything and everything .It is like spitting on the roads and then paying for it at leisure and will .

And after that article i read regarding green food , i would go on to suggest that friends there is every reason in the book that suggests " stop indulging in hogging meat of any kind" .Obviously there is the physical aspect to it ( in hindi sthool) , which says it causes hypertension and high BP , but beyond that i had just read that the whole process of butchering them is too darn brutal , it does leave a lasting impression of horror on the animal , to be consumed as meat later .The horror, when it is being butchered, brings in a set of chemical changes within the animal body which might not be good for meat eating .Thats the meta-physical aspect of it all .( in hindi sookshma ).

Even my company has taken a huge leap forward in terms of going green .It has already planted a photovoltaic array for in house power consumtion , planned to install solar heaters for heating up all the rooms in the company hostel , getting a complete overhaul done of the drainage system to align it to a proper rain water harvesting system, procuring only amorphous transformers that help in reducing core losses ( iron and hysterisis losses ) , selling CFLs and Electronic chokes at subsidised rates and going to schools with well laid plans of energy conservation across the whole of north & NW delhi .

I would just wanna say at this point in time that atleast the start is good when we have accepted the magnanimity of the problem in its true amplitude and have given due credit to the world rhetoric regarding going green .

nurture the juvenile mind :

There is always this identity theft of most of the children in the country .The 'child ' is soon replaced by the tag 'student '.And just as this happens the trauma and the struggle begins for all .Would it be a success story or one which ends in disappointment and blame ?

Where does the story of the struggle begin? It begins with the metamorphosis of a child into a student that seems to happen like any natural occurrence although this transformation is laden with innumerable and very serious ramifications. When does a child actually assume the form and colours of a student? This could well be termed as the moment of transition .

It starts with " how the child would look like " , " whether he resembles anyone in the family ".Oh sorry , before that very importantly " whether he would be a naughty boy or a sweet girl ".The child is first appreciated for its physical appearance , then because he distantly resembles someone in the family he gets brownie points .How silly ! In due course of time he is lauded for his grasp of speech and walk , his play .The child's antics and tantrums are then the focus of all attention and are constantly compared , benchmarked .All the family members see some of their characteristics in the child .Oh great god , u do satisfy all and all !

Then starts the tedious admission process : play school , primary school and then higher school, all accompanied by trials and tribulations for the child and the parents alike .And then, almost overnight, the change of status happens in the psyche of the parent. From the word go, the child is viewed as a student, and the ability of the child to fit into the school system and its demands becomes the yardstick or measure of success.How heavy and overbearing for the child indeed , does anyone understnd !The biological circadian clock should match the school timings , the aptitude to the curriculum and the strength of the back the load of books !The child who is student first and child only next wears the hat for the whole of childhood and the greater part of adolescence.And tragicly the mood of the parents and family also swing high and low as go the scores on the report card.

Questions and questions all lined up in succession : Which are the best careers in today’s scenario? Which are most coveted, that carry the promise of booming opportunities? Which schools and colleges are the best of the pick? And what scores will take students there? Such are the questions that cloud parents’ minds.The neck of the student is clenched by pressures of a high paying job .The colourful butterfly of childhood dreams has long back flown out of the window into the wilds !

The child is trampled and torn between parental expectation and personal ambition and joys.Who is caring for the child's natural endowments and propensities ? NONE , Is the uniqueness in the child being nourished and cherished ? NO No no .

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE :
- Child first , student next
- differentiated teaching and testing by teachers
- the child needs to be nurtured thoroughly

I am helpless and I have to recall the memorable lines of the Persian poet Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet:


Your children are not your children.


They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself;


They come through you but not from you.


You may give them your love but not your thoughts,


For, they have their own thoughts.


You may house their bodies but not their souls,


For their souls lie in the house of tomorrow,


Which you cannot visit,


Not even in your dreams!

my audip clip

http://www.soundupload.com/audio/42dkafoe3su4sel

I'm Sorry-john denver

I'm Sorry


It's cold here in the city
It always seems that way
And I've been thinking about you almost everyday
Thinking about the good times
Thinking about the rain
Thinking about how bad it feels alone again

I'm sorry for the way things are in China
I'm sorry things ain't what they used to be
But more than anything else
I'm sorry for myself
'Cause you're not here with me

Our friends all ask about you
I say you're doing fine
And I expect to hear from you almost anytime
But they all know I'm crying
And I can't sleep at night
They all know I'm dying down deep inside

I'm sorry for all the lies I told you
I'm sorry for the things I didn't say
But more than anything else
I'm sorry for myself
I can't believe you went away

[break]

I'm sorry if I took some things for granted
I'm sorry for the chains I put on you
But more than anything else
I'm sorry for myself
For living without you

It's cold here in the city
It always seems that way
And I've been thinking about you almost everyday

This song means complete intimacy to me .I constantly relate to it , it is from the " leavin on a jet plane " and " back home again " triumvirate of songs in a way .

John why did u leave us and go so early and so fast , we miss u ....