Today I am not writing anything in this blog. Just revisiting one of my all time favourite songs, which has been playing on my mind of late. In the light of all the good, bad and ugly happening around us, here is an apt ode to the Modern Times...
Just Sharing...



"Blowin' In The Wind"

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

"PITTER -PATTER"

( I wrote this blog in the summer of 2013. Forgot to post it though.Well, better late than NEVER!)

Its been raining heavily since the last two days. This rain was much needed. The city has been going through a rough dry spell, water scarcity was looming large! Thank the skies for  opening up, albeit a little late!
It so happened, that I was on my way back home yesterday while it was drizzling. As a pillion rider I was enjoying every bit of the ride.
The roads were partially flooded. Pockets and puddles of rain water stood here and there. Cars and bikes splashed water as they passed by.Children, on their way back from school, were enjoying every drop, every drizzle. Children, on their way back from school, were deliberately walking into muddy puddles... some of them were tearing up pages from their notebooks - in full glee.Yong couples found this as an obvious excuse to snuggle on their two and four wheelers ;)
Women, of all ages, were relishing a warm cup of tea/coffee, albeit at an odd time of the day... off of their daily mundane schedules...probably heaving a sigh of relief as they enjoyed this unplanned afternoon"break" - along with this city.Oh! by the way, these women were sitting in their balconies facing the busy roads( that's how I got to see them as a passerby) , waiting for their child to return from school, college...some were waiting for their husbands, some their friends and some maybe for just a phone call.
A ten minute ride from my workplace to home, yet I'm not even nearly done!Are words enough to express what my mind saw , how relieved and at peace I felt with myself.I felt a kind of oneness with these strangers as I saw a reflection of bits of my own life in them. It reestablished the goodness, innocence and optimism that still exists around us. The rain  had doused all the fears , washed away all the pain, bringing in hope, promising a fresh lease of life and inspiration to carry on!

New Year Resolutions...

" Wake up, you naughty girl. It is already six and you are still in bed!!! I am really fed up with you..."
This was Romi's mother shouting at her and this was how her day began every morning. Instead of a warm 'Good Morning', she was always greeted with hard, coaxing words from her parents. Lazily she would drag herself out of bed, finish her morning chores , and trudge all the way to school with a 'sack' of books, attending classes for seven hours with her concentration anywhere , but in those dull letters and numbers inside the text books and on blackboards.  Like any rebellious teenager , Romi refused to do any household chores, which greatly upset her mother. This was a major cause of trouble. She would always lament over her luck for begetting a daughter who was apathetic and lackadaisical ( unlike Mrs. Sharma's daughter). To work the whole day without any help from her only child can be really upsetting!!
Romi's exam results had been apalling and at home she was being heaped with more and more scoldings, and accusations of ruining her perfectly brilliant ( as foreseen by her teachers and parents) future.(Incidentally Romi was a ninth grader). What could be more important than studies for a 14 year old!!! A very pertinent issue to make resolutions about. According to her parents, Romi had very little interest in academics and stayed miles away from it. She would rather use her time gainfully, reading story books, taking frequent naps, and of course, entertaining herself with the ubiquitous Television,a wondrous discovery of man ,whose charm was simply irresistable with "Superhit Muqabla", "Mirch Masala", Dekh Bhai Dekh" and so on. How could these boring grown ups call it the "idiot box"!!!
Romi's cousins added further to her woes. Being of the same age, they were brilliance, and goodness incarnates, besides being Einstein and Shakespeare rolled into one!
One can well imagine, what a formidable task it was for Romi to transform herself into a "good girl" as her elders wished her to be. She was fed up with the unsolicited sermons, pontifications and sighs of her parents and being a subject matter of endless discussions with any guest and relative who instantaneously came to know of Romi's deficiencies aplenty.
Romi is different. She wants to remain different. She doesn't want to get bogged down by peer and parental pressures.She wants to do her own thing, live life her way, and find happiness in silly, mundane stuff.
Should  becoming an epitome of hard work, top scorer in school, an ascerbic T.V. viewer, and a polite submissive girl full of virtues make it to Romi's list of resolutions for the new year??

You decide...

Courtesy "Autograph"

If they try to snatch away, your verse, your poetry,
I promise I'll fight them really hard,
If they ask you to forget, your city's tapestry,
I promise I'll have their efforts marred
'Cause I know how easily,
Quicksand-esque reality...
Can swamp our daydream tinted days,
Every night, I do understand,
How words lose their way and,
I wait for their return from the maze,
Thus in the comfort of the pillow,
And your aggrieved eyes mellow...
May the fairy-tales thrive,
Let us live, and not survive,
Thus in the happy moments such,
And in your assured touch...
May the fairy-tales throng,
And let us sing along...

I welcome the sunshine with you everyday

I open my eyes wide with you everyday

I'm with you everyday...

We only have each other

I'm with you everyday...Chatting together

A rain in the afternoon on the streets,

The red sky when the sun sets

Sharing everything that surrounds us

I'm with you everyday...Embracing each other

I'm with you everyday...

One More Time

I must not have known...
I must not have known you
Even though I was so close to you
What's really precious always seems to disappear
I've finally come to you face to face
May be I can start living, start living from now
One more time, One more time
Can't you be by my side one more time?
Love is better than regretting later
One more time, one more time...

"K"

Yesterday I met "K" after 15 years. 15! yes! That's more than a decade.
How did it go? It went OK!
Really? Oh yes. A tad bit awkward at the beginning...and then gradually a tad less awkward... and with every passing moment I inched closer to a known comfort zone - a space I shared with her 15 years back. She brought back a whole bunch of memories... those long calls, the restlessness, the urge to meet yet the fear of being caught, the endless aimless walks, the meaningless banters, the bus rides, the missed calls, the giggles, the silly jokes,the countless crushes,  the embarrassing moments, the chiding from parents, ... all of these and many more just came rushing back into my mind.
All we did was once again just speak, aimlessly, effortlessly...melting the years away...
Was there any hesitation? yes... maybe ... initially...
We are no longer the school going teenagers we used to be. Now we are 2 different individuals in our different worlds.Our lives have changed and our worlds lie wide apart .
Yet we mingled, laughed, joked, shared. It felt as though I am reliving what I had left behind 15 years ago. And it was only yesterday that I realized how much I missed all of that and more. It took me 15 years to figure out that I had missed "ME"...