In the eye of a lion

A sea of grass, standing brown
Peppered with many a tree around
The grasslands of the Savanna great
Embodying many a beast of prey

A hunter proud, with rifle in hand
Knows not fear, for he is a seasoned man
As he surveys the terrain rough
Awaiting his prey surely enough

A herd of zebras soon arrive
Along with their psychedelic stripes
The hunter aims to take a shot
When he senses a shadow lurking about

The herd has heard its lowly growl
As it emerges in a furtive prowl
Its vicious mane, a darker shade
Than its tawny hide displayed

The herd raise a cloud of dust
As they break into a gallop robust
The lion already on the chase
But the zebras outrun its frantic pace

The hunter lets out a manic cry
For he has found a worthy prize
A lion's head on display
And an exciting game to play

He fires out a playful shot
The lion's attention he has got
Its ferocious roar, he perceives
As it gazes at him, aggrieved

With nothing there in between
In their eyes, their opponents seen
At gunpoint, its survival bleak
As their standoff reaches an epic peak

With a smile on his lips, the trigger squeezed
As all tensions have ceased
For he shall make out alive
As the Sun in the west, makes a dive

The lion continues its deathly prowl
Its eyes light its vicious scowl
The hunter has crucially misfired here
And for the first time, he knows true fear

In search of home

None warned when the bombs fell
Wiping out all without a trace
As clouds of fury raged above
As our homes stood completely erased

The crimson flashed across the sky
The earth drenched in morose rain
Summer gone but Winter not
The weather set out to play rogue again

A thousand days, a thousand nights
The face of family to me unknown
I had tended, I had cared for some
And now I faltered all alone

Peace played cross and eluded me
My senses jabbed by wailing screams
In fervent prayer to the skies
I prayed our souls be redeemed

But the skies chose to spare us not
Thundering down upon our heads
Our homes lost to flood and war
With nothing but to press on ahead

We met suspicions and pity in some
Judged by the rags we wore
Where did we hail from, why had we come
Refugees with nothing but trouble in store

We were proud once and begged not for coin
Proud of virtue against our vice
And now we fought over little food
Like a savage horde of petty mice

Our hosts weary, we moved on north
To places far and unknown
Through barren lands beckoning us
In search of what we called Home

We found it not but winter struck
The cold down to our very bones
We longed for some human warmth
To melt our icy hearts turned stone

Thousands fell to that Winter great
With fading strength I survived my fate
Mercy was all one could cry
As we battled through frozen states

 With everyone lost, I chose to fall
With everything lost, I awaited Death
Instead I woke to a Scarlet Rose
Burning with a warmth of furious Red

My body shuddered to life again
I knew not was this a sign
The Rose clutched tightly in my hand
As I took control of what was mine

And now as I stood awake
On a path that was my own
Renewed steps and hopes in me
Towards a place I can call my Home.

Savouring the Moment

Calendars marked with red crossed days
As time slows down to a sluggish pace
We wait for it with bitten nails
With tension written all over our face.

And then it comes in a flash gone by
All of a sudden time sets to fly
But the moment etched in our memories deep
Off our feet it comes to sweep

Patience a virtue never to regret
The longer it is the sweeter it gets
The pains we bore, those times spent
Washed away by precious moments

Those times are gone, those moments passed
Yet within us as gifts from a past
A precedent for what our present becomes
An encouraging past for the future to come

'To earn a living' we run a race
A new day we prepare to face
And as we face never ending strife
We forget to live our blessed lives

And then to regret those moments gone
Old and bitter we grow on
Mind not the painful times before
 Savour those moments life had in store

 



 

The loyal little elephant

The herd in the jungle sparse
Their tracks on the forest floor
Their dwindling habitat
Across the Elephant corridor.

In the herd,a newborn babe
Sticking close to its mother great
A carefree spark in the dark world
Unaware of the forest's sorry state.

The herd, a force to reckon with
And yet they tread with utmost care
For a suspicious presence lurks around
Of which they are wearily unaware.

A sudden bang disturbs the peace
No sooner alive the jungle cry
As animals stampede to their death
And threatened birds take to the skies.

The herd on a rampage now
The dark presence now in sight
In the form of a man so vile
Unmoved by their sorry plight.

For the mortally wounded mother lies
Her tough hide by a bullet breached
A victim of man versus beast
To a boiling point this stand off has reached.

He threatens the herd with a gun at hand
Rubbing salt on their wounds sore
It is their turn to retaliate now
Infuriated furthermore.

Some hound him away from there
As their fallen prepares for impending death
And some remain back with her
As she passes away with her final breath.

Their tears soak the parched land
Her new born having witnessed it all
Their grief shall echo across the coming times
As they witness how their numbers fall.

After a lifetime of mourning it is time to move
Life but cannot come to a still
They touch the shattered young
Bidding him to do his mother's will.

But he moves not from his rooted spot
His anguish deaf to their fervent call
Another death has hit the herd
As they watch his lifeless body fall.

The tale of a lost fort

All paths to me now stand erased
By the touch of age, i am but dead
But once i was a place alive
To which every path once lead.

I was a citadel of strength
On a lofty mountain crowned
And now i am hollow within
As the echoes of time resound.

My walls remnants of a past
Of the glorious tales once told
As now i lay in ruins forever
Lost, desolate and cold.

A centre of great fortune once
I held a city pristine
My fame spread far and wide

Upon a mountain, sublime.

All but memories last

And they too shall fade away

As I am the last to recollect

Those good old days.

I outlived my many kings

I withstood War's abuse

I await now my end at last

To nothing my walls reduced.

I lay on barren earth
But once i overlooked heaven
I had my time once
And hope for it again.

Everything has a story to tell
So listen to my tale
And if you hope to find me
Do discover my missing trail.

Twins- A special bond!

    We were twins who were born in a family of overachievers. If one ever took a look at our family, that person would realize the worst kinds of haunting inadequacies to plague one's life. 
  
                 Yep my family's achievements were that awesome!

 And since birth is the first lottery that one wins or loses in life, i couldn't judge as to whether i had won or lost. The minute we were born, the expectations started piling and we were expected to be great. Well it did prove right in her case.
    Out of the two of us, she was the leader and took the initiative. She wasn't even eight months when she had started her shaky yet steady baby steps on a path that would take her places. By the age of two,she was reading advanced text and was achieving feats that children twice her age could not even dream of. As for me, i took my time learning things the average way at the average speed. By the age of ten, she wasn't only acknowledged as the most brilliant in her age group but was a rising threat to the brilliant in the older age groups. Co-curricular and curricular were fields in our school were not even considered worth tackling for her. She simply excelled in them. And i took my time mingling amongst the ordinary children that we were watching her drift away further.
    I would at times notice how my parents unconsciously avert their gazes from me and try to focus on things far more 'pressing' for them. No matter what i did, i was no match to the genes that had awakened in her but chose to sleep within me or simply did not consider me worth worth passing on to. 'Look there goes your sister!' and 'You are HER TWIN BROTHER! were two things that i had heard more than my own name. This continued despite us going off to different universities. Huuhhh! well you get the message.
    As events unfolded, in no time all the shelves in our house were filled with her trophies and there were new showcases being made to accommodate further. And finally came an event that would rid me of being in her shadow for a good four years. She had won a scholarship that allowed her to study in a premier foreign institute of her choice. I was brimming with joy not for her but that the pain of our physical proximity was going to end. Her university had organised a grand farewell ceremony to which we were obviously invited.
     Hours after listing her achievements, the host finally asked her to come on stage and accept an award. This was met with a loud applause. As she stood on stage, the host asked her to speak a little on how she felt at that moment. Those words would never leave me for the rest of my life.
      Her eyes searched the massive crowd and finally rested on the spot where we sat. She pointed at us and said. 'THERE IS MY BROTHER! MY TWIN BROTHER! The first person i ever saw was him. I have spent my time from my mother's womb to here with him and all the way like the twins we are we walked shoulder to shoulder. Now its really sad that i have to leave and i have dedicated many things to my family. But today i dedicate this very most cherished moment in our life to him. A bond between siblings is no doubt special but the bond between twins is something else. Our bond is is so special that it makes us extraordinarily special and for that i want to thank him. Thank him for the joy and thank him for the opportunity he gave me for being his sister. So BIG BRO this is for You! 
     My eyes never left her for she made me realize that it wasn't our genes that made us who we were but our bonds. And our bond made me very special. I would never be able to put that special feeling in words however hard i tried!

     
      

I am the Rag picker!

I pick up what other's dispose
I roam mounds that always grow
I eye my gain from what one throws
I am the Rag Picker!

On my shoulders, my trusty sack
Always seen in tattered rags
Armed with a long stick
I try to sell what i pick.

I search for useful waste
Things one dumps with great distaste
Consumerism and its changing trends
In a junk pile the outdated ends

You have seen me on tracks and on roads
But you care not for my loads
For my presence hardly in your mind
Nor the waste that you left behind.

I fend for my very own
For a community servant i am not
I ain't here on my free will
Or to clean up for those little snots!

Who thought that the litter one spread
Could be the lifeblood of someone else
So let another clean up instead
For another's very unruly mess!

Blame around so liberally thrown
Along with the waste disowned
We react not till the waste grows
It is the Government's fault and not one's own.

So as long as you want, litter on
Till all known space is gone
But wherever you dump, I'll be there
Taking on my rightful share.
For I pick up what others dispose
And when will it stop one does not know
But it is good for me I suppose
For I AM THE RAG PICKER!


Rag Pickers of India - Kamat's Potpourri