My Country

Mine is a land of art and beauty,

From heaven in Kashmir to Gods own country,

From the magnificent Kohinoor to our mesmerizing Taj.

Mine is land of elaborate taste,

From Ladakh’s Kehwa to the coffee in Kerala,

From Amritsar’s Parantha to biriyani in Andhra.

Mine is a land of courage and valour,

From the fierce Mughals to the Rajputs of honour,

From Bhagat’s sacrifice to Netaji’s dedication.

Mine is a land of great preachers,

 From Guru Nanak to the Buddha,

 From Mahavir Jain to Ashoka.

Mine is a land of tolerance and peace,

Satyagraha, that one word shook the British empire,

As we followed the path of Gandhi, so did the world.

Even now we are the world’s largest democracy,

We house scores of religions,

And hundreds of languages.

Mine is land of knowledge and wisdom,

We gave the world numbers,

We taught them how to count their nothings,

We were the first to gaze at the stars,

Now we are in orbit around mars.

Mine is the land that was called the golden bird,

What was one of the richest countries,

Now lies looted by countless invading enemies,

Thus my country hath wept,

And my country hath bled,

But every instance has been avenged,

For every enemy has fled,

Those who remain are my countrymen,

My land is India,

So indeed Jai Hind.

Our stories

Look east to the crimson light,

Look west to retreating night,

Look down to the fallen dead,

Look south to the foe in red,

Look beyond to the raging sea,

Look ahead, and foresee.

Foresee, this morn, a day,

A day of dread,

A day of sword and arrowhead,

A day of falling foes,

A day of heavy blows,

A day, of victory.

When the day is done,

When the battle is won,

When our foes have fled,

And we’ve buried our dead,

When we are back, brave and bold,

Our stories, shall be told.

A Short, Short While

A billion steps, a thousand smiles,

And much more I shared with you,

In a short, short while.

A million laughs, a hundred miles,

And it was over,

In a short, short while.

It feels like it was a long, long time ago,

Maybe time over sped,

And now it’s going to slow.

It is This

Three shades of green,
Two of brown,
One pure white,
It caught my sight.

Stretching into the blue expanse,
With a delicate cloud stuck to it.

As I climbed up,
I saw the blinding sun,
And never ending snow.

Thus I experienced the famous couplet,
"If there is heaven on earth,
It is this, it is this. "

Tommorow

Tomorrow’s the day,

The day, when I shall fly,

When I shall taste the wind,

The day, I dreamt of.

Now I can’t wait,

For tomorrow to come.

Even as I imagine tomorrow,

I remember, I will have to fly away,

Away from what I have,

Away from who I have.

Get some, lose some,

That’s the golden rule… 

I Turned Around

From one edge to another,

I saw that day.

Land on both sides, void betwixt.

There was a milestone and it said

“SUCCESS: A Leap Away,

 DISTRESS: The Very Same.”

I knew, one wrong step,

And its Humpty-Dumpty all the way down.

Not that pain scares me, we’re next of kin,

Not that despair haunts me, Not that I don’t dare.

But as I stood there and looked on,

Both sides were the same,

Barren, rocky ground.

Life game me an edge to leap off,

And I turned around.

The Axe

I met a man, staggering along

A desolate path.

When I asked him how he ended up there,

He said, “I took a wrong turn,

And I just couldn’t go back

But I will reach home…

Through the forest”

I pointed out as to how dense it was,

He walked on,

Turned around,

Patted his axe,

And said, “I will cut my way through”.

As he did so, the gleam of his eyes,

Told me he would do it.

The Cursed One

Today I tell you of a story, a sorry and untold one,

We hear of many great heroes but seldom,

Seldom, does one hear of the cursed one,

He with his might many battles won,

And in his times mad countless enemies,

including the three fates of Hades,

so that he may for his sins atone,

the fates cursed him to forever walk alone,

and walk alone forever he did,

thus his life and fame this curse undid.

I Cannot Rest

I cannot rest,

I must go on,

I cannot rest,

Not now, not here,

I, cannot rest.

Tonight some sleep in peace,

Some celebrate,

For they think, they have won,

For they think, the battle is over,

But they are wrong.

They do not take life for what it is,

It is not one battle after another,

It is an eternal war.

There is no peace,

There is no rest,

Until the very end.

Every moment they spend in their oasis,

Of peace and pleasure,

They lose on their dreams,

They lose on the true victory.

But I must fight on,

I, must trudge on,

For I have a dream,

I, shall not rest,

Until it is fulfilled.

And I must achieve my utopia,

I must taste success,

I must win this eternal war.

Thus I cannot rest.

I, cannot rest…

Let There Be Rage

When you are down,

When you are all knocked out,

When you can’t move on,

When you’ve been pulled down,

When you’ve lost sight.

Then don’t hold back,

And let there be rage,

Rage, against such preposterous blindness,

Let there be rage,

Rage, against these woeful bonds.

And in this rage,

 Pray, lash out,

Severe the bonds,

Set the world ablaze,

Paint it red.

And in that moment,

Pray, soar above the rest.

Be, what you want to be,

For you are the architect of your own destiny,

Shape it well, shape it well. 

The Turn

I am at corner,

I am about to take a turn.

For me, this road is over,

And a new one is about to start.

But is it grassy and green,

Or is it thorny and dry?

Is it an untrodden one,

Or is it one well-travelled by?

I guess I will never know,

Until I make this road my very own.

A Thousand Paths

A thousand paths lie ahead

Spread, like a spider’s web.

A thousand ways, a thousand roads,

A thousand stories waiting to be told.

With each new step,

A thousand paths unfold.

There will be those,

Who’ll walk along,

And those who’ll walk away instead.

They will come and they will go,

But you will go on forever.

An eternal march, an eternal war

Is all that is yours.

But no matter how big a spider’s web,

It will always cross itself.

A Fire

I’ve tried to galvanize my heart,

To electroplate it.

All, in order to

Protect its soft core,

To hide it,

To disguise it.

But every now and then,

Again and again,

It just bursts out,

And I lose control.

But it’s good to let go,

It’s easy to sit back and watch.

Sometimes what comes out I wind

That enkindles the flame of purpose,

And what grows, is a raging fire,

Albeit with direction.

But usually what is let loose,

Is a bunch of firewood,

But what grows is a fire,

That lives only to annihilate.

My Path

Trace my path with thorns

And I shall but dance

For what are thorns,

If not wicked grass.

Send tempest after tempest

And I shall but laugh

For what is a storm,

If not treacherous breeze.

Let there be scorching heat

And I shall but move on

For what is scorching heat,

If not a hostile sun.

And I shall not stop,

I shall not pause,

I shall not give up,

And I shall brave it all.

So bring what storm you may,

Unleash what demons you dare,

Cause what obstruction you can,

O ye gods from above!

For I have seen the gilded end,

Of this road to my goal,

And if it doth pass through hell,

Then so be it.

Incomplete

Where the head is held high

And the mind is without fear

Where no one ever did die

And none has ever shed a tear

Where every stone is made of gold

And only truth is told

Where it is never cold

And no one grows old

Where everyone has all they need

And they haven’t ever heard of greed

Where no one needs to plead

Is a sorry place indeed!

For it is fear and greed

And their luscious creed

That ambitions feed

And greatness breed

As day without night is incomplete

So is joy without grief.

Let Me Live in the Past

It’s the engine,

And I one of its four wheels,

As it moves on,

I will be dragged.

It moves on and on,

And pushes me along.

And I’m tired and numb,

Of this mundane dance,

Of this half-hearted trance,

And I swear I’ll succumb.

So just cut me some slack,

Hold time back,

Stop it from moving so fast,

And let me live in the past.

Ode to the Depressed

Starved and sleep deprived

Sick of all the world’s strife

Oh! woeful sight

come, sit by my side.

With the head in hand

Fallen shoulders,

 As if supporting boulders,

Sick of all the worlds plight.

With a frown that deserves an Oscar

As if next of kin

To all of history’s martyrs

Oh! woeful sight

Come, sit by my side.

The face, a place

Where even google

Couldn’t find a smile

And even dreams

couldn’t conjure one

Oh woeful sight

Come sit by my side.

Stop hiding in the bunkers of sorrow,

Pick up the gun of courage,

Climb out of the depths of despair,

Shed the armour of excuses,

With the bomb of a smile,

And the trigger of hope,

Exterminate gloom.

I assure you it's darkest before dawn

And one’s sleepier before a yawn.

So end the curfew of fun

And enjoy the morrows sun.

And with all that done,

Don’t begin with line one

The Traveler

Again I find myself on the threshold

Poised to move on

From a land well known

To one unknown

Cause life goes on.

This isn’t a games new to me

I’m a traveler, you see

The unknown doesn’t scare me

I know it well and it knows me.

But each time I start a fresh

Each time I cross the line

There’s a part of me left behind

Left with the people I call mine.

But I can’t forsake this journey of mine

So all I do is move on and look behind.

Haiku

I recently went for the national writers workshop and the workshop I was allotted turned out to be the Haiku workshop. any one who doesn't know what a haiku is shouldn't feel bad, I didn't know about Haiku either. Here's a quick summary of what a Haiku is:

1. Haiku is a three line poem written in seventeen or less than seventeen syllables or sounds or stresses

2. The poems are written after experiencing, observing and absorbing nature all around us and then distilling the experience

3. They are written in present tense

4. There are no titles for these poems

5. Haiku poems have reference to a season either directly or through 'kigo' words.

6. There is a cut at the end of first or second lines and it could be either shown by a 'cut marker' or just indicated by the line itself.

7. Most of the haiku have juxtaposition of two images around a line which serves as a pivot

Well I was not very pleased with the idea of learning this restrictive for of poetry. But I, very bravely, continued with the workshop. In the end I changed the rules a bit, well  Haiku are usually serious, but I made a few funny ones. Here are a few of them.

we were given a scene of a sunrise/ sunset

"the sun comes up,

the hen goes cuckoo-

and all hell breaks loose."

"the clouds are scattered,

and the sun goes down its night-

its night."

this one is about mushrooms- I got that topic(just my luck!)

"the smoky mushroom,

utters the sound that spells my doom-

BOOM!"

this one is my favourite, is about a video that shows the movement of water from droplets on a leak to the mighty ocean(imagine eight and a half minutes of that.)

"drops fall,

streams flow-

its complicated"

Do you like haiku? would you read more of them? would you write some yourself? Which one of my works do you like? Do you want more haiku?

Before answering those questions I suggest just go through the translations of the stuff the original masters have written.(not that I'm not a master myself (just kidding))

As for my answer I'm afraid I like only one haiku master(that's me). that implies I will not spend too much time in reading haiku. But occasionally I will write haiku but funny ones only. By the way out of forty students 5 got grand prises, 15 got laureates and the rest got achievers awards. Yeah I got a Grand Prise.

The War On Fate

The fan screams of hatred,

the light burns of it,

the air is full of it,

and the world breeds it.

In one corners lies a punching bag,

who’s both the fiend and my only friend,

on it a pair of gloves hang,

with which I pour upon it,

every now and then,

my brimming heart,

which does not my fate accept.

And if destiny does propose,

That I be torn apart,

From all I care for,

From all I stand for,

Not once, not twice, but times four,

Then I shall settle this score,

For once and forever, on the field of war,

For then it is destiny that I oppose.

And it shall make a worthy opponent,

For it has conquered us all,

But now it must fall,

For in me it has bred a beast,

And I shall not be its guinea pig,

For it to experiment on and rule upon.

For when I come face to face,

With the monster we call fate,

The I shall seal its fate.

You Can

When hope runs out

And fear creeps in

When the lights fade out

And darkness kicks in

When all you dreams lie torn

And despair is born

When the nightmares are found

And you cant sleep sound

And you know that

You can’t go on

Then remember that

This is the day for which you were born

Because you can ignite the spark

That will burn through all that’s dark

Because you have the might

With which you can win the fight

If you can, then you will

But only if you believe in it

Just trust yourself

Because it will help

You can with your will

Every dream fulfil

You just have to wake up

with your mind made up