MIRACLES OF MY WORLD

If I could stretch the day beyond its 24 hours
If I could make the bee deliver me a drop of honey each day
If I could steal the blush of the pink rose and make it mine
If I could put the fish in the sky and fly it across the blue line.
If I could touch and bring some green to the fallen autumn leaves
If I could raise the wrinkles of an ageing hand
If I could add some light into the squirrel’s burrow
If I could breathe life into my wooden dolls.
I realize I cannot do any of this
Not in the world in which you and I live
So I weave my own little world
Now I know why I am a Storyteller.

THATS NEWS!!!

PINK CHADDI CAMPAIGN
VALENTINES DAY SHOULD BE CELEBRATED AS MARRIAGE DAY
KAREENA AND SAIF SEEN SHOPPING IN NEW YORK
AMIR KHAN NAMES HIS DOG SHAHRUKH

And yes, for people who still do not know what I am talking about (the possibility is very marginal) these were some major news stories this month.
How do we react to it? Anger! Frustration! Chaos! Confusion. No Of course not. Gossip is more like it. In the trains, bus queues, restaurants, cafeterias, page 3 parties, office washrooms too. I have heard people voraciously gathering and sharing Information about every big news story riding high on controversy.

I work in the creative department of a business news channel. Luckily business news doesn’t see much beyond world stock markets and ideally anything that’s Business. So there’s hardly much room left for tabloid tones. But a year in media has definitely inculcated a strong value system in me. And what I realize is- The Indian audience is sensitive to news. And the country’s larger population still boasts of a higher emotional quotient rather than the intelligent one. The Bangalore attacks on the pub visiting women is a serious threat. Giving couples unwanted trouble on Valentines day is a bad idea. Kareena and Saif could boast about being the most happy star couple. Amir can name his dog whatever he wants.
The question is 1st- Does the overhyped PINK CHADDI CAMPAIGN really make a difference to the larger sections of the society? Or will celebrating Valentines day as Marriage day really change things? Or Do people who celebrate Valentines day anyway away from their cultural roots?

The 2nd set of questions- Does it really matter to the common man if Kareena shops with Saif or even if they have a possible break up tomorrow? Or At a time when the world is fighting with more serious causes like terrorism, recession, job cuts, mayhem etc does it really matter if Amir names his dog SRK or continues with his loud attention calling stunts?

Whose fault is it? Not just the subjects of these headlines. Not just the ones who captured them. Not just the people who read them? Not just the gossip mongers? Not just anybody at large.
But WE THE PEOPLE. Of the Democracy called India. Where Freedom is no longer just an expression. Probably a land where individuals misuse individualistic freedom to take away the other’s independence. Freedom is more than an expression. Its perhaps the most important responsibility we took over more than fifty years back. And its time we all unlearn the crap about freedom we have been learning so far and use it for a better cause… maybe A BRIGHTER NATION if nothing else.

Lovely Questions...???

How would you see love?
Its one vibrant color,
No painter could ever paint.
How would you hear love?
Its one soulful tune,
No musician could ever play.
How would you read love?
Its one true language,
No author could ever write.
How would you smell love?
Its one embracing scent,
No fragrance could ever ignite.
Never close or ever close
Never far or the faraway star
The most complicated riddle
Or the simplest fable ever narrated
Love is just an expression all carry
Or is it an emotion that stays hidden, in the very depths of every living heart?

SIMPLY SENSED

I am just a messenger
I just express that expression
My worth is nil, I perish as I reach my destination.

I don’t hold on, I do not abondon
Not till you realise, the message I carry within.

Do you really need me?

Where have you lost that gaze?
That seeped into her poignant tear
Where did you leave that heart that heard?
The silent steps of his everlasting fear.

Have you forgotten that touch?
That sensed her coming as the bells rang
Did you orphan your powers to smell?
His fragrance as you walked hand in hand.

A smile is too simple to be read
Anxities are too effortless to be told
Only if you awaken your heart once more
26 letters are too unworthy to decode messages of any soul.

AS I REST

Far from separation,
Away from turmoil
I nurture a dream
That I call mine.

No reality, neither delusions of the prime
No limitations, till the end of time.

A dream that stays veiled
Away from the white and the dark peers
No measure of how pure its survival
Away from the evaluations weighing on smiles and tears.

I call it mine
In dark and sunshine
Its flaw isn’t crime, its sanctity my silent rhyme.

A dream that awakens
When a pair of eyes rest
A dream that progresses
When I go back to slumber nest

I may deceive this dream
But the dream is an honest friend
I promise I shall be a more faithful partner
But life is a tricky sea; its waves may force my promises to bend.

I am going back to sleep
Its time you light up my dark
Till the first ray brightens my soul
Stay my friend; give my imaginations a new start.

A LOCAL LEGACY

It’s mostly too late,
It’s rarely too fast
It’s never too early,
Its subject close to my heart.

I see it everyday,
See the fight royally at display
I wonder at the violence it brings out,
How we long to get a foothold in it everyday.

Amidst the world’s luxuries,
Its dullness stands long and proud
I see myself struggling in and out of it,
Am I too among the desperate I doubt?

You really need to give it a deep thought; sometimes you might have to rack your brains,
Just to understand what keeps on- the legacy of the Mumbai local trains.

STRUGGLER'S PARABLE

She feels like a fallen star,
Alone on the rugged ground;
The heights snare at her,
Her shine is fading, its unseen around.

She feels like a forgotten tune,
Her rythem lost, her melody breathless
The new song of the day has played her trick
Is time whispering, that the wait is endless?

She feels like the wretched flower,
She was promised life- a beautiful life
But the promise was an illusion and as the horizon darkens
She can see time raise that ugly slaughtering knife.

I see many of her stories everyday
Not just her…but of many hers
All for a few minutes on the 70 mm
She struggles for that blessing…while lives on the curse.