baarish, chai aur gaana!

Grey skies across the highway
Dotted with scurrying cars in sharp relief
Veering off into lanes bordered with trees
With a chance to slow down
And gaze into the newly washed bursting green

A piping hot cup of tea
To warm the cockles of your heart ;)
Watching people hurrying under umbrellas
Going past on the way to work
Or revelling in the drizzle with covered heads

Turning up the music to let
The sounds of joy, faith and a little introspection
Resonate with their boundless energy (and some hope!!!)
For the day ahead

An Afternoon

All geared up
Wound up in anticipation
Climbing onto the jungle jeeps
In their earthy hues

Standing tall on the metal frames
An unimpeded view all around
Jolting on the roads
Then suddenly off

On forest trails
Undulating through the trees
Banked by termite mounds
Through the grassy flats
And monsoon river

Sedate langurs strike a pose
Green wings, yellow beaks, red chests
Flutter at the tips of the tall grass

A lazy monitor lizard or two
Taking only moments to size up the invasion
Amble across the uneven ground

A mongoose scampers past
As we stop to measure its progress
Disappearing into the undergrowth

Then – the guide points out
To the lumbering passage of
The other uncrowned king of the jungle
Making his heavy way to the water hole
Our presence sensed; he walks this way
Trunk up high with a deep warning rumble

Satisfied, he carries on
Washing, blowing dust onto broad grey back
Claiming his surroundings with inherent majesty

Tired, making our way back
A pug mark – sign of the elusive tigress!
Parked in silence with bated breath
Willing her to make an appearance
Almost giving up and in an instant
She goes past – a flash!
Seen by only two of us but a tale for the rest

Tall eucalyptus and exploding lantana – soon to be gone
Strutting pheasant and quail
A tortoise camouflaged against rocks on a dry riverbed
The paradise flycatcher’s unmatched tail in flight
Complete the collage of an afternoon
Where life carries on in a timeless cycle

Uninspired Musings

The age of technology
Tools in the hands of idiots
Creativity to obviate effort

The age of enlightenment
Self awareness against relationships in flux
Coloured balls smashing on a green table

The age of communication
Strangers selling, selling, selling
The new corporate identity

Humanity tipping the balance of all existence
With the need for more, more, MORE
The Cornucopians and Malthusians battle on

The Best Run

I think of how it is
Getting atop the highest waves

Digging into the rising swell
Pushing ahead with everything
To reach the crest and get the right line

The river flows on regardless
But it is all about the best run!

Field of Butterflies

We sit under the spreading banyan
Young, yet already imposing
Blessed shade from the beating sun
In widest expanse of blue sky

Wispy cloud against fuzzy blue at one end
To ripe white fluff on sharp azure overhead
A canvas for trees growing tall in freedom
Home to myriad feathered friends

Green grasses wave gently
Marked here and there
By the constant flutter of little wings
Yellow, pale green, brown and orange, black and white

Two cameras, now on standby
Stay readied to follow
The slightest movement and flash of colour
In the warm buzz of hidden life

We look out in companionable silence
Orange and camouflage green domes in the distance
Makeshift kitchen and cupboard on wheels
No more than specks in this big picture
Happy to be here :)

JUMP!!

Braced, sliding in
Amid wild yells even as others leap
Into the roiling river

Water crashes over,
Rushing up the nose, into the ears
And silence, till head breaks free
To the sounds of beating waves

Turning face to let it wash over, catch breath
Instant panic gives way to adrenalin
Letting the river carry all along
Bobbing in red buoyancy

Spilling into the calm
Pillowed by water, looking to the sun
The dark shadows underneath (imagined?) lose menace

Giving way to fullness
Of deep valley, flowing water
And green mountains against blue sky
To exhilaration, and peace

Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye

We the people don’t like the world we are born into
There has to be a reason we keep trying to remake it

Get your eyeballs full of all the mountains you can get
Before someone makes a big road over it
We’d need it for all the cars you know
There is a lot of gazing, splashing, floating to do in the river
Before concrete, silt, fumes, powerboat, lead to the end
Concrete blocks will fall, some of us will die
Many others will die anyway swept into the sea

This is the world we are building in our image
This is how we account with each other, the so many of us
We claim ownership over resources
Though we are only one of the species struggling for survival, sustenance
We trade among ourselves for profit
We fight today for sharing costs of our life
Should we divide it by person or national boundaries?

I wish I had started earlier
Discovering morning blue and early sun
Yellow in-your-face summer laburnum
Flaming flame of the forest, icy greeny blue water
A world by choice