The Kite

It touched the skies
Finally finding release
The kite, symbolising freedom
Flying beyond anybody's reach
Doing what it was meant to do

Fulfilling its purpose
On its own merit
With no one dictating terms!

The Temptress

The vivid colours and the beautiful sounds

Lure me, bind me to everything around

I stretch out and, with tiny fingers, grasp 

Relatives and friends, so many to clasp

I hold tight to things infinite

Believing they belong to me, indefinite

So much gold and diamonds to mine

Working hard to make them all mine

Showered with your kind abundance

I still seek wealth with no reluctance

How patiently you bear our abuse

Making us, even the heavens, refuse

All glittering, catching our eye

Entrapping us and satiating the 'I'

 

So that we come back again and again

Seeking pleasure, even if laced with pain

The other worlds we do not know of

You blind us to them by giving all we ask for

Food, lands, wealth and fame

Making us want to make a name

A mirage that moves as we do

With temptations many, you woo

So that we return again and again

For they all look like a great bargain

We seek nothing higher or spiritual

In the garb of a mother but really the seductress

Smothering us with things, so we remain

Fulfilling our needs in your domain

Knowing all that we get is left behind

Yet we come back again and again

There are but a few who escape you

Seeking and finding themselves anew

Till our eyes open after a hard fall

And strive hard to ignore your call

To drop it all and seek liberation

Seeing you from far with veneration 

I am wiser now, o mother mine

I revere you but have other paths to find

I loosen my grip so I may be free

Knowing it is all but a hazy dream.

The Safari Food Chain

Food chain, you have studied all about it in class 6 or 7, I am sure. Seen a diagrammatic representation, I am sure. Probably drew a crappy version of it too. 

Even in the corporate world, you would have heard of how the hierarchy works - like a food chain, each level eating the one below to grow bigger. Politics is no exception and probably closer to the jungle raj than anything else.

But, food chain in the safari!?

सलीम भाई का भाई

"तुम भी चलो ना इस बार सफ़ारी पे मेरे साथ! शेर जंगल का राजा है और भारत में सिर्फ गुजरात में गिर के जंगलों में मिलता है," राजीव ने मोहना से कहा| 

हमेशा की तरह, मोहना झिझकी, मगर गुजरात का नाम सुनके मन में लालसा जागी और उसने हाँ बोल दिया| अब अहमदाबाद से जूनागढ़ स्टेशन में उतरकर  मन में कई तरह के सवाल उठे - शेर के इलाके में घुसना सही था क्या? उसका पति तो साल में दो तीन बार तस्वीर खींचने जंगलों में जाता है| ये वहां क्या करेगी? तस्वीर खींचना भी तो नहीं आता है| 

Ode to Mother Earth

My feet work fast

My head in the air

Thoughts flying in all directions

Eyes observing everything there

The Amalgam

I rest on the floor, drop my weight
The physical, not insignificant
But the emotions, heavier
I feel them gravitate away

Unveiling

Captured in a shell
Separated but unaware
Connected through breath
Without thought or care