Radha

Immersed in your hue, dark and blue
The heart assimilates all that is true
Your love, affection, your compassion
Your kindness, forgiveness, passion
My need, my greed, my utter devotion
My want, my life and my submission
All for the consuming soul we share
I am, You are, the universe bare

Surrounded by music, senses ensnared
Cuddled, cajoled by heaven's glare
Am I the peace radiating from you?
Your are my strength, love our glue
What care have I for ignorant fingers
Pointed at us, no rebuke lingers
Beyond oblivion, I am by far
We dwell in the other, safe and pure

Beyond the realms of all unholy
Away from the reach of all ungodly
None senseless, jealous, none unworthy
No sight, no sound, nothing unhealthy
No laughter, tears, no bondage earthly
Duty doesn't count, rights don't matter
I wait for you, where ever meets ever
Last breath for you and in you forever

Let HIM be!

Hurricanes, floods, earth shattering quakes

Tsunamis, fires, tornadoes and plagues

Human race bears torture of these

God, help reprieve, help find peace

Lament men, enlist Prayers too

Oh, let HIM be! HE is human too

Terrorists, Politicians, Religious fanatics

Thieves, Murderers, Cons and Lunatics

Mankind is burdened by their fallacy

Almighty, cleanse, restore your supremacy

Plead people, help through and through

Oh, let HIM be! HE is human too

Mistrust, Callousness, Utter Dishonesty

Brutality, Arrogance, Apathetic, Immorality

Order of the day are they today

Lord, grant sanctuary every day

Cries humanity without a clue

Oh, let HIM be! HE is human too

What chaos must rule the heavens

Asks ambushing creators’ benevolence

Can HE brush aside unending questions

Does peace reign amidst the effervescence

Of unending conflicts, Isn’t HE imploring  too

Oh, let me be, I am human too!

Guru

One true soul amidst the crowd

Stands tall knowingly proud

With herculean passion and boundless energy

Striving to bring in a persistent synergy

Spanning warring boundaries, ages, thoughts, directions

Braving imperfections, oppositions, unrelenting factions

Unfazed he endures to build a culture

Of honesty, ideas, inclusivity of every member

A vision of growth, to scale great heights

Aided by his abilities mighty, clear sight

A leader unparalleled, a teacher at heart

Unwittingly many a destinies he charts

Molding gently, chiding sternly, nudging kindly

A beacon to follow, an ideal to cherish

An aura to assimilate, a zeal to emulate

The fire to an ember, an oasis to the parched

Not many of his mettle are made

Imbued lessons do not with time fade

As these sculpt, like does an architect

The paths of life, etched perfect

Meera

I wander seeking my truth

The one thread binding me to you

Transcendental mist engulfs my being

Unseen, unknown but felt deep within

Tearing the soul, making it whole

Pulling into an ethereal peaceful abyss

Encompassing my soul within yours

No beginning, no end to this what is ours

Like fragrance in flower, like affection of mother

It is fathomless love binding us together

I find you where I seek you not

I see you where my eyes are not

Your hand in my failures

Your tricks in my faults

Your warmth in my anger

Your attitude in my arrogance

Your childishness in my peace

Your pretense in my achievements

Holding me close, setting me free

Do I end in you, or do you live in me?

Broom ballad

Promises made at the election parade
The Hand that manoeuvered the charade
Witnessed its arrogance being swept away
By the Broom's authoritative sway
May finally rest in peace, the one at Rajghat
The Hand chose the name, not his thought
But the common man now choses to walk his path

The Lotus dazzles above the water surface
But nourished alas by mud and dirt
Withered offerings at the temple of democracy
Swept away by the Broom of devotion
To motherland, to service, to the common man
Yes, it's a victory to freedom, to live, to choose
In a democracy of intelligent, conscientious men

There is religion, technology, there's innovation
But now there is a new revolution
The moon, the mars and the countless stars
Bear witness to these winds of change
Not philosophers, not poets, not priests, not politicians
Just common men with brooms and fiery determination
That build character and clean the morals of a nation.

'The Human' of Cricket.

All I want to do today is sit back and savour the moment when Sachin scored the 100th run of his 100th ton, removed his helmet, looked to the skies, then pointed to the Indian flag on his helmet and kissed it!!! There can never be such a moment in Cricket ever again! That is precisely why I decided to post my tribute to another great player today, the day that is a golden day in the history of Cricket and will be remembered by every true lover of the game.

"My approach to cricket has been reasonably simple: it was about giving everything to the team, it was about playing with dignity and it was about upholding the spirit of the game. I hope I have done some of that. I have failed at times, but I have never stopped trying. It is why I leave with sadness but also with pride." These are the words chosen by Rahul Dravid to say his final farewell to international cricket and the world knows he is the only one in the current cricketing world who has lived his words. And to this great legend I dedicate my sincere and heartfelt lines.

Cricket, they say, is a gentleman's game and if ever there was a gentleman in modern day cricket, it was Rahul Dravid and with his retirement the curtains fall on an era of cricket where some respect for the gentleman's game still existed! He is one cricketer who personified the spirit of cricket - that it is a contest to be won by wielding the bat and handling the ball in the right way and that being aggressive does not mean sledging and cheap theatrics on field but it is a state of mind in which the focus is only on one's game and belief in oneself and ones skills is to such an extent as not to be cowed down by the opponents skills. His dedication is so complete that it looks almost as if he is in a meditative state when he walks in to the field. His determination and focus was so strong that you could actually see the verbal abuses hurled by the likes of greats such as Allan Donald bounce off of him! His actions are so deliberate that it is transparent that all that matters to him is the game and for him nothing and nobody is bigger than the game. Yes, he is the only one of his kind. A class of his own. Every new cricketer invariably gets compared to the likes of Sachin, Richards, Bradman, Ponting etc. But no one has yet come near to being compared to this legend. None so technically perfect, none with such attitude and respect for the game, none with his temperament, none with such conviction for handling immense pressure and yet be unmoved by any kind of adulation, speculation, publicity. Sorry! But that is the truth. In today's cricketing scene... and with the kind of fame, publicity, pressure and the money, it is next to impossible that you will find someone who can hold a candle to Rahul Dravid's caliber.

Yes, 'The Wall', the ever 'Mr.Dependable', the most composed and the least animated individual on the field of cricket has returned to the pavilion for the last time!!! The sad truth is, in a country so consumed with religion, and cricket being the religion of all, we placed 'The God' up on 'The Wall' and then forgot to notice that as the pedestal on which the God stood grew in stature, 'the God' started shining brighter! Dravid's grand innings has come to an end and the world has given him a standing ovation on his brave, conscious and conscientious contribution to the game.

The Great Wall of China may one day turn to dust but our wall will live on... a legend... a folklore, an enigmatic soul

to future generations who will hear his story.

This may yet be my most sincere and most emotional writing but the subject of this piece deserves no less from an ardent admirer. Live on Jammy!!!.

Grumblings of a proud new mother...

Hello World!!! Now, there is a statement every computer programmer knows ;-) and yes, that is exactly what I feel need to be my first words in this new piece(I am learning a new language)... It feels like I have been out of touch with everyone and everything for so long, what with the pregnancy and the baby...

Yes... The baby... Arjun!

Now, what do I write about this little bundle of joy? It has been total bedlam from the second he was born. Here he was, a tiny little being, just opening his eyes to the world and he was already making those around him laugh, cry, dance, talk, awe struck and dumb struck and all at the same time. I had a vague recollection of a Hindi movie song 'choti ungli pe nachayegi tumhe...' only with 'nachayega' in that line. It's been 10 months now from that 'second' and yes, we are all still dancing to his tunes, and he seems to have made a special target of me.

The sun, moon and earth's rotation do not define my days and nights any more... He does! My daily routine, learnt and perfected over a period of 30 years has been declared useless by His Majesty, the little Arjun, and now I have been forced to follow a totally different one approved by him. I was proud of the fact that I could speak 4 different languages fluently and understand and speak a little of two others... but now I am at a loss. He has his own language and looks like he is the only teacher and I have no choice but to learn this new language consisting of gurgles, cooing, shrieking etc from him and boy! is he a hard task master! Some people in Chennai who failed to persuade me to learn 'Tamil' must be having a good laugh now.

As if this was not enough, Arjun seems to think he is some kind of a human volcano... Always ready to spew lava... and from both ends too! Never thought I would be thanking diapers! Also, all my relations have been redefined now. My parents and my darling sister prefer to be related to me as Arjun's grand parents and aunt. Now, I have to deduce what my relatives are to Arjun before addressing them. They seem to want to be related only to him... Might be a blessing in disguise in some cases... Let me wait and watch...

I pity the great leaders of this world. They seem to worry about trivial matters such as world peace, internal security, Bin-Laden, Gadaffi etc. etc. I am sure they would envy my leadership in dealing with more urgent and pressing issues - 'Oh why hasn't Arjun had a bowel movement two days in a row?' , 'Oh God! Stop Arjun. He's trying to eat an ant again!', 'Stop tripping the broadband, Arjun!', 'Right, he has painted the walls , the furniture, the duvets and the floor with with mashed bananas...', 'The refrigerator is open, the wardrobes look like they were in the path of a tornado, the bed sheet is on the floor, the toys are in the kitchen and he is playing with pots and pans...'. They say, the hand that rocks the cradle is the one that rules the world...

I would have tried to rule the world if it was not for the fact that the one in the cradle has rocked my world so completely that I cannot recognize it!

All said and done... he is still the 'Apple of my eye', my 'chaand ka tukda', nanna 'baalina belaku', yenna 'bolli bangara' and any other such cliched idioms and phrases that get quoted once too often by proud mothers of the world. Today, I am richer than I have ever been, emotionally, mentally and with my swear words vocabulary.

P.S: Written in a haste. My new manager makes absolutely sure that I adhere to deadlines by bawling his eyes out and I assure you, you cannot imagine the decibel level of that episode.