Thursday, April 30, 2009

Let it Rain Tonight


The sun rides low on the horizon
As, the birds search their way home
And, the aimless wanderer
Finally finds a perch.
And, I think it’s gonna rain tonight.

I see the infant
Sleeping naked in the street
And I watch the men…
Dying alone in the heat
But, I think it’s gonna rain tonight.

I see two lovers
Exploring the new world
And, the barren land
Finally bearing flowers
And, I think it’s gonna rain tonight.

I find the old man
Strumming on his guitar
The song of open dreams
And the open roads travelled so far
And, I think it’s gonna rain tonight.

I also watch the dawn of new dreams
And see it get shattered…
Yet, I observe the human spirit
That still listens to dreamers.
And, I think it’s gonna rain tonight.

O’ let it rain…
Hard and long
Let it rain…
All night, for many nights
And wash it all away.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

All That Matters


I held you in my arms
As we watched the last plane take off...
From the lonely airport
And in my embrace lay hidden…
A thousand words of hope…
For your future

And as we woke up early
To welcome the white steeds of the Sun
I held you in my eyes
And in my gaze
Lay a thousand apologies
For the unkempt promises

I had discovered you
At the end of a journey
As you entered my life
Like a gust of wind…
In this sweltering heat
And made me smile again…

But, the relentless Sun glared down…
And sucked your kisses out of me
Leaving me dry and lifeless
And, though I feel you in my arms
I am blinded by the sun
And can’t see your smile

Nothing is as bleak as the future
Except maybe for the past
And, I lie content in your arms
In the cool shade of our present
As the world burns
In the merciless heat waves

Is it Nature…
Or the fire within?
As, I burn the question haunts me…
Yet, under the bough of the gaunt mango tree
You are still here in my arms
And that’s all that matters in the end.


Note: This poem owes a lot to the conversation I had with a friend of mine. So, I dedicate this to her and her gift.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Rain Messenger's Diary 9......Fulfilled Desire…a short step away from Disaster

A journey has to be completed and, no matter what romantics say, the finishing line decides destiny. Ironical, though it may be we compete with even the ones closest to us.

In this unending perennial race of existence and in our desperate attempt to prove Darwinian survival of the fittest philosophy, we refuse to slacken our pace, or maybe we cannot. If we accept this as the desired way of life with the rejection of Camus’ Meursault, then we may as well judge its virtues objectively and face it with fortitude to be able to win. Even though cynics or romantics (whichever way you see it) may tell you that you still remain a mangy rat of the rat race, what is the harm in being the winning rat?

The greatest hurdle of a winner it is said is easy victories as it brings forth along with the black pestilence of complacency which pushes anyone, no matter how great, to the brink of disaster and sometimes even over the edge. Bertrand Russell had written in his book The Conquest Of Happiness…
"The human animal like others is adapted to certain amount of struggle for life and when by means of great wealth homo sapiens can gratify all whims without effort, the mere absence of effort from life removes an essential ingredient of happiness."
We could easily add to it and say that this absence or lack of effort, when one gets what he wants heralds doom as it leads to incompetency and vanity which are merely escorts to the gate of ultimate downfall.

Life is not always a bed of roses and thankfully so, because if we did not have the thorns we would not have appreciated the petals. We would be ingenuous enough to take things for granted, for complacency is not always a venial crime. If you are born with a golden spoon in your mouth or you inherit one, it usually breaks a man. It makes you forget who you are and then you want to be far from the “madding crowd”, but we forget, that it usually is the society that decides our destiny, it is the society who makes or breaks a man. As, Camus said, if you do not play the game by their rules you are an outsider and its disastrous, you are condemned with blasphemy.

As, the sun rides low on the horizon, it is ultimately the extraneous challenges of life that grants us the masks to survive, the necessary skills to steer clear of the infinite abyss of disaster. “We have the knack of choosing precisely those that are worst for us.” said Albus Dumbledore and we see the curse of complete fulfillment of every desire is something we all wish for but should avoid like a contagious disease, after all it is the final undoing of any man…his Achilles’ heel.

But the question remains, whether you play by their rules or yours...
What do you choose dear reader Meursault or society?