SUBURBAN COMMUTERS

In the peak hours

of the morning

Church gate railway station is

a reservoir in spate.

Commuters from all walks of life

get down at the station

and are in a hurry

to flow like water

to the outside world.

For the convenience of the commuters

in other words for

the out flowing commuters

there are three exits

left, right and centre.

Ticket examiners in black and white

reminding one of penguins of Antartica

with their sharp piercing eyes

can be seen at three exits

for nabbing the ticket less commuters

and forcing them to remit the charges with fines

failing which they are brought to justice.

An oracle’s melodious

voice can be heard

from somewhere upstairs

informing the commuters

of the timing of arrival and departure

of local trains.

Indicators exhibiting times and destinations

continue to glimmer in yellow lights all through the day.

That which baffles always me

is the undue hurry of the

commuters hailing from various suburbs

rush into the compartments risking their lives

and rush out of the trains

at their destination points

walking and running to their workplaces

while agreeing to the fact that

the city is overcrowded

what benefits each of them

to walk or run all through the way

to reach their working places?

Seems like the citizens of the suburbs

are unnecessarily creating chaos

by rushing to their destinations.

MUMBAI – THE COSMOPOLITAN CITY

In the cosmopolitan city of Mumbai

genuine lovers are

rare and invaluable

barring a few.

Affairs among young men and ladies

which last two or three months are common

after which each one among them seeks

affairs with another young lass and handsome youth

while genuine lovers

show declining trend

affairs among the youth

are showing an upward trend in the city.

In the cosmopolitan city of Mumbai

the number of genuine couples are rare

like exorbitant commodities

as they too are displaying downward trend.

Instead

in the place of genuine couples

two opposite sexes fall in love

believe in live-in relationships

no tying of nuptial knots

no temples or churches,

no auspicious moments

no registration and no witnesses

knowing fairly well that

within a  short-span

at the most six months

they would get fed up with living together.

Most of them get

separated after genuine handshakes

in an atmosphere of camaraderie

with only a few entering into a wedded life.

The majority who get separated

go in search of greener pastures

fish out others

who too are on the hunt

for the company of somebody

again take decisions to

enter live-in relationships

that too for a short period.

In the overcrowded and congested

cosmopolitan city of Mumbai

and for that matter any metros

familiarity is an alien word

except a few who know each other

not fully but partially.

Feels like alienation

is the hallmark of the

city of Mumbai and other metros.

In the cosmopolitan

city of Mumbai

homosexuals, lesbians,

heterosexuals, transgenders, paedophiles,

call girls, prostitutes(male and female)

and eunuchs are dime a dozen.

Still love Mumbai

like I love Kerala

genuine love ofcourse….   

THE UNCEREMONIAL OUSTER OF L K ADVANI AND MURLI MANOHAR JOSHI FROM BJP PARLIAMENTARY BOARD

Old age homes are mushrooming across the nook and cranny of Kerala, which is popularly known as God’s Own Country the world over. With age catching up and diseases spreading  among them they become helpless and naturally turn out to be a burden to their children who are grown up, educated and have entered the mainstream of life with well-paid jobs either in India or abroad, get  married and become parents, the latter without even a moral prick dump their parents in the so-called old age homes where many a old one spends his/her twilight of their life and the aged ones are helpless and disillusioned and to escape from boredom and painful memories, mingle with each other and share their feelings of their sombre existence with deep sighs. Sometimes forgetting the surroundings they go to the extent of shedding tears recalling the ingratitude of their children whom they fed with love, affection and care and whom they sent to schools and colleges and tried their level best spending huge amounts to find jobs for them. With their children getting married and in due course become parents, their parents gradually become a burden to them and mull day in and day out about disposing their parents in old age homes. They don’t have any reluctance to make payments to the authorities of the old-age homes to cater to the needs of their parents. These sons and daughters often pretend to forget their parents who raised them to greater levels and provided them with love, affection and care are left in the lurch with the sunset of their life hovering over their parents. These are not the cases of old people in distress. Let’s for a moment think about those parents who are harassed, tortured and thrown them out of their houses and leave them in the premises of temples, churches or street sides wherever they like.

This is the case of old age parents of Kerala, the so-called God’s Own Country.

Let’s ponder over the wretched way the old cattle are dealt with while they were young and were beneficial to the man like cows, buffalos and goats which produce milk, the young ox are used to plough the fields or to pull carts especially bullock-carts and goats etc on entering old age and turn helpless, skinny and sick these animals are left at the abattoir.

This is the case of trees like mango trees, jack fruit trees, guava, cashew trees or rubber plants. These trees upon ageing turn less productive and they too turn out to be the victims of the tree-cutter.

We have already mentioned the aged men and women, aged animals and aged trees.

In this period of murky politics across India too the aged political leaders who deserve respect and reverence who even in their old age are blessed with vigour, strength and high spirits are shown the door by the  middle-aged political leaders and allocate the posts of the aged leaders mentioned earlier to familiar faces.

Take for instance the recent dropping of  L.K.Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi from the BJP (Bharathiya Janata Party) from the all powerful Parliamentary Board by Party President Amit Sha after holding consultation with Narendra Modi, Prime Minister.

L.K.Advani, who was instrumental in building up the party from scratch and enabled and ensured the  growth and victory of the party which later headed the National Defence Alliance govt from 1998-2004 which was led by A.B.Vajpayee who is incidentally ill.

Likewise Murli Manohar Joshi, who held the post of BJP President first and Human Resources Development Minister, later has also been thrown out.

In this world where age alone is the criterion to measure the worth of anyone and nothing less than that getting older is something painful but natural even if Amit Shah, Narendra Modi, Janardan Dwivedi (Congress) and anyone for that matter. It would be a better thing if we are aware of this universal truth.        

AN UPHILL TASK

Hills always fascinate me.

In my childhood

in my teenage

in my youth.

The more I climbed up to the top

the more happier I felt.

The speed with which

I ran up the hill

and reached the top

and looked around

was a thrilling experience to me.

I enjoyed the beautiful landscape

all around me

including my house

at the bottom of the hill

and upon noticing my near and dear

roaming around the house

everything filled my mind

like a reservoir reaching its brim.

The more I grew up

the sooner I felt tired

conceding defeat like an army on the run

fearing its enemy country’s soldiers

go on conquering more and more land.

On my way up

mind you, when I am walking across the bridge

of my middle age

to my upper middle age

I am forced to take

rest at several places

before accomplishing my mission of reaching the top.

In case I reach the

sunset of my life

walking up the hill

always makes me shudder

what would I do

if I dream about

climbing up the hill to the top…

An uphill task, an impossible task, no doubt…. 

MIND AND NATURE

With the Sun rising

in the east and welcomes us

caress and embraces us with his warm rays,

my Sun of delight

also rises on the eastern horizon of my mind.

With the Sun getting

eclipsed by dark clouds

my sun also gets

eclipsed by dark clouds of despair.

With the infinite, azure sky

wearing the ornaments of golden moon and stars

in the limpid blue sky,

my transparent mind is embellished with

the lights of scintillating jewels of

serenity, peace and tranquility.

With the Sun taking

a bath for the day

in western horizon of the sky where

the Sun and the Sea meet

my Sun also takes a dip

in the western horizon of

my mind of drowsiness also takes a dip

in the sea of musical silence.

THE DEPLORABLE EXECUTION OF THE MASTERMINDS OF TIANANMEN SQUARE STRUGGLE IN CHINA

As a citizen hailing from a democratic nation, on hearing the news of execution of eight persons who masterminded historic Tiananmen Struggle in 1989 and the subsequent developments, it was natural that I was appalled and angry against the Chinese leaders. Now that 25 years have passed by the massacre is still etched on the walls of my mind.

The Tiananmen Square uprising was for the cause of democracy by the then youth of China which was mercilessly suppressed by the forces loyal to the Chinese govt under orders of the latter which was condemned by the nations owing allegiance to democracy.

After the era of Mao-Tse-Dong, under whose tenure the iron curtain stood as blockade by which the developments in China were unknown to the nations the world over. It was said that the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) ensured that no news leaked out of that nation and as a consequence how the citizens come to know about the developments going on in that country.

Deng-Sio-Ping, who was his successor, upon ascending the ‘throne’, as a first step in the right direction after demolishing the iron curtain opened up its economy for the foreign nations and appealed them to invest in China on a large scale. During Mao’s time Chinese economy was in a shambles which was made known to the world only after Deng-Sio-Ping succeeded him.

Deng, who is called the ‘architect of modern China’ was criticized by a few countries mostly authoritarian nations, for opening up the economy was learned to have responded that ‘whether the cat is black or white what matters ultimately is whether it is capable of catching the mouse’.

Thus gradually Chinese economy progressed step by step with other nations trailing behind it. Following Deng those who succeeded him like Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xin-Jing-Ping China has turned out to be the second largest economy, the first being USA.

Deng-Siao-Ping and his followers though granded economic freedom, individual freedom is still a mirage.

It was the freedom lovers who were in the vanguard to fight for the cause of individual liberty. The masterminds who mobilized the former grouped under one umbrella upon the Chinese govt rejecting their repeated demands, decided to fight head on against the govt forces at Tiananmen Square in 1989 who braved the Chinese forces and unfortunately hundreds of freedom fighters attained martyrdom after facing guns, grenades, tanks, teargas shells and such sophisticated weapons.

A number of freedom fighters were caught and imprisoned and many of them are still languishing behind bars.

Another unfortunate fact is that today’s generation – students and youth alike are unaware of the 1989 struggle and with the economic progress in full swing many who might have read about it or heard about it from their guardians and teachers are not at all interested in even discussing it.

These Gen Xt have no tears to shed for the freedom fighters who were massacred and who still languish behind the bars. 

Even these youngsters if not en-bloc, a few of them have no qualms in justifying the Tiananmen Square struggle. Its something mind-boggling, blood-chilling and heart-breaking….          

STIFLED SPIRIT AND OPTIMISM

Confined to my room

lying on the mattress

spread over a cot

under the speeding fan

spending my time

reading a lot,

thinking over the strange

ways of the world

civil wars, wars, genocide,

corruption, malnutrition

deaths, unemployment,

natural calamities like floods,

droughts, stifling the spirit and optimism of the mankind,  

with agony and pain piercing my heart,

seated on my chair,

I scribble a poem,

fiction or non-fiction

on the white sheets

during the nights

with the world lapsing into silence

the silence of the graveyard…….