The Solitary Weeper

My venture in to blogging side kicked along with it another interest too. Writing poems - Yet another channel to let my madness flow through.

' The Solitary Weeper '

In a distant land, sitting to himself

A young lad’s teary eyes glossy, cold

Lay transfixed at the distant horizon

Motionless and lost in the tranquility of nature

Perturbed by his sudden outburst of tears,

Resting birds fluttered away cooing, cawing;

Wailing only louder in his hoarse baritone

Impulsively kicked the ground hard

Tears rolling down, sore eyes,

Clenched fist and pearly teeth baring

Muttered to his self

Uncanny and broken words

Concealed behind a tender foliage

I yearned to know, ‘What‘d happened! ‘

May be a heartbreak, shattered dreams

Or a fall out with dear ones

For sure, none can help him out

Takes sands of time to get over

Though etched deep in one’s heart

I knew he’d be better!

It ain’t new, I’d been through this

Fairly conversant I were of those

Life ain’t all that easy

Better tide over a good share of trails and tribulations

Making up my mind, quickly retreated

Through the overgrown heath

Treaded the same way back

Got in the crammed tram

I’d be gone forever-

A spider caught in its own web!

So shall the forlorn solitary weeper

With a mended heart,  out of his blues.

                                              

What's the real you ?

Sitting solitary in the gazebo I still was thinking about the late night call from my 12 ‘o clock friend who always confided in me. We talked for almost a while before she quickly interrupted and asked, ‘Can you do me a favour? ’ Now I still was pondering about that and I knew where it was headed. All around the world, many have been a victim of this most abused question and consider them hapless for having been put to such a situation.

This question sometimes is babbled in an attempt to strut and strike a conversation and I consider this one to be the most frequently asked be it in the Lingua Franca or for that matter in any other language or even in sign lingo.

 

Well, I’d categorize people in to two breed, one who readily nod and try being gentle and in an attempt to gain a good impression just fake an intent excitement as if they are all ears to know the mystery shrouded behind King Tut’s enigmatic disappearance and death. They would further become a scapegoat from then on.

While a few genuine ones are someone whom we can always count on. 

The rest, don’t consider them that meek and just curt and right deny that with one or the other reason and immediately apologize so that they are not bitched about later.

While I and a few others try not being overtly modest and humble  or openly  antagonistic and counter them but instead , listen to them and finally come up with a , 'May be , I’d if I can !' So, we fall in to either breed depending on the situation.

So, what’s the real you ?

'' Mozart swapping insults ! ''

It’s a pleasant experience walking through the canopy under the cool shade of the trees and listening to the birdsong of sparrows and getting mesmerized by the pleasing sound it makes.

Plumy Sparrows - Female gazing to start off the duel

But recently , it has been found that instead the sparrows are swapping insults in line with the profanity drawn gasconade of rappers wherein the male sparrows  sing louder to just  prove how macho they are and the tougher terrain they live in , the louder they sing.

Even upcoming hip-hop stars indulge in an one-on-one duel where each of them trade insults and expletives in such a way that it follows the octaves and seem rhythmical against the background music until one of them turns out to be the winner.

Another interesting part is that , a few sing only the ‘ Greatest hits ‘  while the sparrows in sparsely populated areas try their own hands at composing new sounds. As I try to make those peculiar but sweet sound imitating the sparrow, all I could manage with my Barry Crocker voice was  ‘A cacophony of deafening voices.’

I was baffled as to what an insult would constitute to these little plumy creatures ! May be , ‘ Get off my way you pompous braggart !’ or even , ‘ Cocky ‘  that .

Indeed a long weekend

Another sweet breezy evening as I left home , I met a friend of mine with whom I’d talked for a while and later as we departed , I still could remember him telling that , ‘ Dude , Finally a long weekend ! ‘ I cut him short and asked if it were a Compensatory off and he readily answered saying , ‘ Ah , Its Independence Day .’ I foolishly blurted out , Okay , I don’t really keep an account of time anymore as I’m still on a long off .

The thought of that still hovers in my mind . I wonder if people these days just consider our country’s Independence day as another day’s off . The significance August 15 held is unaccountable atleast for us , fellow Indians .

Long time ago , we were all under the grossly ruthless British rule where every step of ours was censored by the erstwhile rulers. We were all gagged and all we could do was to abide by them and the few resenting ones were brutally chastised and a few sent off to the gallows. A few valiant and dauntless couldn’t stand that anymore and then rose the freedom movement where in these courageous invoked and instilled in the rest the seeds of national integrity and the sense of patriotism . This uprisal drastically increased all over India and the subjugated turned against the mighty pistol owning rulers and this led to a turbulent upheaval and the Britishers realized they could no longer rule us and they readily fled like the chaff is carried away by the tempest.

The mood then was infectious and people were in exultance celebrating their independence and it was then India was proclaimed a free republic. That was a moment of pride to every Indian and I still am proud of the great freedom fighters who laid their life to get us the much needed freedom and also to the steel nerved soldiers who now toil day and night to just protect our motherland from any further invasion.

I still fend for the need to study History and needless to say , one really gets a lot of inspiration. I still remember myself pestering my grandma , a Burmese born sexagenarian to tell me stories about the way days were back then . She gets filled with nostalgia as she starts narrating to me and I know why she’d !

This computer era when everyone tricks time and hardly even exchange pleasantries with one another , I can’t expect them to hail in the praise of the brave and courageous every other day but atleast on this one day in a year , it could make a difference.

I don’t deny saying that I like the virtual Captain Planet , Superman and He-man ! But I’d still like the rest to know that they were all brilliant creations of authors/writers who they thought were in line of these very real freedom fighters be it Gandhi or ML King . They were supposed to be an epitome of them. I strongly urge the kids to know about them and their noble deeds .

As an Indian , I’d close this one with a , ‘ Jai Hind !’

A teary tribute

Long long ago even before Computer was born , we humans had started to build machines of malice and destruction . We had heard about the Crusades , WW- I & II and many countless instances of such wars whose repercussions was immense on life on earth. I really wonder how one could be that foolish ! What joy does one experience by slaining others and hoarding everything possible ! Life is about sharing one’s joys and woes and definitely not enjoying at one’s cost . It is Satanic .

I am forced to ask this myself – Is life any better than those dreaded days ages ago ? I knew I would readily nod in disapproval. All the marvelous discoveries did make a difference in our lives and also along with it proliferated the destructive machines and the terror attacks . It now calls for introspection to just stop all these activities and unanimously extend one’s support towards attaining peace all over.

We have had many instances of mass extinction and I seriously wouldn’t want Homo Sapiens to perish and be an exotic creature of yester era . Peace alone can do the magic !

I would like to present a poem which I’d written two years ago , on the 66th Anniversary of Hiroshima & Nagasaki Day and also in the wake of the recent Oslo attacks and Mumbai Serial blasts .

Pristine country of ours , unsullied ,
Through the ages , rose the dictating terrorism
Smoke rising high with blasts frequently everywhere
Red pools of blood trickling against
Innocent shedding away tears

Staining , paralyzing the country’s dignity
These blood sucking terrorists , their ideals satanic
Grappling the people
Have badly crippled the nation
Women and men shedding away drops for their dear ones

Let peace be the word spread all over with its overtaking wings
Let not the world shed tears anymore
Let the insane of the sanest mend their baser ideals
Let not the brandishing swords of peace get tarnished by
Let not the unruly rule over , instead pause and think over

Chirpy children , diligent and old
Lie down cold and dead
Each dead soul a monument
Alerting the rest , terror an act of cowardice
Plunge and thwart it out

Hail for that day when peace alone over rides
Awake , arise ! terrorism ain’t a part of evolution
Let peace and only peace stride over
Let chains of terrorism get waded away
May the wish we all wish come true

Its two years now since I’d written this poem and this period only saw many terror attacks and peace still seems rudimentary and a distant reality ! Let peace not be a mirage anymore .

Hoping for a better world , I sign out hailing , ‘’Peace be unto you , Shalom !’’

German Documentary Film Festival

Monsoon had already set in and I knew what all I could anticipate . So , I preferred to start early from home as I didn’t want to miss on this very event which I’ve been waiting for days together . A friend of mine , Favi she’s called by many accompanied me .

Quite evidently we reached earlier than we were expected to , So we unanimously agreed to take the road not taken and walked the whole way while we talked about a lot other things. She’s the one who has humour laced to all that she talks and I really find it amusing that I can’t control laughing . I really wish I atleast were half as funny as her . Having crossed quite some blocks , We got some crunchies to get us going and guzzled few colas to only walk briskly as neither of us wanted to miss our seats in the event . Both were pretty excited about the premiere .

I remember it being quarter past four when I entered Goethe Institut. Walked over to the reception and inquired about the event . Rushed ourselves to the elevator and it took us to the entrance of the auditorium where the German Documentary Films where about to be aired .

We got ourselves registered and dashed in to the hall to just see that the place was deserted except for a foreigner at the extreme end with whom we exchanged pleasantries and quickly got ourselves the best seating and we later realized that indeed it was the best. There was this state of art Bose audio system just three rows ahead of us and if not the video was HD , I’d rate it at least the best in-house quality.

The event organizer hurried through a quick brief and right after it the first documentary film for the day was aired.

It was , ‘’ How to make a book with Steidl ‘’ I suppose a few might have heard about publisher Gerhard Steidl . A publisher and Printer by profession , he is revered and sought after worldwide for his ability to make the most exquisite art books imaginable . This documentary film brought the exact elements of how he did publish one such limited edition book with the world’s best photographers on Dubai which he’d titled aptly as ‘’iDubai’’ wherein the I stands for the well known Iphone since all the pictures were clicked with it.

Though the start wasn’t impressive nor was it sensuous as we were told by , we did watch with the same initial excitement and nevertheless we weren’t disappointed a bit. As the movie unfurled further , I could see myself engrossed in the film . It was a 90 minute film and the last part of it was so brilliantly captured by the precise , observant but discreet camera which got out the unique philosophy of the way the publisher worked . Steidl being a perfectionist , gets the best hardbound cover and sets his own layouts and themes and I really loved the sight of his final published work . Inked in gold were the title , steidl and the ISBN code . His last dialogue goes like this though not the exact words, that’s the best I can recollect , ‘ You can feel my book , touch the paper if u’d want to ! I’d tell that every publisher house would publish the book the usual way wherein the prints are etched by the usual paints and varnishes and have no smell to it unlike mine ,where I prefer to go with oil paints which have a distinct smell to it and leave an imprint behind ‘ That was something I never knew . Being an avid reader myself , I knew a little about hard bound an paper back but not anything that intricate . The film really enlightened us .

The next one for the day was a very short film – ‘ 10 minutes before the flight of Icarus’
Set in Uzupis , a part of Vilnius old town , it had more music to it than the normal ones and I guess the Director was sure that the viewers didn’t need much of an outlined plot to understand the story and I think that pretty worked well like he’d assumed. The music were all street based and I personally loved them . The old man blowing cigar and playing on the miniature guitar and the song sung by a group of people off the streets were truly beautiful renditions which draws one’s attention to the destruction and ruin and I interpreted it as a way to advocate peace all over.

I rushed to get snacks and a cup of hot coffee before the last film for the day was on the screen .

Sipping the Espresso , I diverted myself to the screen to read out the movie’s name aloud , ‘’ Pianomania – In search of the Perfect sound ‘
Though I didn’t get to watch the complete movie , it was about a Piano tuner who no doubt was a master of his profession who has an ear for music and has the ability to turn mere sounds to great renditions. His only ambition was not just about tuning a piano , but also to find the right nuances for every piece of music and every piano player . The film had fair share of music played on Piano right from Mozart’s to Bach’s .

This was a private premiere attended by the the intellect strata is what I’d say ! [Winks] Though wasn’t housefull , it did gather a decent lot . Most of the films were in German with English subs except for the first one which did seem to have English audio ready for us and I should mention that I could get a few german words as in Tschus , wie Heissen sie , bitte , Danke , Auf Weidersehen et cetera

As we left the place , Favi thanked me for having called her to come along and said , ‘’ Do let me know when the next fest is ! ‘’ I just smiled back and waved my hands to board my bus still regretting to ‘ve not watched the entire Pianomania though I knew google would pull all strings in its search for any videos !

There it goes off its perch

Like usual when i was giving a read to the news on the daily two days ago , I flipped through papers with the usual earnest to really know what happens around. Being a Student of science , Somewhere midway lies the Science and Technology section where usually news ranging from new discoveries to busting age old myths to replacing the very well known laws are coupled together !

It was already Seven early morning and i know My Favorite cartoon is aired at Half past Seven which I hardly can miss . In a way , heavily addicted to them ! You can call them my '' Shot of Crack '' So , I breezed quickly through the first initial pages to turn to the Sci. section.

The main headline went , ''Archaeopteryx may not have been a bird .'' I was Quite skeptical and my expression ranged fro quizzical to WTF ! I hurried myself through the article and it went like this - Chinese Palaeontologists have unearthed some fossil which after repeated experimentation and comparing the similarities to the mighty Archaeopteryx's placed them according to the evolutionary hierarchy in a group called - ' Bird-Like dinosaur '

Anyone would be surprised by that if not all , atleast i was astounded because All i could recollect from what I read in a few articles on the web doubtless placed it as the ' Original or First Bird ' and sometimes considered it the Primitve form of birds.
Now , research has dethroned the legendary Archeopteryx and scraped off its title of ' The Earliest Known Bird .'

As far as I remember , Archaeopteryx was quite an old Creature supposed to have lived sometime during Jurassic age in Bavaria [ Now a part of Germany ] back when it had made Europe as the Archipelago of islands.

This seemingly gigantic Bird like creature to the earlier paleontologists was a creature that had in it the features of both Avian and Reptilian features and this was what had reinforced the Evolutionary Theory of Charles Darwin and strikingly posed it as the only governing theory of Evolution of Creatures.

Though a few where always pounded by doubt if it were really a bird and now that the discovery of New fossil which i call the ' The Long Lost Kin ' has resurfaced , the theory of Evolution is something worth debated on

Evolution has always interested me and I was quite inquisitive for i never easily nodded my head to the written facts and always yearned to see it the scientific way . Though I may never seem a match to the legendary ones be it Darwin or De Vries , I'd in a light humour quote that , '' Scientific theories are meant to be redefined from time to time else none could testify if I were the Baboon's Equivalent or you , the reader being a Gibbon's Equivalent .''

I tuck the papers in properly and set them aside and all set to grab the remote control of my television set .