Homecoming...

The River Ganga!

My muffled footsteps move fast,

Faster than they were slow when leaving

my front door behind

for a long long time,

But all that is in the past...

I forget the squeamish feeling in my heart,

The tears brimming in my eyes,

the lump in my throat,

All that is long past...

For now I am back home,

The same old poppies grow in my garden,

The same old wind chimes welcome me back,

The same old jute rug at the doorstep,

for I am back home at last...

My mind blurs with memories of a phone call,

the call to report back thus,

Eradicating a smile on my face,

Mercenaries of joy and happiness,

And all of that whirred within so fast...

A tear again in my eyes

as they see the open doors,

My mother rushing out for me,

To engulf me in her warm arms...

But these are tears of happiness,

These are tears of joy,

For all those days away from home,

Are in distant shadows cast!

Written for:

3WW

&

Poets United: Midweek Motif

~Living~

A birthday celebration I could view from my hotel room!

20's joyfully dreaming,

believing the world

is a fairytale and living...

Beaming and dancing,

To every song and tune,

That speaks of love

and heartbreaks,

to loss quite immune,

Until you are hit by 30's

grey hair and responsibilities,

work and pandemonium,

money, bills unwholesome!

Searching for milk in fridge,

And medicines in top shelves!

Written for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads!
&
Also shared with Poets United at Poetry Pantry!

A Day In Ocracoke!

Once upon a time behind the picket fence white,

between the overgrown grass and the red roses wild,

a line of clothes drying in a breeze from the west,

Stood a pretty red house, worn out and patched!

In this old house lived Tommy, his sister Maddy,

And chubby little toothless golden haired Teddy...

Their Wampus Cat Buringhum would purr and mew,

Feeding on the Russian Rat and tumbling the stew!

The charming plump mother would run around shouting,

Mommucked by the cat, baton in hand and cursing...

Fat Burhingam knew the Token of angry love,

As he clumsily climbed the top shelf above...

Tommy searched, as they played meehonkey,

Teddy found in the backyard, still looking for Maddy!

Maddy hid in the cupboard and curled up and slept,

Until noon she became quamish, came out and wept!

For Tommy was searching no more for her,

The boys playing in the lighthouse without a care...

Tear stricken she waited for her Papa to come back,

And tell her annoying tale sitting snuggly in his lap.

Papa came at sunset from the Silver Lake after fishing,

A flounder for dinner and victoriously beaming...

The mother kissed him, Maddy ran to hug her Papa,

She climbed his arms as the dirty boys scampered around...

The dinner was cheery, Burhingham forgiven,

Fresh soup and flounder and hot bread in the oven!

The happy O'cockers lived in quite Ocracoke,

Away from the filthy city and unpleasant smoke!

This poem is written for Artistic Interpretations at Imaginary Garden With Real Toads for life on an Island of Ocracoke!

Alone!

I abide by the rules of living alone,

A book in my hand and crumbly sweet scone.

The hot pink colours rule my house,

The scented candles, a vigour arouse...

My curvy red Beetle hoots happily,

Taylor's love song playing loudly!

I can sit in my socks on my porch,

And play the guitar discordant and coarse!

I eat mac and cheese

whenever I please!

I sing aloud,

And dance around!!

What rules? What rules, Are you talking about?

I just make them as I choose my route,

The uphill or the curvy road,

A beautiful drive or a walk Alone!!

   

Written for a prompt by Mary at Poetry Jam!

Bestest Holi Ever! (2014)

I know this comes in a little late, but it's been long overdue-
I nodded in mute despair. Mr. Husband just informed me he din't get a leave on Holi!

My plans seemed to be trickling!

Whatever happened that day was never planned and happened with the sudden surprise of Joy, dance colours and songs...

Started the day looking like this with Mr. Husband having coffee at Costa (chhoti Holi)

Chhoti Holi at home with mother-in-law painted blue by our neighbours!!

Last moment we made a road trip Vrindavan- the city of colours! Here Holi is not a one day occasion!! It's celebrated for the whole week... Colors every where and Krishna bhajans echoed across the city!

Mom with that absurd expression, papa busy on the phone, with Prempal and Premchand (I always get confused as to who is who) in Vrindavan

Mommy trying to convince papa to let go of the phone!

And now it's Mommy busy on the phone!!

A cute calf and me coloring her!!

That cap was a Holi gift!!

On our way back to Delhi from Vrindavan we came upon a Aryasamaj Gurukul, Manjhavali and what followed was a complete chaos! A Holi so full of colours, and rain dance, loud songs, hot music, so much of dancing, so much of laughter, a complete transformation from looking normal to looking like a leprechaun, lots of gujiaa and the raucous of about 50 kids trying to paint us in every color possible!!! I had so much fun I'll never forget!! :))

Mommy, me and the headmaster of the gurukul who was woken up from his mid afternoon nap with a slush of coloured cold water by his students!!

colors so Bright!!

Oh! thats me in the centre and right of me is Mommy and we all are sooooo Happy!! :)

Right after this the head master (the most colorful guy in the centre) was dragged by his students and thrust into a puddle... I guess they wanted to vent out their revenge for all the punishments in that one day!!  Was fun watching though!! ;))

They were amazing!! :D

Dancing (Weird pose) :/

Hope !

The Hope around a corner flies,

The flutter, the whisper, the silent sigh,

Follow Her around the world

In an effort to catch Her unaware...

A ripple falls across the sea,

The calm waters rise to meet,

What seemed like a distant dream,

Flows away like the night breeze...

The world rises to a cause,

The upbringing a havoc rots,

Of riots and little wars,

Opened windows, opened doors...

I see the change coming through,

The monotony falling past,

The lives of people rising too,

And Hope following us all.

She no longer flutters in the corners,

She no longer breathes a sigh,

We catch Her, hold Her, and keep Her,

And she happily lives by...

The Northern Lights

Captured enroute to Dubai, a Huge CB and it's golden lining

The silky waves on the dark sky,

The colors of the rainbow in the dead night,

I havent seen them yet I hear,

The beauty of the Northern Lights...

Do you know how they come to be?

Its a secret, a real fantasy...

The magic rises from the earth 

And lights the sky in its mirth...

The magic of the ancient times,

Rises in roaring colors to the sky!

The magic of irresistible Love,

And the joy of dreams come true...

The magic of a lightened heart,

Of sweet gentle sound of a laugh,

And that of a twinkling eye, 

Of the beautiful loving new bride...

It rises all to the sky,

In vibrant colors called the Northern Lights...

Butterfly Fly Away!! (catch your dreams, now you cant stay)

In a short life span of a few weeks (4 to 5 weeks) she flies in the beautiful and enormous skies willingly, freely, unrestricted and spreads a wishful smile on every face she flutters past in her quest to conquer the unending blue...
She halts not for the passionate lover smitten by the unreasonable Love of a beautiful woman,
Nor for the gentle woman whose love is lost...
She does not wait upon an old lady to listen to her sad long story of life,
She stops not for the winds to be kind to her or the clouds to part in the sky...
The Gods in the skies she fears not , nor the eventual fall,
There is not a thing she leans to and moves on and on...
Those tiny wings flutter restlessly for she knows she has a short life,
A short life in which she must do that which she was born to do...
SHE MUST FLY...
Fly to the cold North towards the beautiful bright star way up there,
To the hot south among the colorful gypsies in the deserts,
Unknowingly, uncaringly she colors every garden she passes by,
What she will get at the end is yet unknown to her,
But in her heart deep down she knows she'll get whatever she wants the most,
Whatever she wants the most is yet again unknown to her,
But never was it so clear that what she wanted to do NOW was only SPREAD HER WINGS and FLY AWAY... Ah the freedom, the joy of it, no pain and no loss... Just infinite Bliss!!

The Ecstacy Of Flight...

B737 sim and me!! :)

Ah well... "There is no limit to the joy of flight...."

Those words, while they may seem inconsequential to a casual reader, I entreat upon everyone to read those words more carefully... there IS no limit to the joy of flying...

4th day of the Year 2010 at 2200hrs I flew once more after 15 whole months ... At this point when I held the control column of the huge aircraft in my hands a second time afresh and landed her I for the first time realized how much I had missed this... Two years back when I had flown for the first time the realization of a loss or depravity had been eliminated, for then I had not known at all what flying was about. But now when I got back I realized how much this was a part of me... how much I had missed this... how much this had been pushed back in my head as a consequence of the innumerable things happening, short term aims in life, the fast moving rush and crowd of a new and busy city!

The pleasure of being in control of that huge machine, the pleasure of handling her, the pleasure of the knowledge that she was zooming across the skies at speeds of 300 knots cutting through the very clouds whose kingdom these huge vast skies were... Its a joy in you that has been leashed in a long time and it knows no bounds...

My big machine was new to my unskilled hands and it wasn't the best I had performed but it was more than just memorable... it was unforgettable... 0300 hrs in the morning I returned to my room after four hours of continuous flying, but surprisingly I was not tired... At least not enough to make me want to doze off before I had told all my friends that I was flying again!

I slept at 0500 am that morning happy like an idiot.

And this was only a simulated flight. I was already dreaming of my actual flights that night.

For those of you who are flying here is a message- Don't ever leave flying! Don't EVER regret having done this. What you have achieved 90 percent of the world cant even dream about... It's the most awesome feeling... :)

My Birthday!!! :)

Hand made chocolates gifted by Rahul More

There is a beauty in the expression of friendship... like they say 
"Miles away cant keep us apart,
'cause you'll always be in my heart."

Alone in my hostel my 22nd birthday would have been the loneliest had it not been for all those super crazy people I call friends.... Let me also add it was one of the most amazing birthdays I had so far... At precisely 0000hrs on 19th of January this year, I cut the most delicious and unexpected cake of my life ... a Veggie Delight Sub with no cheese and extra olives with three friends singing Happy Birthday on a conference call... It was awesome... :D

One of my best friends actually came all the way from Pune to be with me on my Birthday...
One of my friends played a birthday song on his guitar and mailed the recording to me.... ( much later but i love the way my birthday goes on and on and on...)

And I got HOME made chocolates with my name on them for a gift...

Could it have gotten better? :D

There And Back Again...

Mom and me Selfie :)

When I finally reached home I was tired to the bone!
I had not exactly slept well in anticipation of the coming day, had woken up early, put my singular room into array, gone to the office to attend the boring lectures of my training, rushed back home at 3 o' clock, packed my luggage, only just managed to catch my flight to Delhi... At Delhi it took some time to find the cab I had hired to Dehra... finally I was on my way to my hometown. The road was a mess... the journey was a bumpy ride and a tough one. Which means I did'nt sleep again this night! I had hollows under my eyes... my hair was haywire... and I was restless, sleepy and concsiously unaware of my surroundings...
With a sigh of relief I set foot at my place finally after a whole tedious day and 8 hours of  journey.
....
My mom rushed at me... All of a sudden my breath left my frame, her silent heartbeat resonated in my veins, her gentle yet strong arms engulfed me in a huge whirlwind of emotions, her soothing voice filled my brain, her soft smell pushed away all the nostalgia of the past three months into the unknown and I was not tired anymore... This is all I came back for and my journey was worth it....

Poodle in a Cauldron

There is a time in everyones life when the best things seem worse. I speak of one such time... a phase of my life that is still not past...

What I was staring at was definitely not a Poodle. It was more like this North Indian dish called Kadhai Paneer with cottage cheese and bell peppers flavoured with fenugreek, ginger, garlic and many more such aromatic spices all added to make it delicious and absolutely irresistible, served delicately on spotless white platters by a courteous staff of a posh restaurant in Mumbai with all the intentions of making my mouth water. On the contrary, I stared at the ornamental servings as if they had managed to serve me a live Poodle in a Cauldron. Ah well! Like I said it happens... I was paying something like 500 bucks for a good meal, only to find it as disappointing as the usual ones I have at the roadside restaurants. One might say my taste buds have failed me, or yet another might say that it is rather my wits that have failed me, for that particular restaurant is rather known for the food they serve. Either ways I've lost taste in not-homemade-food. Everything served in hotels or restaurants give no delight to me, whatsoever. It always seems the same...

I reflect back on my past when all this might have been a treat for me... well earned after some good results in some board exam, or in celebration of one of the many special days of the year, or then again simply because everyone in the family was bored of eating the same food at home. This last reason , however now seems the most unintelligent cause to eat out. But then again, the turnips in the neighbours garden are always larger and richer. A common thing seen amongst us... "What others have is better than what I have!" The root of all unsatisfaction!

Besides, Change. Change is what all of us want in all phases of our lives... we crave for it unknowingly. When we get plain old Rajma chawal at home we want Kadhai Paneer in a posh restaurant... and when we get the Kadhai Paneer everyday it seems nothing more than a live Poodle in a Cauldron!