The View From a Highrise

 I live in a house, where I can hear Mumbai's song
The rumble of traffic and a train's tooting horn

I look out from the window and join it's unending grind

Late in the night, when sleep is tough to find
Occasionally, the moon joins in, and bathes the city in white
Or at least those few spots, that arent already bathed in streetlight
I wonder in such company, if I could ever go back to a quieter place
Far removed from this hustle bustle, not running at a frenetic pace
I know though, I have changed much and might not like the man I see
In that quiet, I might hear my own disappointed voices, and that may be too much for me
Perhaps a good night's sleep, is a price I cant afford anymore
Ironic are the costs we bear, in the pursuit of the dreams, to which in our youths we swore

Traveling Backwards in Time

Maybe we can travel backwards in time but only at the same speed that we move forward in time. Consequently, the past never overlaps with the future and the present is the only intersection point.

Lullaby

Half way through the night
When sleep's outta sight
I'll hold you in my arms and I'll sing
I know I'll be outta tune
In the darkness of our room
But I'll make those slow dances our thing

I'll rock on my feet
In the sweltering summer heat
And I'll hold you in my arms real tight
I'll twinkle on my toes
When a thunderstorm blows
So you know I'll keep you safe through the night

Sleep gently o baby o'mine
There's love all around you, you're gonna be just fine
Sleep gently o baby o'mine
You're gonna be just fine
Sleep gently o baby o'mine
Sleep gently...

Keep me up all you want
Cause even when I cant
I'll keep awake and hum and drone
I'll try to hold to key
When you're nuzzling me
And I'll wonder how so quickly you've grown

I sing this soft lullaby
For you my child
So when we're far away you'll sing
To a borrowed tune
On some rainy night in June
And a smile to your lips this will bring

Sleep gently o baby o'mine
There's love all around you, you're gonna be just fine
Sleep gently o baby o'mine
You're gonna be just fine
Sleep gently o baby o'mine
Sleep gently...

The Light on the Hill

There's a hill far out in
the distance
that stands out
and apart
It isnt taller than the
others around
neither greener nor browner by day
but it shines out
in the dark
In an otherwise mundane
landscape someone made
it their home
Unafraid of distances
and at peace
with being alone
I stare at the hill often and
on nights that are darker
than others
When the moon doesn't
shine in the sky or when
even starlight the clouds
have smothered
The house stands like
a beacon, a small, bright
clear light for the lost
A silhouette in the light of
the window, I wonder if
I knocked, would it
acknowledge me and to its
chores holler, 'Avast!'
Some nights I have seen
strangers and passers-by
stop to do what I
only ponder
And the silhouette in
the window
to the silhouette at
the door does wander
A dull smoke then rises
from the little chimney
in the kitchen
But no laughter do I
hear, no other sound
than the purring of
its kitten
I wonder if I join
would I be able to
bring mirth
Or would my company
as ever, to more deathly
silence give birth
But it isnt
dark enough tonight to
be knocking to myself I
reason
There will be another
time for that, there
will be another season
For now there is nothing
that the beacon
can attract me for
Like a distant
lighthouse, from rough
shores it wards me off
No nirvana to be found,
no redemption, no solace
So I keep my distance
from the light
that shines bright in a
deeply dark place...

Where to O Time?

Where do you reckon time wants to go?
That it marches on relentlessly forwards and onwards
Never does it pause to take a look back
Not at the brave that stood nor the weak that were cowards

What do you think time wants to win?
That it ruins on for at such an untiring pace
Never a hurdle that it can't take in it's stride
Not even from the ones that fell in its path in this race

What do you reckon time wants to conquer?
That it assaults all boundaries with unfailing courage
Never does it stop to take in what its won
Not the calm that is vanquished nor that which is boiling with rage

Where do you reckon time wants to flow?
That it rumbles and roars like a river in a canyon
Never held back by any obstacle in its path
Not the slopeless plains nor the towering mountain

Do you reckon we just invented time?
To rationalize all that we cannot control?
An entity infallible, uncontrollable, unfathomable
A perfect concept to make our imperfect lives whole...

Normalcy

As a kid, there were no real aspirations that I had in mind. Nothing really that I would have wanted to do that stoked some kind of fire in me that possibly could have carried on and have fired me on in my youth. The only real desire I have ever had was to be different.
As a little kid that had just lost his front teeth and was watching Kapil Dev bowl at his zenith, there was no real surprise for anyone that I idolized him. But I hadn’t developed any real understanding of, or the love and passion for cricket, till I was in my mid teens. The real reason I adored Kapil was because he looked different. I spent a lot of my toothless days trying to push my front teeth out like Kapil’s.
That was the only real driving force I had managed to carry on in my youth. The desire to be different. For a long time I dabbled in poetry and the occasional prose. My friends, and I realise now how many good friends I have had over the years, were always kind enough to encourage me. Most had never read any other poetry than mine own and either from a lack of any real appreciation of poetry, or just the kindness in their hearts, egged me on. I thought I was different.
After about two years of not writing anything and a year of not reading any of my own works, I have come to appreciate the fact that I was not different, just an insufferable, pompous, pretentious kid difficult to be around. In other words, pretty much normal.
As I enter this phase of my life where I rethink my goals and my achievements, the beginning of a mid life crisis, my first crippling question stares me in the face. How do I deal with my new found normalcy?

Yearning

Oh how this heart yearns for a walk on the beach again
Deep in the reaches of the night, with a light splattering of rain
With no plans to look forward to or a rush to get anywhere
Just the soft tunes of crashing waves and the gentle breeze running through my hair
The feel of the wet sand playing incessantly with my sole
In the depth of the shallows, where my incomplete ideas become whole
To sift through those dreams that in a busy life remain out of reach
Oh how this heart yearns again, for a walk on the beach...

Happy New Year!

It's that time of year when we look back on what has been
To cherish all the joys and regret the sadness we have seen
There are new things we've found and some old things we've lost
Happier for the enrichment they've gotten and wiser for whence we've paid the cost
But it's also that time of the year when there is more hope than despair
When we're filled with a desire to make right what lies in disrepair
So here's wishing you new resolutions, new dreams and a new enthusiasm that will lead
To another great year in our lives, happy to have just a little less than we'd want but with a lot more than we'll need!

Indifferent

Time will roll on
Fast and slow all at once
Blink for a moment and you've missed out on much
Stare all you like and you'll have seen nothing worthwhile as such
You'll think you have so much of it in your hands
But when you close your fist to hold it, it slips through your fingers like loose sand
A whole day stretches before you and you think you're gonna spend it wise
But by the time the sun sets you're caught wondering how so fast it flies
There's a day when you wish there were a few more hours
To make up for what was wasted stuck cursing behind the slow crawling snake of cars
Doesn't take much to make you feel better when someone tells you that it's not the hours in your moments but the moments in your hours that matter
And you reminisce in joy gathering them up from your memories where they now scatter
But that's little comfort when you think of what this life is now all about, living in constraints that were pre-defined
Wishing you could live instead by your rules, chasing your dreams and master of your time
But time is no ones slave, no ones mistress, no ones enemy, no ones friend
It was rolling on before you and will roll on after too, unmindful, uncaring, unaffected, indifferent.

I'm old enough now, to want to be young again
To reminisce a past filled with walks in the rain
To want to turn back time and undo some of my past
To look on old roads and wonder how they did change as fast
To have known some people who are now dead
But whose memories will live on in my head

And yet I'm young enough to wish I was more mature than I am
To hope, that someday I'll be wiser, perhaps even a better man
To yet hold on to naive old dreams
To spend mindless hours with my feet dipping in a stream
To look forward to welcoming new lives in mine
And believe that with their presence, at the end, we'll be just fine!