Saturday, October 31, 2015

Longing, Shortly


The moon came out again
But you did not
My heart was aflame with longing
But without you
It is cold and dark as the sky

------------------------

Lata, S. D. Burman, Nutan, Paying Guest



translation:


The moon appears again but you have not come yet.
My heart burns and aches.
What should I do now?
This night says those days are gone.
My heart knows that you are not mine.
Yet I am standing looking for you anxiously.
What should I do now?
The smoke rises from my burning heart.
Do come back please, for I find it difficult to even breathe.


------------
Update:
Subhasish Bose wrote:

Khudar raajje prithibi gadya maya, purnimar chand jaano jhalsano roti. (In the kingdom of hunger / The full moon looks like a burnt roti.)

-- KABI SUKANTA BHATTACHARYA,uncle of Bhuddhadeb Bhattacharya,ex cm West Bengal

My reply:

I honour a great poet, and a great simile that he versified. As a statement, it is indeed a very powerful image; but as much as I tried to recall any hungry, poor, deprived man or woman or child, or even myself when I was indigent, to even have thought of the moon, as an edible object, let alone a burnt one, I could not. Truly, among all thoughts that pass their minds, the moon, stars, clouds are excluded. This is not to deny Sukantobabu his greatness, or poetic licence.



Friday, October 30, 2015

Singed


what, who,
did I make a pact with life
that I will live it through?

look at it
the conscious life,
mine, humankind's
plants, animals not included

we humans are aware
of pain, longing, suffering
questing 
gifted and cursed
with enormous power 
to create
as much as to destroy
and devastate

storms are brewing
everywhere
seeking, spreading
in every nook and corner

look at that smoke
is that my own house, hearth
burning, scorching
being destroyed?

why?
I did not choose
to live, to endure

does anyone want this life?
take it, take my life

but that would be cruel
 to the taker

I will refrain
I would rather be consumed 
by the storm 
by the smoke 
by the fire

sooner than later

Thursday, October 29, 2015

The Invisible Man


From time immemorial, especially in infancy, people have longed to be invisible, roaming among the unsuspecting populace, living out their fantasies of power and freedom.

One difficulty in living it, living a life invisibly, was relating to the rest of the world. H. G. Wells found a solution, which was to dress the supposed invisible form in bandages, clothing, or some material, which would enable him to interact in society when required.

In 1897 H.G. Wells published his novel, The Invisible Man, in which he finally crystallized this fantasy, conjured it into words, gave it form, and immortalized it. To this day it remains a classic.

------------------
Update:

Edgar W Hopper wrote:

For me, Ralph Ellison's "The Invisible Man" 1957 is the definitive work on this topic. 


My reply:



I respect your feelings about Ellison's The Invisible Man, and the esteem and complexity of feelings it must have left on your psyche.

My Invisible Man, with allusion to H. G. Wells' pioneering scientific speculations, curiosities and tales, is entirely a different matter. Also, most importantly in the context of my picture posting, the allusion can by no stretch of the imagination be anything but to Wells' solving the problem of a human child's psychological, fascination and curiosity about the implications of becoming invisible, and then leading on to acquiring physical presence by bandage or equivalent clothing material. That was most paramount.


Please allow me to insist that, to the extent and in the direction I was headed, the first known work, to me, and therefore the establishing, authentic writing was H.G. Wells' Invisible Man. Ralph Ellison took the name inspirationally from the original, and altered the context. The question here is not the better or the best, or the most informed and influential work, but the one which speculated and roused curiosity in me for the first time by written language. That was Wells.


I hope you will accept my humble offering.



Sunday, October 18, 2015

Evolution to Extinction


To all my well-wishers, my gratitude for putting up with me year after year, and once again on the one which has begun staggeringly, uncertainly:


life is
moments of disarray
living it
at best is capricious

one, alone
in the city, earth
all the time - day, night
seeks meaning of life, truth --

these paths
which are longer
than any lifetime
have never been seen
any destination to reach

darker than moonless night
the well of life
draws smoke
instead of tears
from his unsheltered eyes

one, alone
has lived many lifetimes
and ONE MORE YEAR
let slip through his fingers
timeless sands
of meaningless, lies

now without reason to live
and inability to die
counts every passing moment
as a year backward
and instead of the truth
yearns only just to know
how long
onealone

------------------------------------------------

Humbly, and full of gratitude, thanks to


Reena Patel
Urmi Gandhi
Kirit Sanghvi 
Pradeep J Soni
Rita Lal
Pratima Gandhi
Shakuntala HV
Arijit Chaudhury
Kiran Bhatt
Subhasish Bose
Sonal Ganatra
Shyla Shanker
Hemantha Kumar Pamarthy 
Pravin Gandhi
Meher
Kushnawaz Ahmed Dar
Mamta Bhatt
Mukesh Soni
Aashutosh Namdeo
Jyoti Gandhi 
DrTaralika Trivedi 
SN Bhatt
Kashmira Soni
Devyani Gandhi
Dhananjay S Bhatt 
Pathma Raj 
Pixy Mukherjee 
Kirtida Gandhi
Utkarsh Majmudar
Minu Sanghavi
Purvi Goradia
Sanjay Gandhi 
Mahendra Dadha
Dipti Ranpura
Ramanidharan Ramaswamy
Shiva Kumar
Vivekanandan Vivi
Janak Mehta
Kanan Mehta
Hemant Manek
Dr. Ranjan Mistry Pratap
Moyna Manku
Vivek Syal
Fathima Sharafath
Ranjit Menon
Deepak Nair
Ness and Perin Pesikaka



Seeking forgiveness, for omissions above, and altogether generally.

Friday, October 09, 2015

The Swirl


the swirl and the twirl
will go on eternally
within the Universe
which is forever

with its contents devoid of life
or with some rare form of it somewhere
if at all

by the physical movements
of the total 
even if fragmented
mass of matter
their chemistry
their fission
fusion
forces of gravity
et al.

---------------------
Bhashwati wrote:

I saw the post 29 minutes after you put it and  reeled at the dazzling hues and their arrangement.
It is like a musical arrangement almost, with the tones (notes) placed for optimum effect.  
The texture mesmerises with its seductive softness.

And then there is the text, the vastness of the unknown juxtaposed against the insignificant scientific knowledge (mass matter gravity et al.) that ignorant humans wear like halos around their inflated heads as they dance merrily en route to perdition.

Monday, October 05, 2015

More on Climate Change, Progressing Towards Perdition

In conjunction with my post on Climate Change: Saving Our Planet: The Limitless Vanity of Man / Environment and Man, I am posting the following link to a series of videos about climate change, featuring Julia Roberts (Mother Nature), Harrison Ford (The Ocean), Kevin Spacey (The Rainforest), Edward Norton (The Soil), Penélope Cruz (Water), Robert Redford (The Redwood) and Ian Somerhalder (Coral Reef), who all join forces to give nature a voice.

Please watch the entire video series. It is brief, and will not consume your lifetime, but will enlighten your understanding of how life originated, and how We, Humans, are the only ones who are bent upon, and now choiceless, to destroy it.

Thursday, October 01, 2015