Light

Let the light come in
Don't pull down the curtains;
The much needed light is standing outside
Don't shut it down.

It is this light that started life
Some thousands and thousands of years ago,
It is this light that forms our frame
Out of earth, wind and water.

Lets get drenched by this flood of light
By pulling the curtains up;
Remove this glass and lets mingle
With the light that is playing outside.

Untitled

If anything needs to happen,
Let it happen here.
If any pleasant morning
Comes out from the mist of memories,
And want to be real;
Let it happen here.
When darkness comes closing the day
With a promise to take me far away,
Out of this world;
Let it happen here.

Anil Da

My childhood days passed amidst lots of incidents; some are alive in my memories even till date as if it has happened just yesterday. And there are others which wrapped themselves in a veil and just get hidden deep in my mind. But at times I don't know without any reason or may be because of some external stimulus, one of them get itself disclosed before me and take me back in my past for few moments. And this happened to me quite often; I cannot say how that forgotten incident remained in my mind for such a long time.

Anil da was such a person who was deported long back in those forgotten isles. And suddenly while reading a blog he became vivid in my mind. I'm astonished how I can still remember such details about him. Last time when I visited my old house and my neighborhood, I looked for him and his tea shop. But those are no more in their place. Everything has changed and is changing so fast that it is becoming hard to keep pace with.

Just like any other neighborhood, we too had a tea shop and it was quite close to our house. Almost throughout the day, wherever I went whether its the grocery shop or going to my school, I had to pass by his shop. He was our Anil da for all of us. He was quite elder than my father; but it seemed to me he was just the same for all age groups. He wouldn't grow old any day; with kurta and lungi and specs with black frame he was quite a reserved person. Always busy with some kind of activity throughout the day. Cleaning stuffs, preparing the tea, talking with customers, negotiating with the suppliers...I  never found him sitting idly. He was a busy bee who only knew how to make the finest tea out of water, milk and tea leaves. Yes the tea was very famous in our locality; and it was not the normal tea but his lemon tea was the most popular. I can still remember he used to put some self invented masala in the lemon tea just before getting it handed to the customer. God knows whether that masala was behind that taste! His shop was a den for all the young folks who spent their spare time giving adda. Hence as the day starts and up to late at night his shop and the road before his shop was always full of people. Not only were the localities but there are unknown faces too in that crowd. Everybody folks together for the syrup that Anil da prepared with such intense care just like a chemist. There used to be a saying that goes like this " A day is wasted without spending some good time at Anil Da's tea shop"! How astonishing! What was so delightful, so attractive that our elders couldn't resist. His shop was divided into two parts. One part was the counter where there were all the stuffs with the conventional coal oven and the other part was a narrow passage with thin benches lined up one after the other. It was no way decorative, comfortable to allure the customer. But you know it didn't matter much. Even my father used to pay a visit to the shop at least once at some part of the day, unless he was sick. And if his friends couldn't find him at Anil da's tea shop, they guessed that he must be sick and visited our house to get news about his health. All these incidents made Anil Da and his shop lucrative for me. And I too imagined that one day when I will be old enough I will be part of this pandemonium too. For me sitting in the tea shop became synonymous to being matured; getting an identity in the society. Oh what a crazy thoughts was that! But how much crazy it may sound; I have cherished that desire for a very long time.

Now with changing time everything gotta change and it's inevitable. I cannot stop it neither I should say this change is unacceptable. The old need to be replaced making place for the new! That's the norm. But I can't find solace in this wind of change. The new cafe shop with decorative looks and comfort cannot be alternative for what we had in Anil da's tea shop. These shops are devoid of life; everything here is a mere show off with no scope of opening one's heart and be exuberant with inner joy. The glass door, the air conditioned breeze take me far away from a real city; a city that breaths, sweats, pants. My long cherished desire cannot be fulfilled sitting in these cafe shops. My dream of finding an identity is lost in this new world.

Birth Of Poem

Sometimes it comes all at once
Or it comes gradually, steadily,
While walking along alleys
Emerging from shadow to light.

Sometimes it comes in dream
As elusive words, tangled thoughts;
Sometimes it comes when I think and think-
Over a piece of paper for one single word.
The word that will start a journey
To shape a poem out of ashes!

Poem take birth day and night,
It take its place in me now and then;
Even when it is not welcomed it comes
And torment my soul to get it expressed!