Hello!

Hello, old friend!

I'm so glad to see you now,

How the times have changed,

It feels like we are strangers,

But this is not the end,

Soon, something else will trend,

Or so, let us just pretend.

The world, will go on,

With us or without,

Undoubtedly, none of it will last,

Yet, we can move a little less faster,

Stop for a beat or two,

And just enjoy the view,

Maybe, we'll like it too.

Busy like bees,

Building up our own honeycomb,

Homes of unneeded luxuries,

Where we lavish ourselves feasting,

No riches will ever end,

Our pining for a good friend,

Or so, let us just pretend.

The Leader and the Crowd

The leader led the masses down,

The streets of furious rage,

All he thought about was his crown,

And his name across the age,

The babies howled and the mothers wailed,

At this societal disgrace,

Too portent, the fever that still ailed,

Showing up on every face,

Too many, the weapons to be unhanded,

Too wild, the raging fire,

"If I stop them now," was the thought he landed,

"I'll surely face their ire."

So the flesh was burnt, so the blood was spilled,

For no way back was ever found,

And when the tempers were finally stilled,

His disgraced name on the age did sound.

The Blue Shore

A black boat rocks gently off the blue shore,
The skies covered by the sun's blue cape,
There is only the boatman, and her, and I, no more,
There is only one shadow now, only one shape,

Blue are her footsteps on the blue, blue sands,
As they make to the edge of the giant trees,
I hold a wisp of her perfume in my blue hands,
And follow her before darkness swallows me.

One lone yellow lantern in the blue does sway,
As the sky with blue starlight, the earth does drape,
There is only her, only me, and the silver blue way,
There is only one shadow now, only one shape.

Shunya

ಮೌನ ಕಾಡಿನ ಮಧ್ಯದೊಳಗೆ ಪಿಸುಗುಟ್ಟಿದೆಯೇ ಮಳೆಹನಿ,

ಸುರಿವ ಸೂರ್ಯನ ಸೋಸಿ ಹಿಡಿದಿದೆ ಎಲೆ ಎಲೆಯಲೂ ಇಬ್ಬನಿ,
ಮಲೆಯ ಮಂಚದಿಂದೆದ್ದು ಮೋಡವು ಮಂಪರಲಿ ಮೈಮುರಿದಿದೆ,
ಬಯಲು ನದಿಗಳ ದಾಟಿದೆ, ಅದು ಕಾಡು ಕೋಟೆಗಳ ಮೇಲೋಡಿದೆ,
ಮುಂಜಾನೆ ಮೆಲ್ಲನೆ ಮುಸುಕಿನಂತೀ ನಂದನದ ಮೇಲ್ಹರಿದಿದೆ,
ಅದರ ನಡುವೆ ಅಂಕುಡೊಂಕಾಗಿ ಒಂದೊಂಟಿದಾರಿಯು ಓಡಿದೆ,
ಆ ದಾರಿನದಿಯಲಿ ದ್ವೀಪದೋಣಿಗಳಂತೆ ನಾವೊಬ್ಬೊಬ್ಬರು,
ಶೂನ್ಯದಿಂದ ಸಾಗಿದೆವು ಮತ್ತೊಂದು ಶೂನ್ಯವ ಸೇರಲು. 

Butterfly Beautiful

In the selfish safety of his cocoon,
He lived thinking he was butterfly beautiful,
And oft he shied away from danger,
Believing himself to be dutiful,

And when the hungered hordes burned,
Under the unjust fires of lust and hate,
And the City streets were churned,
In rivers of blood so full in spate,

He turned himself around,
And unwound the holy cloth,
When he spread his wings and took to flight,
He was just a murderous moth.

Neon Starlight

Homeless travelers on the street,

            Searching for a place to lie,

Time rolls on in their forlorn lives,

            And when it stands still, they die,

Daytime spent in one long wait,

            For the coming of another night,

When they will roam and be guided by,

            A sky of bright neon starlight.

The hills are set ablaze tonight,

            Electric fires, all burning bright,

Housing schemes on the countryside,

            Where a thousand bucks for every site,

The people inside, they drive to work,

            When morning shines in the bright blue sky,

And come back home all late at night,

            Too tired even to laugh or cry.

Human anthills for the endless rush,

            And they are made of stone and steel,

Where people work perpetually,

            Till they are too numbed to feel,

And finally they listen to the screams,

            The sound playing inside their heads,

But it is too late to respond for them,

            For they have all become brain-dead.

And so it goes, the tale of life,

Where everyday is an endless strife,

And every night, a brief respite,

On a road lit by neon starlight.

A Mediocre Life

Now the years do grind me down,
Under the millstones of cruel time,
But few, are achievements of my own,
In this mediocre life of mine.

Yet, unfazed the ideas fount,
With words inside my head,
With barely time to put them down,
To be written or be read.

Soundlessly in monotone,
Day passes day in dread,
How the humdrum of life does drone,
Till sleep drags me to bed.

A fearless voice yet squeaks within,
That until my last breath,
To not be cowed and strive to win,
Let time judge me better in death.



And now... a rewritten version in Kannada

ಈ ಸಾಧಾರಣ ಜೀವನ 

ಕ್ರೂರ ಕಾಲದ ಬೀಸುಕಲ್ಲಲಿ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದೆ ಸಿಲುಕಾಡಿದೆ,

ಸಾಧನೆಯಿಲ್ಲದ ಜೀವನವು ಬಹು ಸಾಧಾರಣವೇ ಆಗಿದೆ ,

ಕಲ್ಪನೆಯ ಕಾರಂಜಿ ಮನದಲಿ ಪದದ ಹನಿಗಳ ಸುರಿಸಿದೆ,

ಬರೆಯಲದನು ಬಿಡಿಸಲದನು ಸಮಯವೇ ಸಾಲದಾಗಿದೆ ,

ಮೂಕನಂತೇಕತಾನದಲಿ ಭಯದ ದಿನ ದಿನ ಕಳೆದಿದೆ,

ಜೀವನದ ಜಂಜಾಟದಿಂದ ನಿದ್ರೆಯು ಬಳಿ ಸೆಳೆದಿದೆ,

ಅಂತರಾತ್ಮದ ವೀರಧ್ವನಿಯು ಧೈರ್ಯಗುಟ್ಟನು ಹೇಳಿದೆ,

ಛಲದಬಲದಿಂದೆದ್ದು ಮೇಲಕೆ ಯಮನ ಗೆದ್ದಂತಾಗಿದೆ.  

The Victim

They danced like wolves,

High upon the silver clouds,

Intoxicated, maddened by the power that they held,

Hungry, parched, thirsting for a victim,

They stared into the world below,

They found their prey,

A lonely maiden standing deep in the woods,

And they dived down straight from the skies,

And when the angels entered her heart,

She fell.... .... in love.

Kings and Farmers

Beneath the crown, the ministers preach,
The priests sharpen their three pronged swords,
To lay upon the necks of the weak,
Who dare stand in the way of the procession road,
A prince may once fall, a king may once rise,
But the farmer's fate will ever be the same,
Until the toiler at his office desk,
Refuses to understand the game,
That which once was will happen again,
The tellers will again tell the story once told,
In the hope that some warrior of peace,
Will unravel the words of the story's folds.

Nowhere to Nowhere

In silent wilderness, dewdrops whisper,

Raindrops on leaves catch the falling sun,

Sleepy clouds wake from their mountain beds,

For another day, on the plains to run,

A morning crawls over Utopia,

A single road cuts through there,

On this we are all lonely travelers,

Going from Nowhere to Nowhere.

Savour

Journey to the land of the two mirrors,

Where you see yourself as you are,

Always fighting a war,

Against the shadows of your past,

Great battles on ego's vast plains,

Fought with the blade of dust,

Dealt with the shield of pain,

Slain is the little kid called Innocence,

When you stepped out of the Frog's Well,

Into the Holy Land,

Grew steady, ready to strike,

Unlike the sunflower turning its head to noonday sun,

Man turns East,

Saving fragments of Dawn's  feast,

Hoarding Yesterday's wet scenes,

And cherishing what tomorrow will be,

Today runs amok, but no limits,

To the man's mind on ego's vast plains...

... Savor the moment, savor the day....

... Awake

The Downpour

For years, the two spheres,

            Have held back the showers,

Controlling, withholding, destroying themselves,

            My face has become a barren land,

Today there will be a downpour.

Island

All around me, it's swirling, twirling,

A whirlpool of emotions....

            I'm being pulled apart and pushed inside,

            Taking birth every morning I'm being

                        killed all the time.

            All alone the world around me is an alien crowd, a strange nation,

                        It's madness...

                        ... Your arms are an island of sanity.