So it ends here..how do u feel

Alex: ...so, last few days left in college, don't you feel that it should last forever.

Issac: U insane?! The whole thing has already become such a drag. Finally life's going to get moving again.

Alex: That's strange. Perhaps you don't realise, but this is the best time we'll ever have, living life on our own terms without having to give any answers.

Issac: I guess most people say that because the romantic ideal of college life is supposed to be that way.Yes, i know that we've had some really good times here, but don't you think it's getting too repetitive now. I mean the late night hangouts, booze parties, frivolous banters etc. were fun earlier but now i am crying change.

Alex: So, you are saying that you are glad that it's getting over.

Issac: Well almost, but yes there is some faint part of me that feels the way you do, though i really don't know why. Guess it's inertia more than anything else.

Alex: Let six months pass and you will long for these days all over again.

Issac: May be i will. If not after six months after six years most certainly i will be longing for these days. But then these days will no longer be a routine like they've become now.
It's the mundaneness of it all that's killing me. After all too much chocolate can also make you pretty sick.

Alex: It's funny isn't it. All this while you were yearning for some free time so that you can enjoy yourself. Now when you actually have that time, you want to get busy again.

Issac(chuckles): Funny it is! But i guess i won't be getting so bored if i was meeting new people, travelling to new places, learning new stuff n all that.
Right now the concept of fun is a bit too cliched, very static very stale.

Alex: Ok now i get it. So let's go say hi to Sunita Williams and her crew tomorrow; new people, new place, tonnes of new learning n all that..eh?

Issac(smiling): That sounds like real fun. Let's do the dew.

Alex(also smiling): Alright we will. Good night.

Issac(signing-off): Good night.

Faces speak and so do i

After writing a post that expressed the intended expression behind my first poem
'Is it about reaching out or connecting within' i am now writing this post to convey the intended expression behind my second poem 'Theres a story behind each line'. So here i go..

Unlike my first poem this poem was not an abstract piece and i had a clear message here which i wanted the reader to receive.
Wrinkles in this poem were symbolic of the physical wear and tear that happens to the human body with age.
A lot of people find it hard to come to terms with these changes as they age and hence fight with these changes artificially to remain physically young and beautiful.
Through the poem i was trying to express that these changes happen for a reason. These changes are nature's way of letting one know how much he has learnt and how has he fared in his life.
That is why wrinkled faces speak so much for the kind of life a person has led. If a person has led a life of satisfaction his face expresses relief(think Mother Teresa) if throughout his life he had felt that life has dealt him a raw deal then his face expresses discontent or if he has led a life of utter recklessness which he now repents then his face expresses sorrow or remorse
( thus the line in the poem then drew lines of sorrow remorse or relief).
Faces can tell a life of ignorance from a life of enlightenment(think Abraham Lincoln).
Fighting with these wrinkles is to ignore what nature has to say and the artificial beauty attained is plastic (think Simi Garewal or Michael Jackson).
It is like using make-up to cure chicken-pox.

So don't fight with age instead age gracefully and beautifully while doing your deeds.
This was the intended expression.

Alex in Solace Lane

Alarm goes off. Its 7 in the morning Alex wakes up and rushes to the bathroom. After having finished the usual morning rituals he flips through the pages of today's newspaper while hurriedly chewing a sandwich and sipping that nescafe in his hand (how he manages all these things together with two hands is quite interesting in its own way). He takes a quick look in the mirror sets his hair and rushes to his workplace (he works in a kpo).

11 hrs of back breaking work of sitting in front of the computer screen, forgetting to blink for hours and only having the odd coffee in the name of straightening that bent back. The only words he hears are- client presentation, database, google, deliverable and yes the most dreaded of them all deadline (someone very wisely defined it as a long line at the end of which u r dead). Alex had now understood in its entirety what the phrase 'mechanical existence' meant.

After a long day he returns to his room and like a nomad has to now go looking for dinner. So he splashes some water on his face, changes to an old pair of jeans and a thin t-shirt and out he goes to find some food. Through with dinner and feeling somewhat reluctant to go back to his dingy room Alex then decides to take a stroll down the long and winding road called the Solace Lane. It’s a huge stretch of road with a plethora of shops and eateries on both sides and at this hour it’s always buzzing with frenetic activity with people of all ages and all kinds coming here to shop, walk, eat or simply hangout. With a gentle breeze against his face Alex walks observing people while reflecting on the various events in the day. As he recalls these events he is slightly saddened by the thought that today was no different than yesterday and tomorrow is going to be no different either. But he feels relieved right now almost happy with his hair fluttering in the air in this starry moonlit night and life in all forms all around him.

While walking on the Solace Lane he saw an old man joyously giving in to the tantrums of his grandson. He walked further and saw a bunch of college guys shouting swear words at each other and having a hearty laugh, a smile broke out on Alex’s face as he remembered his own life a couple of months back. He walked further still and saw a man wearing a trouser, shirt and a necktie the smile on Alex’s face got broader when he saw this man, as he could see the transition that his life had undergone over the past 2 months in a matter of 2 steps.

For sometime now he had forgotten all the frenzy of his own life and was enjoying observing life from the outside feeling a sense of revelry in this new found objectivity towards his life. At this point he remembered a science class from his school days where his teacher was explaining to the students

" the universe is the vast expansive space that engulfs
everything that exists;
in this universe there are millions of
galaxies;

each galaxy has millions of stars;

sun is a star of one such galaxy called the milky way;

earth is one of the sun’s nine planets;

you are one of the 6 billion (6000000000) people who inhabit
this planet. "

‘one of the 6 billion people’ Alex repeated to himself and felt amused at the importance he associated with an insignificant deadline, felt amused at how he let
this and thousands of other such trivialities affect him each day. The thought was humbling and he felt much lighter. He was glad that he came out for a walk tonight.

He bought an ice-cream and started walking back towards his room enjoying every bit of that ice-cream before it could melt. He slept in bliss that night.

Next day.
Alarm goes off. Its 7 in the morning Alex wakes up and rushes to the bathroom...

Feeling abstract

Recently my friend Ashutosh visited this blog and left the following comment for my poem

'Is it about reaching out or connecting within'

"all i can say is that to me it looks like a collection of contrasting sentences and if that is poetry all the best buddy"

Now the poem is an abstract piece and thus different people do see it differently (beauty in the beholder's eye all over again) but this comment prompted me to express what i was feeling when i wrote the poem. So read on..

Through the poem i was trying to express the awe that one experiences when one takes a break from the monotone of a mechanical existence to experience life.
It was life in its various vagaries that every line of the poem expressed.

Contrast was used to highlight the astonishing sense of beauty which is simulataneously present in things which are as disparate as a green jungle and a dead autumn leaf (and of course all other such examples used in the poem).
The questioning tone of the poem was used to express the inquisitiveness that is an inherent part of any human being.

And the last line which is also the title of the poem was a reiteration of the fact that it is the activity of the element of life within us that springs into action every time we see nature in its most unadulterated form causing a deep sense of awe somewhere within us.

After reading this i will request Ashu and all others who shared the same feelings as his when they read the poem to revisit the poem, may be this time it will convey something more than what it did when you read it the last time.

My next post also expresses similar feelings but in a very different way.
And yes the medium this time will be prose and not verse.

So please do read the story of Alex coming up very soon.