silently the years fall by the wayside,
as the hairline recedes and
the pate reflects sunlight,
age creeps up;
every day a step nearer,
many has gone before by this
path of no return,
the mind plays games
with the memories of names,
everytime I pick up the phone,
the list shrinks and
one less name to call,
slowly the calls have stopped coming,
and the phone has fallen silent;
blessed are those
who make the calls and those are answered.
Tag: memory
Uncomfortable
In search of a comfortable place
To seat and write my masterpiece,
I forgot my pen and paper,
And carried the words in my heart,
That made me very uncomfortable,
Ah, when you need your cell phone the most,
Why is it always out of charge,
And now that it is fully charged and rearing to go,
The words have left my memory bank,
(did I say I was getting old),
So now I am sitting comfortably,
And spewing out rubbish to make you uncomfortable,
(like the one tweeting every morning from his toilet seat).
Golden Dream, shattered
Everyone must have dreamt about being recognized at least once, if not more. I am not immune to that too.
I am sure
in my head
in the night,
I had it all
written down.
Today I have time aplenty
I wrote this poem in my mother tongue, Assamese (pronounced Axomiya – অসমীয়া) yesterday and then translated to Bengali and shared with my friends and family through Whatsapp. I translated it to English today. Below is the English version followed by the original Assamese and translated Bengali poem.
Phone is lying silently near me
Those would like to talk are gone now
Once lack of time was an excuse
Continue reading “Today I have time aplenty”
Thursday Tidbits: Indiscretion and Grief
I am vacationing with my family and this post definitely was not in my planning.
We visited Horseshoe Bend in Page. Arizona on XMas day afternoon. It was a joyous occasion for us as we had planned it for a long time. Little did we know that at a time we were having fun, a family was grieving for their loved one who lost her life at that very spot twenty four hours ago.
We arrived Bryce Canyon at about 8:30PM yesterday to biting cold and immediately went out for dinner before the restaurants closed. On return to our hotel and opening internet, very first news that we got in whatsapp from my brother-in-law shook us to the core. We scoured the internet to know what happened. All the news channels had reported that on Christmas eve afternoon a girl from San Jose, CA (my hometown) fell to her death at Horseshoe Bend. Parents reported her missing after looking for her for couple of hours. A helicopter search located her body seven hundred feet below the lookout point but it was too late in the evening to recover the body. The body was recovered on Christmas day AT ten in the morning.
My mind immediately focussed on the tension my wife was going through when we were having fun at Horseshoe Bend. It was a gorgeous evening, cool but not cold with the sun low on the horizon. She, like any good mother, was trying to keep us all away from going too near the rim as we were busy clicking away trying to preserve the moment in our cameras and cell phones. All around us, young and old alike were busy taking selfies. A barrier was erected near the rim of the look out point but many adventurous souls were scattered all over happily oblivious that a tragedy had occurred there may be less than twenty four hours ago. It may have hurt the business if people would have known. One can only speculate.
As we were about to return to the shuttle stop my wife panicked as we could not locate our daughter. For about ten minutes or so, she basically went bonkers looking for her. Happily we found her well inside the barrier taking photos. I can only imagine what was going through the minds of the parents of the missing girl the previous evening.
While the cause of the fall is not known yet and speculation is futile, our memory of Horseshoe Bend will foreever be associated with this tragedy. Pray that the grieving parents find strength to bear with this great loss.
As for me I can only say that please be careful. Don’t let a moment’s indiscretion be the cause of lifelong grief.
Changes Inevitable – a set of haikus
Inevitable
Tree leaves turn green to amber
Changes natural
Cyclic seasons turn
Black to grey hairs turn, aging
Coloring futile
Enchanting rose blooms
Heavenly beauty withers
Fragrant memory
A sudden storm blows
Uproots strongest oak tree, dead
Nature impartial
Birth to death, cycle
Changes, process natural
Inevitable
This Feeling of Loneliness
I wrote a poem in Hindi day before yesterday morning. This is a rarity for me. Hindi is not my mother tongue and Hindi grammar, specially keeping track of the change in gender of the subject / object / verb combination is difficult for me. From time to time I did venture in writing a few. I translated the poem to Axomiya ( Assamese – my mother tongue) day before yesterday evening and to English today morning. Posting these below with English translation first followed by original Hindi poem and then Axomiya translation.
( In the Assamese translation, the translated word for Eerie ( or strange) is a compound word “Advut”. Even with my best try, my PC ( Windows 10) will not allow this compound letter/ word to be written properly. So I was forced to replace it with a synonym, Achahua. Though SwiftKey, owned by Microsoft, allows this to be written perfectly on my cell phone, PC does not support SwiftKey. Windows 10 virtual Assamese keyboard for PC sucks, pardon my French. Whereas Windows 8 and 8.1 used to support Indic 3 allowing to incorporate any Indian language keyboards, Windows 10 has stopped supporting that.)
Eerie this feeling of loneliness
Lips have not kissed the bottle
Then why this hangover
Day slips away as I brood
Memory fails remembering my thoughts
Eerie this feeling of loneliness
Perfect eye sight
But I see nothing
As I spend the day gazing
Canvas remains empty, vision blank
Eerie this feeling of loneliness
Desk full of papers
Day dreaming plot twists
As the sun moves west
Not a word written
Papers remain blank
Eerie this feeling of loneliness
Never asked for this
As I look around me
World full of people
Then why feel lonely
Never understood
Intuition fails me
Eerie this feeling of loneliness…..
अकेलापन
अकेलापन भी बड़ी अजीब चीज़ है
ना हाथ में शराब है
बस महसूस एक पीने की
सोचते दिन निकल गया
याद नहीं कुछ सोच की
अकेलापन भी बड़ी अजीब चीज़ है
आंखों में चश्मा सही
आंखों से कुछ दिखता नहीं
दिनभर मैं देखता ही रहा
निगाहें भरी नहीं
अकेलापन भी बड़ी अजीब चीज़ है
सामने पडा़ कागज़ सही
दिनभर सपने देखता रहा
सुबह से शाम होने लगी
एक अक्षर मैने लिखा नहीं
अकेलापन भी बड़ी अजीब चीज़ है
मैंने तो कभी ये चाहा नहीं
चारों तरफ ढेखी दुनिया
लोगों से भरपूर ही सही
फिर भी ये अकेलापन
मैं कभी यह समझा नही
अकेलापन भी बड़ी अजीब चीज़ है…
এই অনুভূতি নিসঙ্গতাৰ
আচহুৱা যে এই অনুভূতি নিসঙ্গতাৰ
হাতত নাই পিয়লা ৰঙীণ সুৰাৰ
তথাপিও শৰীৰত ৰাগী মদিৰাৰ
ভাবৰ সাগৰত বুৰি উকলিল দিন
নপৰে মনত কিনো ভাবিলো ইমান
আচহুৱা যে এই অনুভূতি নিসঙ্গতাৰ
চকুত বিতচকু
কিন্তু নেদেখো একো
ওৰেটো দিন চকু বাহিৰত
শূন্য দৃষ্টি হাবিয়াস অপূৰণ
লক্ষবিহীন চাৱনি উদাস নয়নত
আচহুৱা যে এই অনুভূতি নিসঙ্গতাৰ
সমুখত খোলা কাগজৰ দম
ৰচি থাকো মই সৃষ্টিৰ সপোন
দিনৰ শেষত বেলি লহিয়াই
খালি হৈ ৰল কাকতৰ বুকু
আচহুৱা যে এই অনুভূতি নিসঙ্গতাৰ
মইতো বিচৰা নাছিলো কাহানিও
যি দিশে ফুৰাওঁ চকু এই সংসাৰত
মানুহৰে ভৰপূৰ পৃথিৱী দেখোন
কিয় বাৰু তেনেহলে অনুভূতি নিসঙ্গতাৰ
জীৱনৰ ই এক নুবুজা সাঁথৰ
আচহুৱা যে এই অনুভূতি নিসঙ্গতাৰ…..
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Yesterday is memory
Tomorrow is a dream
Today is what we have
Here and now
Act, or
Get ready
For a lifelong of
Frustration and scream
Car & Coast: Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge #131
Racing to the coast
East of Eden memory fresh
James Dean crashed his car
Photo: Wikipedia
Most Wonderful Time?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
Then why do we have so much fear
It’s the time to be joyous and happy
Then why are we so afraid and weary
Santa bringing presents to the rich
Poor are conned and rightly ditched
It’s a lesson that we never learnt
Don’t take care of ourselves, we get burnt
It happens over and over again
Our short term memory goes down the drain
Soon will be happy with what trickles down
Till beaten and ragged will be driven out of town
It’s not our destiny that we suffer thus
Don’t take responsibility, will be thrown under the bus
Everybody enjoy and have a holly jolly Christmas
Come New Year get ready to change the dark canvas
Fleeting Muse 