Nature's Stupendous Stage

In all its splendor the nature set the stage,
With hills and valleys, canyons, gorge and lakes.
In a lustrous green carpet the earth was draped,
Many a fabled creatures on it have paced.
They marched through the time, to perform their roles,
Whilst departing, with nature were merged their souls.
Their footprints lay hidden under its many covering layers,
As the procession continues having innumerable players!

The Wandering Waves

Oh wave! do come tell me a tale,

Of the lands hidden far away,

I am eager to hear the whispers you carry,

Hovering on the winds that with you tarry.

Though many a sand castle, I did create,

Not one did escape from your trawler's bait,

Though many a footprint I did leave on your sandy slate,

You stealthily crept behind me and swept them away!

In your midst are hidden precious pearls,

Forever they are caught in your charming curls,

Some make it to the shore, flowing with your ebb and tide,

All the while enjoying a roller coaster ride!

Be it dawn or dusk, you always put up a show,

As the sun and the moon cast their reflections below,

I fondly admired the dancing lights of varied kinds,

Till the thickly clouds drew in the rainy blinds.

What is your source, from eternity you flow,

Forever untiring is your sweeping blow,

Large or small, in your bosom you carry them all,

Forever you roam about on this big blue ball!

The Shades of Blue

The blue of the sky reflected in the sea,
Calm was its ambiance, serene to perceive,
Colored were all, in its all pervasive hue,
My heart just didn't want, to bid it adieu!

Overcast

They sat there basking in the soft breeze,
Surrounded by the huge palm trees,

Feet dug under the mushy sand,
Whilst the cloudy skies embraced that wonderland!

#Hawaii #DiscoveringNewShores

इन्सान की महिमा

कट कर मर गये अन्गिनत​ लाचार

सिसक कर घुट रहे बेबस हज़ार

आवाज़ तो थी कंठ में बुलन्द​

धर काटने वालोन ने की आवाज़ बन्द​

वाह रे इन्सान! गा रहा ब्रह्माण

तेरी खुद्गर्ज़ी के शतक गुणगान​।

खून की लाली से रंगी हुई है चोली

कहते हैं हम कातिल नहीं, बस खेलते हैं होली

पेश करें ऐसा सुनहरा अलौकिक सपना

कि लगे सारी रचना को माने वे अपना

वाह रे इन्सान! गा रहा ब्रह्माण

तेरी खुद्गर्ज़ी के शतक गुणगान​।

वैज्ञानिक क्षेत्रौं में हैं वे प्रवीण

द्रष्टिकोण हैं उनके वाक​ई नवीन​

तर्क वितर्क में सारे पड़ाव किये उन्होंने उत्तीर्ण

दूसरे मार्ग पर चलने वालो के मन में आई भावना हीन​

वाह रे इन्सान! गा रहा ब्रह्माण

तेरी खुद्गर्ज़ी के शतक गुणगान​।

हाहाकार की आवाज़ ने मचाया ऐसा शोर​

जग उठी है पृथ्वी लेकर तीव्र हिलोर

उसकी अंगड़ाई से डूबेंगे सारे छोर

प्रलयंकारी होगा वह अत्यंत भीषणकारी मोड़

वाह रे इन्सान! गा रहा ब्रह्माण

तेरी खुद्गर्ज़ी के शतक गुणगान​।

पथ प्रदर्शित करने वाले सब मदांध स्वार्थी

रास थामकर जैसे बना धृतराष्ट्र सारथि

पथ यही विकास का, देते हुए साँत्वना

जर्जर हुई धरती, भविष्य की झलक से भी काँपती है आत्मा

वाह रे इन्सान! गा रहा ब्रह्माण

तेरी खुद्गर्ज़ी के शतक गुणगान​।

अब तो वह समय भी गया जब केहते थे अभी देर नहीं हुई

अब क्या दिखाते हो, चुल्लू भर पानी से भी कभी ज्वालामुखी की आग बुज़ी?

तिजोरी तो भर ली, लगाकर दाव पर अपनी ही पृथ्वी

काट ली जब जहाँ बैठे थे वही टहनी,

तब कौन लगायेगा पार यह दूबती नय्या तेरी?

वाह रे इन्सान! गा रहा ब्रह्माण

तेरी खुद्गर्ज़ी के शतक गुणगान​।

दूबते हुए इंसान को तो तिनके का भी रहता है सहारा

क्या पता पश्च्चात्ताप की ज्वाला में मिल जाये शीतल छाया

लौट आये उस नवयुग में खोया हुआ नवजात पौरुष

जिसके लिये जन्म हुआ, हम बन जायें वही उत्तम पुरुष

वाह रे इन्सान! फिर यही गायेगा ब्रह्माण

तेरी महिमा के शतक गुणगान।

Time Passes By

O Time, why don't you pause, slow down Your pace,
For a moment turn Your face, and linger Your gaze.
The creation's bubbling, small wings are fluttering,

Colorful is the life, Oh! do stay a while.

Did You pause when the trees first bloomed?

Or stayed to admire the chirping birds's plume,

When over the horizon the rainbow first curved,

And on supporting hands, little fingers curled?

I know You see, but do You perceive?

Forever You hear, but do You pay heed?

Unstoppable, unassailable, You march on,

Perpetual spectator, till eternity You go on!

Witness You did, the creation's start,

Whole whirlpool of galaxies and stars,

You saw in the creation's womb, Life engender,

Unbearably harsh, yet caringly tender!

So many memories are tied to You,

Of ages past but not lost to You,

And when they start to fade, one by one, 

Saying "Cruel Time!" they blame it on You.

Everyone, it seems, only think,

That though You record everything,

But not in your soul, do You keep,

Indifferent to all, You forever stay in lead.

Hearing my unending relentless rant,

Time turned and outstretched His hand,

Never halting, never straying,

With Him on his chariot, I went along.

Bearing a kind face,

and a musing glee,

He, in the simplest words,

Answered the petulant child's plea.

"I am the change, the giver of life,

From eternity flowing, heaving high tide,

I give to the dreams, wings to soar,

That lead to discovery of strange new shores.

In the lost souls I rekindle new hope,

Against new challenges they're ready to cope.

I am the optimism in the new dawn,

All obey me, be it king or pawn.

I see what your vision can never perceive,

You can't fathom the depth of my boundless sea.

For in it is stored all eternity,

Forever increasing is its complexity.

You are a mere bubble that floats on me,

Dancing to the tunes of your own fantasy,

And so lost are you in its enchanting melody,

that you can't merge back into the fathomless sea."

"Dear me, dear me", I said,

"What a tricky game You laid?

For the more one plays, more drearily pays,

Not too much but only this, I have to say:

Precious Pearls and beads, I collect,

And I loop them onto the life's thread,

And this necklace I am giving back to You,

To set them free from everything, but You."

#HappyNewYear At Seattle Space Needle. Bidding Adieu to 2016 that climaxed in colors and ended in snow!

Winter's here!

When the misty clouds clings to trees

And the eerie winds gushes through leaves

And the sun is cast by a moorish frothy sea

The autumn retreats on the winter's entry.

The trickling water freezes in its bed

The horizon's not visible from far ahead

Small white mounds grows on all tall trees

As the snow takes abode on branches and leaves

Slipery are the slopes so tread lightly

The weather's so dull that I feel drowsy

Etched are the footprints on the shiny white sheet

After shivering in the cold take a sip of hot tea

Keep your ears tuned to hear the jingles

All families here together to mingle

Lurking around the corner is a brand new year

Merry and rejoice as the holiday's here!

#December 17, 2016, Snowqualmie Pass

Head Along!

Destiny beckons, head on!

Chance for an adventure? Embark upon.

Abound in the world does Opportunity,

Never ever waste your potentiality.

Never over the past should you brood

In face of Obstacles never you droop

From the ashes like a Phoenix rise,

May like the sun you always shine!


--27th May, 2016 (Last day at Amazon Bangalore)

The creation

There He stood with a brush in hand,

And a glowing palette of spectrum band,

Deep in thought with unerring resolve

O'er His empty canvas His gaze revolved.

So many possibilities of semblance, size and shape,

Smell and texture varied to be, throughout the life's phase.

Easy wasn't the task, a balance to be kept,

In their unique duties, all should be adept.

With all these in mind,

His artistic strokes flowed,

Lo & Behold, the magic of His mold,

Thus a big beautiful world arose.

As each entity came to life,

Not one of them, did look alike.

All glanced around in the mean time

Noting the differences of every kind.

Rose looked down, horrified,

At its prickly thorns, un-glorified.

Lotus in the muddy waters floated

Whilst it felt, the grand Oaks gloated.

Maple saw its puny flowers,

Felt them lacking in attractive powers.

Pine didn't like its pointy leaves,

Thought were just too coarse to perceive.

When He laid back to admire,

For this creation, He did perspire.

Seeing them crestfallen, baffled He became,

What so happened that left them all maimed?

Everyone's plight, He heard,

In His mind, He wondered

Put Him in a quandary, His creation did,

Hard was the task of how to explain it?

For when He entangled a single thread,

There unfurled another loose end,

An eternity would it take to explain,

Why was it a blessing that they believed a bane?

So send them He did, to this cosmos,

With many clues to this treasure trove,

With numerous questions still intact,

On  the life's stage, gave a role to enact.

Livelong day, they must seek,

What unique treasures their souls keep.

Find will the Rose, its enchanting smell,

In all loving hearts it shall dwell.

Lotus if turned to inward self,

Will rediscover its piety,

Despite its muddy origins,

On it will sit the Deity.

Maple will see its  blossoming leaves,

Take away all sunken heart's grieves,

In the Autumn's shades it will gleam,

Whilst the pines for ever, shall remain green.

This eternal game all are destined to play,

Different were the molds but all cast from one clay,

Many a paths to tread, afore you can sleep,

Once you are there, never shall you leave!

--25th Oct 2016 Japanese Garden, Seattle

The Journey to Blind Faith!

It started off with Nonchalance,

Hearing the rumors to Demeaning stance,

When some proofs came up, an Inquisitive-Doubt,

Strange tidings lingered all about!

Curious was the mind, hungry to know,

Truth was it or falsehood lying low?

And so it itself went to discover,

In confident camouflaging cover!

And there came the trail of Coincidence,

There were so many astonishing incidence,

That lost in their midst was my insolence,

Shattered was my undue over confidence!

And there my journey took funny swerve,

When I stood there with vigorous verve,

Under the hallowed portals of Blind Faith,

When all this while I had called it a Wraith!

And then I turned around and found,

It had always existed in some form,

For a theorem once proved was used as such,

Who's so naive to reinvent the wheel thus!

They told me that the earth was round,

They told me that was the way to count,

They told me that Science succeeds,

And all I had to do, was Believe!

Antithesis always follows, once Thesis is proposed

Unrest abounds,  till Synthesis takes hold!

None of the exams expect an answer from every book,

Then why should you demand that My Faith should?

A game of Whisper spoils the told tale,

But any can ask the narrator to narrate,

For the Source is present here always,

It's you who is looking in the wrong place!

I wish to be me!

There I stood facing the mirror,
And like a usual fleeting thought,
I wished my face was carved like so and so,
That everyone so wished they had my glow!

And a nostalgic thought came over me,
Where I looked at the mirror when I was just three.
And there I was glad I looked like that,
And nobody could convince me otherwise.

What changed in me,
That I wished to be,
Just somebody else,
One who was not me?

Was I ready to forgo myself,
Given a wish cease to exist,
Given a wish to be someone else,
In exchange for a time when I'd never be?

When I'd never live nor ever die,
When I'd not get a chance to prove my worth?
when my mind won't be and no one would know,
when I won't get a chance, to change the future's course?

No, No! that is not what I would wish for,
I want this gift of life that I have got.
And a joyous life I will live,
So that on the dying day,
I have the chance to say,
that I'd have had my life just this way.

I remember the voices when I was three,
When I was told it was best to be me.
Now even though the world doesn't say,
I tell myself just the same.

Hum this tune till the end of day,
That we  are all
parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is,
And God is soul!

Each part is so unique that replace it you cannot,
And if you wish to vanish, the whole will be at a fault!
But you do decide, its polish and coat,
Will it shine and refine, or fade and degrade!

We have the power to hone it at our will,
And live everyday so that if we die today,
There shall be no regret but only content,
That born we were just like we were!


--  20th September 2015
   Inspired from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0tEcxLDDd4

Reminiscence

Thousands come, thousands go,
Millions come, millions go,
Without even noticed by,
But there are a few,
A few and a few,
Whose deeds are left behind,
We recollect and we weep,
For the passes do not meet,
Yet if they meet again in life,
With retelling of stories,
Full of joy and grief,
We will spend most of our time.
We come on this earth,
With an empty slate,
And Memory with its staff,
Keeps filling the space,
And Time always trying
To make some room
Scrubs the slate
With brushes and broom
But imprints some are deep
That covered up they are not
Standing against all odds
Loose their luster, they will not
And turning back our heads
Lots of footprints we will see
Engraved on the sands of time
For eternity they will be...

29/06/2014

Get Together!

There was a party amongst a clump of trees,

So gala it did sound that clouds stopped by to see,

And with the merriment the time so flew,

That when the sun woke up no one had a cue,

And there they were huddled together in the broad daylight

Continuing all along their reveling of the night!

--Bandipur National Reserve, 

8th Aug, 2015

That simple soul...

A simple soul, its hard to be,
And all who know one, do agree.
For plain vision can't gauge his depth,
And words can't describe his concept.

Though his strength is empathy
Yet he gets not much company.
His good mission is so pure,
And all sorrows it can cure.

Though he can see the inflicted pain,
And stop he can with powerful bane,
Yet he must be benevolent,
For who can stand his violent rend!


"Take  it!", "Snatch it!" cries are loud,
Want and lust and greed abound.
How to tell, its simple to be,
Content and pleased with the gifts that are free.

"Waste not, want not" is a simple deed,
Should be taught instead of lessons of caste and creed.
Merry and laughs o'er a cunning toast,
He just wonders, why they plunder and gloat!

How to tell, its the piper's flute,
That have made the real voices mute.
How to tell not to fall for that bait,
Not to follow on Icarus' fate!

"Honesty and Nobility, used to be in trend,
Good they met with an early end!
For who will sport that ugly yoke?"
All the voices in unison croak!

When he shuns an unworthy dare,
Mocked he is and the eyes all stare.
And dejected he sweeps away,
the world is glad, he is cast away!

And after he packed his bags that day,
And reached but half his destined way,
A small hand caught up to him and said,
"Your age has come, please do stay"!

Joy ride

Gliding through the fields,

My fingers combing weeds,

Wind is my glider,

With clouds I shall float,

  Birds, my dear companions,

Travelers of the dusty roads,

The rainbow is my compass,

On its footsteps lies my abode.

An Ode to Colors

Ask me not my favorite color,
To my eyes they appear alike.

None can you remove from the spectrum's strip,
As none is still black and all put is white.

Red of the rose makes me joyous to the core,
Dripping from the veins makes my eyes go sore.

Yellow to the jaundiced eye, such a pain it would be!
Yet the bright yellow of the morning sun fills vitality in me.

Poverty's pitiable victims lying blue with cold,
In the deep blue oceans so many mysteries unfold.

Venomous green forever gave despicable plight,
On the natures lap there is no soother sight.

Black of the smoke I despise to the core,
Yet the black of the silent night I so much adore.

White pulled over face, Ah cruel fate!
Yet white is sobriety, it adds elegance to gait.

My life will always portray lots of colors new,
For on His palette there are many many hues.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Today I want to speak my mind, after a long time of silence, after a long time of listening to reasons that were so baseless that I wanted to remind the speaker, “Hey, at least till you possess a human body and a human conscience and a developed mind, USE THEM!!”. Today I want to ask you, O Great species, the one with a brain that is unparalleled on earth, the best of 8.7 million species, I want to ask you to justify not to me but to yourself the act of crime that you so consciously do that now you do not even think it qualifies as a crime anymore!

I speak to you directly; the connoisseurs of non-vegetarian food, the propagators and the torch bearers of this class who very wittingly give reasons and justifications that even the vegetarian “Birbal” of today might be sidelined in front of your confident explanations. I speak to the humans who taste it out of curiosity, I speak to those who belong to “tasted-did not like-developing taste now” category, I speak to those animal-loving, soft-hearted people who still could not live without non-vegetarian food, I speak to the educated who even studied Environmental education for years together and I speak to the race of Homo-sapiens at large.

I saw many instances with my own eyes from all above categories and I want to ask you simple questions.

First, I want to ask the ones who taste non-veg out of curiosity. Will you go and kill someone tomorrow out of curiosity? If a gun is handed to you, will you shoot it at the next person you see just to check the results? Will you tomorrow just pick up a rat kill and taste it because you have never tasted it before, because you were curious?

I ask the people who, guess what, did not like the taste but are now trying to develop it! Gracious Lord! Are you living in Siberia where the only vegetation if at all there is, is moss? Is this feat associated with a life-time achievement award? What kind of gory- prestige is associated with this conquest?

And then there are those animal loving soft hearted people whose vegetarian friends when try to show them horrifying videos about how the animals are mercilessly tortured to death using our high-fi technology so brutally put to use, the animal farms where animals are made to drip their bloods till they die just to make meat “tastier” on your platter while the other victims, drenched, standing in the pool of blood are waiting for their turns, where they are poked with injections just to make them puffier and what not tactics to get them to charge you and make you appreciate the Humans for their honest efforts! I do not need to tell you the horrifying stories, for in the age of internet and social media, if you do not still know, I pity you and can just pray that you survive!  The reason of people from this category is flawless!! Quoting them: "we know if we watch the video from PETA(People for the ethical treatment of animals), we would leave eating non-veg AND that is why we do not watch!" Hilarious isn’t it? It is like they are mocking the Gods of heaven for giving them the capability to think, to judge, to love! They are just stopping themselves with full energy so that somehow somewhere someone should not make them do the right thing!

And finally there are those intellectual non-vegetarians who proudly not only reason but also look down upon the vegetarians. These Pride of our species, these greatest minds of our era, are the biggest propagators of equality on earth. For according to them eating a plant and eating animals are equally punishable. Oh wait! Actually eating plant is a bigger crime as the vegetarians are the once responsible for all the pollution due to deforestation. Well, I imagine if they were to pet chickens what they will do? Grow them out of sunlight, as they are not consumers of plants. And ya! They would then eat them without any spices too, as they know spices too grow on plants. Just fire and raw chicken is all they need to survive. According to them they are doing animal control! Just imagine what impact so many many chickens will have on the delicate balance of our ecosystem if they were not there to consume them and maintain the balance of our ecosystem. God! Such ignorance is not something I expect of this race. Such lame excuse for such blasphemous act where there is so much suffering! Animals are captivated from birth, force fed, pushed in cages till space is practically  void, broken limbs and physical deformities, metal suffering, beheading, bleeding out, boiled alive, skinned alive, electrocuted, stunned with hammers, roasted alive AND THEN YOU GIVE THIS EXPLANATION! THIS WILL NOT DO!

And all this for what!! “For taste, For taste!” I ask you, if tomorrow a criminal murders a kin of yours (God forbid) for his recreation, will it be justified just because it gave him the satisfaction? Will there be no punishment for that? Can your conscience pardon him for the reason that it was done for his liking and self-satisfaction?

There is this famous argument: “You kill plants, we kill animals”. Let me remind you, the more developed a species the more pain it suffers, the more complex its nervous-hormonal system, the more evolved it is and the more sophisticated and intelligent a being. That is why in all the religion consuming human flesh is the biggest taboo because Homo-sapiens are the most evolved species. I am not saying plants do not feel, that they are not alive and that we should live on stones alone. I am saying there is a scale of evolution that goes from stones to plants to animals and to humans. Evolution calls for survival and we can not only survive but thrive on vegetarian food in most parts of the world where majority of population lives. So why inflict so much pain unnecessarily?

Saint Kabir was a vegetarian and was a firm advocate of "ahimsa". His doctrine extends even to the non-destruction of flowers. “The life of the living you strike dead and you say your slaughter makes it dedicated. It is blood haunting you and those who taught you.” “They fast all day, and at night they slaughter the cow; here murder, there devotion; how can this please God? O’ Kazi, by whose order doth thou use thy knife.” “When you declare the sacrifice of an animal as your religion, what else is sin. If you regard yourself a saint, whom will you call a butcher ?” “The goat eats grass and is skinned, what will happen to those who eat (goat’s) meat? “Do not kill poor jiva, murder will not be forgiven even if you hear a million Puranas. Among the fifty commandments laid down for the followers of Kabir, vegetarianism is one of them. For Kabir, moral life involves adherence to ahimsa.

If you believe in science only, believe Sir Isaac Newton for what he said: “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Majority of people cannot kill and eat meat themselves, they cannot see violence let alone do it. There are God fearing, “Karma believing” people! You think just because your hands were not responsible for killing the animals directly, you will not suffer the reaction? According to you are the master-mind of murders who are not snipers, free to go? What a joke this all is if you JUST THINK!

As it is, are the impact of our actions less damaging to other species that we need to travel an extra mile to prove our "superiority" over them? I would like to draw in the example of a small bird, sparrow (more commonly known as Gauraiya) with which I and my ancestors grew, the picture of which defined the term bird for many children across India because whenever it used to hop into our verandah the elders said: "Look, birdie!". And that bird is now endangered due to, I think mostly unintentional consequences from our mobile revolution. Quoting from a study: "The mobile towers emit a frequency of 900-1800MHz, continuous penetration of EMR(electromagnetic radiation) through the body of the bird would affect their nervous system and their navigational skills. They become incapable of navigating and foraging. These birds which nest near towers are found to leave the nest within one week." We nearly exterminated a whole species without prior knowledge just for our ease, our so called necessity. I do not think we need to force down our power on other organisms any more for believe me by now, "They know too".  

Our anatomy also does not support non-vegetarian food. We have long intestines unlike all the carnivores that have really short intestines. There are no known plant diseases that infect humans and there are many deadly diseases that humans suffer today, that came from animals. There are scores of articles that claim that humans are not carnivores.  

So I thrust you to think… Are humans today so weak that they cannot even control themselves from inflicting pain on other organisms that too when there is no dire need or necessity? The only species on the planet with a fully developed conscience, having the capability to distinguish between right and wrong, possessing the power of conscience that propelled our species to evolve, is that power so blind that in the face of greed it is not able to make the right decisions? Are we so degraded in our lust today that we cannot even forgo of our “taste satisfaction” that comes at a cost of so many innocent lives?

We decry the act of genocide, we decry the act of holocaust, we decry the acts of ethnic cleansing and yet we keep our eyes closed when there are scores and scores of species being tortured, murdered and made to serve not for our sustenance but for our pleasure and we so consciously evolved species take pride in that action? This kind of heinous act does not remotely attribute to Homo-sapiens! These actions are more degradable than that of animals who do not even possess the power of conscience. Having the capability and not using it or using it for negative purpose definitely is lowlier than not possessing the capability at all!

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Some interesting links and references:

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/02/the-worlds-greatest-geniuses-are-vegetarians/

http://farzana.wordpress.com/art-and-culture/anthology/mirabai-c-1498-c-1547ce/

http://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-vegetarians-in-India-dislike-non-vegetarian-food-without-even-tasting-it

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/77210/house-sparrow-listed-endangered-species.html