A cup of coffee...

The pattering of an aestival rain,
Streets like Venice n ebbing drains,
Clouds imbued with greyish tint,
Umbrellas fluttered grasping the hint,
And the trees bathed new and green,
A girl so puerile, danced and careened.
And we ran towards an old coffee house,
Aromatic and dark like an obedient spouse.

And the glassy walls exuded and shone,
As a young barista exalts in its ambience,
Doling out white cups of Intransigence,
And one sip of that coffee like philter,
The potion ran filtering away our shame,
And as we locked eyes, on a brink of confession,
Sitting there hypnotised, awared of no recession,
And as the Rainy slithered and crawled,
A romance was born short-lived and withdrawn!

WHY DO INDIAN MEN OGLE??

Well, I am entirely awared that some of my friends[non-female] and Indian by birth and domicile will have grave objections and strong justifications against the title of this write up.Calling it an article or a write up is an understatement. Its much more than that, its outburst of ineffable emotions and disgust I have held since I started travelling on my own! I understand that there are men ogling at the fairer sex irrespective of any nationality..But since I have the first hand experience of this insulting and anguishing stares only in my land, thus I cannot comment on Non-Indian men.
Though I am not a raconteur, let me start by narrating some anecdotes which are so morally drained.Have you noticed a girl standing at a bus stop or better still travelling in a DTC bus. Well, if you are a boy offcourse you have! But next time when you see a girl walking alone in a busy not so posh market road just notice her closely.Yeah..I am really asking you to look at her!! She will be in a rush,completely conscious of her surroundings though trying to portray I-don't-care look and fully aware of those impertinent looks thrown freely in her direction! Man! She is not some celebrity ..Can't you guys let her walk in peace. The guilty here are most of the times unshaved public vehicle drivers, those dusty workers digging some road or some trying to copy Dhoom bikers! Well, I agree that their education has been limited and a subject on mannerism has been conveniently kept out of their curriculm. But believe me, they are a part of larger Indian population than those few who have taken their Moral Science seriously! The obscene gestures, lewd remarks on just anything possible, the temerity of pushing a girl or vituperations of these bus drivers and their mates. A girl goes through all this and more! Alas! we are developing and emerging...Eve-Teasing and Vulgarity in public behaviour is heading in the same direction as Global warming.
And if I reflect on the national agendas raised by some political parties then I cannot find a single party vouching to make the Indian roads anymore safer for girls and women to traverse. They strain their cords to gather minority votes, to woo the majority voters yet again and these insolent eve teasers with odd reservations and meritless quotas..But I cannot remember a single politician wasting the party's election resourses on woman voters. Strangely Indian Popualtion has 48.1% women! If we leave political parties alone, and dwell upon the reactions offered by a paunchy languid betel chewing policeman after listening to a complain from the fairer sex, I cannot be less disgusted. They can just offer you smirks or weird and petulant smiles in return! The condition is extremely revolting and unbearable, atleast for me.The state is so bad that I have made a resolution not to raise my daughter/daughters in this country. I know this decision is quite far-fetched but such is the extent of my irateness.
But till now we have been aberrating from the title" why do Indian men ogle?". Either they have this notion that they are always walking in a sanctuary and a female walking by is an intriguing species on brink of extinction! Or these guys have just landed on our planet from Neptune and they have not seen a female before! Well that explains the stares...but what about those ribald remarks and frowardness. I have just one logical explanation to it or rather two. They are devoid of any principles and morals and are budding crimnals who sleep without any conscience. And if such is the number of prospective crimnals in our country then we need to rethink about the foundation on which this nation stands! Man!! Is respecting a female is such a gargantuan task! I think it just needs inculcating some respect for your mothers,sisters and daughters back home. None of you are vagabonds i assume.
And now i have a brilliant plan to combat this arcane evil! Its kind of out of blue.It goes like this:
Every girl should be trained to use a pistol[ just a small one]. She should be given free licenses to carry this weapon, once she reaches the age of fourteen. And anyone..I mean it...just anyone who misbehaves with her, she should have legal right to shoot that person immediately.And to make the plan less unrealistic we can use tranquillizers in form of pistols.May be the hours of unconsciousness can wake up their conscience some day!

THE VACANT SPOT

Along the way was a vacant spot,
Deserted even by the wan Moon above,
Forlorn, And very dark for to me gaze,
At last a hermit's bliss evident in the haze.
And the chants were prolix n away,
Far away where the wind screams with fear,
And the water falls wrapped in a widow's cry,
There was just a lonely silence to propound,
And nature's insignia lies unclaimed,
The spell unbroken and Magic sustained,
That vacant spot had a living soul, and a heart,
For that beat escaped the torturing misty air,
And that guilty undocile wind dared me to bout,
But this petite mortal cared no more,
For a vacant spot or a living soul,
And as I meandered yet again on my way,
I saw the pleading spot dying in the grey!!

A ROCK N ROLL SONG

Drinking beer at a bar all day long,
A leather jacket and my black guitar,
The bike with a devil's logo in front,
And my back tattooed with a flower,
Life is a bitch and rock n roll is in,
What do I care if my building is bombed?
Or anyone out there gets killed in a war,
I live a life and do not disturb,
The science bugs me no more and I m sure!
So you launch a rocket or make a bomb,
Or my girlfriend gets married to a moron,
Even if Hitler comes back to burn me alive,
I am not going to follow any law for that's right,
I see through all your negotiations now!
I breathe pollution and hey did you even care?
The spirit I drink is less toxic than water,
What have I done when you were always wrong?
Dictate me no more and do not disturb,
My life is good and I still deserve a Heaven!
No black suits I will put on my back,
No lies I will write in those secret files,
I travel cheap and meet people rich in heart,
Will sleep under an open starry sky and smile,
Will drink to my heart's merry and dance,
I am the music and I am the trance,
Nobody can change anyone,that's trash!
So why to live a regular life and decay,
Why should I vote and go to a church,
I am not a fool with day dreams anymore,
Come on let's face and speak the truth once,
Don't you think my life is better than yours?
And I know deep down that you have no money,
So brother! Why does you have to live in a palace so big?
Let's live in real and then you are invited to my gig!

THE LAST OF SADNESS

The last time we met, it was raining so hard,
There was a pink envelope holding your wedding card,
It was lying on the coffee table soaking in my tears,
You were by my side so I could not infer that fear,
You were saying that you will always be there,
And I was so innocent that I thought you will care,
The time we spent was now a far away dream,
The white of your bride hurt my eyes like a beam.
I looked back and you never looked my way,
I felt so sad knowing that this feeling is going to stay!
And there I was walking towards my lonely days,
I tried looking for hobbies but nothing seems to work,
My apartment was a mess, our snaps lying all over,
I stared at them for clues, to know when we were done,
I was pungent and always wondering what went wrong.

The hazy winter was so long without you by my side,
There were emotions inside me that I could not hide,
I was wasting away and my smile was gone,
My laughter jingled somewhere, distant and forlorn,
And I wanted to runaway to a place not known,
Where this shadow will not follow and I can live alone,
So I packed my bags and tried abandoning you in here with fain,
I locked the doors and never looked back for you again,
And there I was sauntering on the path to a new beginning,
I had few plans and fire for I felt an inspiration waiting,
And then I decided to smile after so long,
It was like listening to an old forgotten melodious song,
And then I reminded myself to bury my pain so deep,
That even if I try it will be so dark for me to peep,
Realizing that there is so much more to experience and do,
The sad part just ended, and its time for happiness to take over now!

3rd July,2008

PINK!!

I was reading some articles on the world wide web when a particular article about WOMAN: EQ versus IQ intrigued me. Suddenly i found my choler rising. So "here i am" and as Bryan Adams sings "this is me" with a laptop with a keypad working in synchronization with my mind and absurd thoughts. Whats my present mood? "well! I really want to write a good write up!!" The inchoate idea that needs to take form in words is the color PINK..it has been a lingering thought and a dormant subject which needs a voice. I am dazed confused bedraggled and in this present state i continue to type.
The color PINK..Have u guys heard the song by Aerosmith called PINK.. Pink is the color of passion as well as Pink is the color of love you have just discovered..as well as Pink is the new lingo and it goes with any fashion!! Well, sincerely weird observations but this color has been out there associated with things which are so bizarre and unrelated. For example on one hand you relate pink with communist or leftist ideas and on other hand we easily finds its proximity to love ( for that matter an undiscovered one) , feminism and awareness for breast cancer. Emotions, politics and ladies are no sisterhood and here i am sitting perplexed and slowly realizing that this is one favorite color which gets itself attached to anything one likes. For other colors like Green its simply Verdure and thus Prosperity. As for Red its Blood as well as Danger or a Stop sign on one of our irritating traffic lights. All these relations makes sense but Pink is adaptive!!

The newest avatar of the color is to much hyped metro-sexual breed of our new age men. Simply by sporting a cute pink shirt and t-shirts one finds them canvassing for the idea " Girls! know what we can cook, we know the difference between a facial and a face pack and we can care for you as your mothers!!" well Guys the point noted and bang!! the color is a new insignia for a new idea!!

Pink is also one color that never gets out of fashion. The color which flaunts oodles of feminism [Of course when it escapes the wardrobes of our new men, nowadays] is also making its subtle and soft presence felt among formal hues like blacks,browns and whites. A pink formal shirt will not seem out of place now in any corporate office. Thus apart from being adaptive its a kind of new obsession, a wave that will grip your mind at one point of time in your colorful life. I easily remember that as a kid when somebody used to ask me my favorite color it was always pink..but then this idea of color pink felt puerile and i was drawn to "Better" colors. That was some years ago, this Pink Grip is back and as Steven Tyler from Aerosmith sings[says] " Pink is my new obsession" yet again.

The pink advantage is that it can also easily replace color RED. Take a serious look around a mall during first and and second week of February or what we call or market as "valentines week". So, instead of painting the city red we have painted the city pink! I bet, if colors were living persons Pink would be the richest color on Earth. With all the endorsements and marketing strategies associated with the color...that reminds me, Have you checked out the new pink laptop or the mobile phone or the new pink ipod.. it will certainly go places and bypass fields.. Pink and electronics!! Pink papers and Pink piggy banks and Economics!! And the word possible has just got a new meaning!

And its no new phenomena when rich starts supporting a cause..and here we are..a pink ribbon stands for awareness for breast cancer..so whether pink stands for sexuality, goodness, grace, beauty,bling and so much more... I hereby conclude its definitely more than a color!! I am PINKED! and know what i am not even grammatically wrong!!!

I kept my dreams in a wooden box,

And nailed the lid so tight,

I tried to walk away from my shadow,

And ran into a room so dark,

I denied the wind that I can feel it,

And held water in my palm,

My home echoed and felt strange,

The words I spoke were unknown.

And I thought that walls will shrink,

But I could not escape from an open room,

I was jailed though had freedom rights,

It was suffocating though the window wasn’t closed,

I saw colors draining away and begged them to stay,

Then I saw that wooden box sitting on a dusted table,

And realized that it was not my dreams that were chained,

I saw myself lying there in the box, half dead,

And as I struggled to open the lid, my hands bled,

My heart pounded so hard, I gasped so often,

How tight was the lid, I felt strange for what I did,

But when it finally opened, sunshine hit me,

I felt a breeze and the room was brimming,

I embraced my dreams, but indeed hugged myself,

I was back, breathing to life, happily living!

Dated: 29^th may, 2008.

Keshie Singh