A day not for poems...

... But to get blown by boisterous breeze
Soaked in fish curry with folks and a feeling so family
To read the piles and piles waiting print-fresh, to be touched and loved
To chat up so many who must wonder why I don't feel like saying hello
A day that must meet deadlines of things you like a beggar wish of others
For a walk by a park you don't know and never would
For watching leaves at their dance and wishing you could too 
over wine and good old romance, or a storyteller stellar.
A day for Mandi House, healing a hurting friend, for writing
For forgetting, freeing, floating, fleeing
Not mixing business with displeasure.

Blank

You're staring at me 
Staring away from yourself
Into this wall, not that rolling, lol-ing one
Into the empty
Blank.
Rot thought
Sad thought
Mad thought
Blank.
Love shit
Family fit
Sick world
Blank.
It's okay, it's not that bad...
you're still drawing.
For if you can draw a blank
you can draw... anything.

I don't go there anymore

The Door. Shot by Swati Chandra in Benaras.

I don't go there anymore. 
But I'm led.
When the right calls come at the wrong time.
In music beautiful, background disturbed
When the bottle shatters itself from my hands
In a moment beastly but splinters so beautiful
One sharp, one scary, but all shining with sure love
Crashing to the ground. Hurting. Spurting. Leaving. Coming back.
To make peace and more. 
And the next day, in someone else's door scribbled with someone else's thoughts to become yours
A letter coming your way to look the real you up. 
And another, poking at plastic perfection. 
Rain in the breeze a few blocks away
Dom Moraes and A Tale of Things Timeless
and a suggestion so spot on for a dream project. 
I only went to work after a strained holiday return, reluctant.  
I don't go there anymore
But I'm led.

Night through day at Nahargarh Fort

Citylights by the moon - view from the fort that sits majestically atop Jaipur

What a restroom view!

The door to the dwelling - there's a sole room - the Raja's, that hosts guests here

The step-well, where Rang De Basanti was shot

The queen's playfield

Carved corners by the courtyard

You don't have to 'do' anything for the earth

Here I am, my laptop sitting atop a lush green leaf-shaped mat on the dining table, the mud craft clock showing a 10.40am – too late to be doing this *guilt pang*. Google is a bunch of blossoms, my husband has gone to play cricket in the grass fields, and on my mind is a thank you to Zedathon for urging me to do what I should have done without a poke from them.

As a child, I wrote for the best environmental magazine in town, perhaps in India, with a motivation so deep-rooted I thought I could never turn out to be anything other than an environmental journalist. My grandfather, a pisciculture scientist, was proud. My other grandfather, once a journalism professor and author of books on the happy green islands of Andaman and Lakshadweep, would have been smiling up there in heaven.

Later of course, destiny had other writing plans. The living plans, of course, stayed green. I can’t do without my daily dose of nature, not even a single day without it. Whether it’s the crystal white moon in the sky, the seasonal constellations, the koel at the Sri Ram Centre in the evenings or the Gulmohar outside my window and breeze by the balcony, not a day passes without being part of what we all are – The Earth. I love the touch of rain like it’s romance unmatched, I play with kids because they still haven’t grown too tall away from the earth, I stick with people who are as connected to nature and live with a man who is of, for and by the earth – and down to it like very few are. And those are the things worth living for – because that’s where life – the true life within us - comes from.

The only places you can really enjoy in your element are the ones which smell and feel of the planet, the only sustainable lifestyle for a smiling soul is the one that is ‘natural’. And that, in itself, will take care of what they're worried about. It’s not a ceremony or duty to do anything for the earth – be nature, be of the earth, and you’ll find it's just great pleasure.

To believe

Why can’t I

Why don’t I

What’s wrong

No, nothing is.

The skies are hazy today

But the heart’s crystal clear

I know.

It’s just ‘fun’

With the bad stuff? No, none.

What if I’m not part of it once a while?

What if it’s other things that bring a smile?

Why can’t I kill this cynic forever, once and for all?

Why o when it’s spring, do I keep fearing the fall?

No, I don't doubt

No, I don't shout.

But I think, and that's worse.