Good morning, NID

Good morning, NID
Good that you were
And are
A passage to the self.

Thank you, Chachaji !

How do you say
Thank you
To the first
To believe
Despite proof contrary
A record quite dreary
Thank you
Chachaji.

When you feel like a poem

When you feel like a poem
On a lazy Saturday
Go ahead and do it
What's the harm, and hey
You may end up mouthing
Some life truths or better
You may end up sprouting
A smile now or later.

With days rushing by

With days rushing by
And nights slipping through
I wonder how to fix
Of life what is true

Is truth this very moment
Here now and gone for ever
Does truth lie in the memory
Of what was, but will be never ?

Paap kar aur PJ pee

You are a psychopath
And so are we
You vote us in
We kick you for free
Paap kar aur PJ pee.

Tap dancing in the pits

Some one or two days back
I was on the road
When there came a man
To buy he did me goad
A pill to cure my mind
Of thoughts bad, worse or pure
I said I have a mind
Of that how are you sure
He said I have you seen
Tap dancing in the pits
Only they can do some such
Whose mind is in the splits.

Pine, wine, dine, and kill

I pine
I wine
And perhaps dine
I drive
I kill
I don't have to
Pay any bill
Being human
I get away
As law is blind
And justice may
Be deaf mute
How cute !

This is a fan

This is a fan
Of no one
Being still
Having had its fill
Of hot air.

Design

What is design
Its a way of looking at life
With eyes closed
And minds open
To money
Your money.

Aware, awake, away

As the morning rolls in
And the conversations begin
I begin to listen
To no one in particular
Aware, awake, away.

Better and the best

The lesser said
The better
Anything more
Will be best.

Research

When you work hard
On arriving at
The obvious
Its called research.

Keeping nature from humans away

Natural disasters
Are nature's way
Of keeping nature
From humans away.

Jury

Jury is like a washing machine
Churn, squeeze and make shine
They earn, while you whine.

Your overall performance in the semester

Your overall performance
In the semester
Is good
Understood
I am lazy
My memory of you is hazy.

The Truth Uncouth

Judge
Or be judged
Either way you have
Fudged
The truth
Uncouth.

Wisdom

Wisdom is an illusion
Illusions are life
Live life kingsize
Let wisdom be thus rife.

Life of a full-time teacher

Life of a full-time teacher
As opposed to the once or twice
Is that of a washroom attendant
Who cleans up after your vice.

Amir Khan understand

Once upon a time
Not so long back
India was not great
With NRIs quite slack
But now they are awake
Can organise grand show
With us in their heart
After they had a go
In running away
From tolerance holding sway
Long live mother land
Amir Khan understand.

Tolerant India

Tolerant India
Has announced a war
As we are
Like Anupam Kher
Mitti ka sher.

Holy cow

I will not tolerate
Your intolerance
Towards mine
We are fine
India is great
Let me state
Fall in line
Rest and dine
Anything but cow
Enough for now.

FTII

Can I be heard
Or be the herd
That is a question
A hard one.

(FTII)

How to write a poem in a rush.

How to write a poem
In a rush
Hush
Here comes one
Was it fun ?

When greatness had no cure

Perhaps perhaps just perhaps
It was absolutely sure
I was meant for greater things
When greatness had no cure.

I want to take a selfie

I want to take a selfie
That has me in the frame
In manners I find able
To put me in the game
Of strife and what does shine
In fetters made online.

Terrorism

To understand terrorism 

One has to understand terrorism

Of the individual, and of the state

Of the prisoner and the gate.

Aaj Jab Dekh Peeche Man Karta Hai

Infatuation is better than love

Infatuation is better than love
Love is better than hate
Hate is where you eventually arrive
When infatuation can no longer wait.

Best way to test

Best way to test
Us in human term
Watch how we treat
Elderly and infirm.

I breathe and live and breathe

I am quite a flawed person
Flawed in everything save one
I breathe and live and breathe
Many times, and with efforts none.

A Photo it is

This is a Photo
Of what may have been
Of lands unseen
Of awards not won
At night, in the sun
An infant in the buff
Easy, often tough
This is a Photo
For you to like
Share and strike
Up a score
For me to bore
You with more.

Is Baat Mein Hai Dam Ke Tu

Wisdom

Absence
Makes a heart skip a beat
Presence
Does that and more
For sure
Until wisdom.

If I were not so bright

If I were not so bright
In being plain dumb
I would have been smart enough
And not felt so numb
To the incoming chill
That fits your bill
Of hate.

Kal Ki Chinta Kyon Hai Karta ?

Plans

A day has 24 hours
A life has many
A plan has much more
But it doesn't move any.

Now that I am a Principal

Now that I am a Principal
Faculty of a kind
I can be wished
Not that I mind
For if I had one
One that's on top
I would have long said
Thank yous non stop
So here is to me
And my dear likes
You make my day
As the night strikes.

Once upon an optimist

I was for long
An optimist
Now I opt
For the mist
Of time
To rhyme
With reason.

A lifetime to learn

A lifetime to learn
And a lifetime to live
A lifetime to yearn
An other to give.

Life

A double edged sword
With its handle missing
Life is.

Shri Any-Sin-For-A-Win please note

'Send them away to Pakistan!'
Send them away somewhere
Its difficult to be one's gory self
When others around are aware
That hate can only breed hate
And sometimes can breed vote
But love is a sure-shot proposition
Shri Any-Sin-For-A-Win please note.

Time for a conversation

There was never a better time
Or for that matter, worse
To start a conversation
Silence.

Interviews

Interviews
On either side
Of the fable
Are a table
Waited on
Imperfectly.

Aaj kuch kar ke dikhana hai

Aaj kuch kar ke dikhana hai
Kal bhi shayad aisa hi ho
Kaash kuch kar lene ke baad
Kuch nahin kar paane ka paisa ho

आज कुछ कर के दिखाना है
कल भी शायद ऐसा ही हो
काश कुछ कर लेने के बाद
कुछ नहीं कर पाने का पैसा हो

I want to be famous

I want to be famous
Have selfies clicked with me
And when I am breathing no more
I want a famous victory
Put statues in the city
Name highways on my might
But when I am done with holy glory
When quietly flows the night
Will selfies in your hearts
Click me as one kind
As someone after fame
But someone not that blind ?

Life lessons

If life were only happiness
And living all that easy
We would have been quite upset
At hurdles not being busy
For want is a friend of plenty
And pain a pal of pleasure
When we see less of someone
Seeing them turns into a treasure.

Half-complete & Fully done

Why are most things
Half complete
When fully done.

Garba

As they go around in circles
Of their own making
I follow
The straight and snoring path
To bed.

Leaving slime well behind.

Its not often
That it happens all the time
I remain me
Shorn of muck and slime
For to live life
Is to die everyday
To be born again
And try yet another way
To be me, my kind
Leaving slime well behind.

Facebook

Drowned in conversations
Not had
Floating in silences
Not heard
Facebook

I am the villain you had want

I am the villain you had want
I am your flesh and blood
I am your stated victim
And I am your secret stud.

Growing up

Growing up
Can happen
At fifty five
A steep dive
Tracking innocence
Arrive.

Dil chahta hai

Dil chahta hai
Dhadakte rehna
Dhuk dhuk, Dhuk dhuk, Dhuk dhuk...

दिल चाहता है
धड़कते रहना
धुक धुक, धुक धुक, धुक धुक...

Achhe Din

Now since the 'good days' are finally here
And now since we worked so hard, to get them near
Let's colour, or be coloured, black & blue
And pray that we don't shit in our pants, anew
Long give the cow, and what it excretes
To the 'good days' and what their fancy fits.

A mirror, to the mirror

Conversations with the self
Facebook is
Pretending to be
Social
A mirror
To the mirror.

If I were a fish

If I were a fish
I would be dead drunk
If I were a drunk
I would be long sunk
If I were thus sunk
I wouldn't write such junk
So there.

Neighbourhood

If you bust your neighbours
You will in turn be bested
By your labours
Lost on your neighbours
Nepal India
India Nepal

Ban the bun

Ban the bun
For it is fun
With the butter
Ban the Sun
For it throws light
On the gutter
Where we reside
Rashtriya Stop-this-that-and-those
Side.

Garbas in Gujarat

Garbas in Gujarat
Will no longer admit
Non-believers
In below the waist itch
And beyond the taste kitsch.

Happiness

Unhappiness is a state
Happiness is a state of being
One is like sight
The other is a way of seeing.

Some yang, some yin

And then I was sad
Can't be happy all the time
But out came the voice
And made it, oh so well, rhyme
Making me smile
At my little win
That's what is life
Some yang, some yin.

Marriage

Marriage is a disaster
Waiting to happen
Bachelorhood
Is one
What fun.

Neighbours

Neighbours
Are
Not going away
So better be
Near
Neighbours

Go slow

When one is happy
And when one is not
When one is counting
What one has got
When it is time
To come, or to go
Then it is time
To chill and be slow
Real slow.

Life is short

Collect a grudge
Score a distress
Life is short
Why make it less ?

Born again Dead

You pseudo secular, you !
He said with contempt
Of a born again
Dead

Din and Devotion

As Lord Ganesha came
With pomp and ceremony
In my house and outside
In versions so very many
I wondered why His fans
Want to turn Him deaf
With din standing for devotion
Mumbo jumbo, shit load of faff
For worship is a private
Silent matter for the devout
Between him and his maker
No place for noise, no doubt.

Discipline

Discipline, let's do that
On time, every time
But let's do something wild
And just for once let's not rhyme
Oh shit, I just did that
Damn discipline, you copy cat !

Each day is an opportunity

Each day is an opportunity
For experiences thus apprised
Each night is the reward
For deeds done and tried.

And then there was silence

And then there was silence
The one all could clearly hear
By the seashore, on top of a hill
Beginnings of the ends of fear
Not away, but close by, very near.

The rest wasn't a famous victory

It was a poem I was looking for
To write, for you to read
Before I knew, it sprung up
Like a whacked & wakened seed
Having done that it looked at me
And the rest wasn't a famous victory.

Feeling cattish

Once upon a time
There lived a cat
And felt like one
Doggedlly.

They said, you wait...

01.

They said
You wait
And I did
On tables.

02.

They said
You wait
I did
Why wait

What is better

What is better
Bitter or sweet
Advance or retreat
Script or shoot
Welcome or the boot
Depends on the act
Fiction or in fact.

Un-Verse

I have decided henceforth
Not to thrust verse
On you or worse
Harmful as it is
To the peaceable army
Of the disaffected who will rise
Against this horrid disguise
Of a verse.

Man who loved life

He was
A man
Who loved
Life
And its...
Strife
But
Wished for
Harmony
Milk and honey
Sugar free
Such was he.

Yoon dar maut se jeene ka maja kaisa hai

Ek Aur Aaj Baaki Hai

People Matter

I like people
Sometimes I do not
But at all times
They matter
For worse or for better.

The wise have the last word

The wise have the last word
The foolish have the first
I have whole sentences
Some better than the worst.

I am glad to be happy

I am glad to be happy
And am sad to be sad
As the seasons all want spring
Making rain and sun feel bad.

Happiness is

Happiness is
A morning walk
An evening tea at the canteen
A prime time tearjerker on TV
And a washing machine load of ...
Soiled clothes.

Long back, and now

Long back
When they were not that far
I had wanted the moon
And the early to bed
Morning star...
Now its time
To lay those interstellar dreams
To rest
Cause now I know
That mothership Earth
Does it near
And does it best.

You are, who you think you are

You are, who you think you are
Now quite near, now further afar
What you post, and what you delete
Is merely the tip, of a life so much more complete....

(response to Namrata Siviya's post:

Opinions, vacations,
Food that I eat,
Calories spent.
Every tiny feat.
Am I,
what I post and what I delete?)

What's on my mind, Facebook

There is lots on my mind, Facebook
And so much more in my heart
But why shouldI tell you any of that
How do I live, and how indeed do I fart ?

(Even though, truth be told
You already know the bald and the bold)

Let the day begin

Let the day, the week, begin
With promises to keep
And broken ones to mend & pin.

A question is born, a dilemma resolved...

A dilemma is resolved
For a question to be born
As night follows day
And dusk follows dawn
Lets ceaselessly seek...
And let sometimes cease
Let things come to an end
For them to increase.

When the writing is done

When the writing is done
And the battle is won
Take a beer
And have a re-run
As its never done
Till you are having fun.

I want

One of those days
When it makes no sense
To make sense
I want.

On Writing

01

Almost anybody can write 

Not so dumb or not so bright
All one needs is a will to fight
The first set of words and
The first temptations for flight.

02.

Revision is to Writing
What a Ban is to a Fan
The more you are at it
The more it says I can.

Yakub Memon

Vengeance served
Justice denied
An eye for an eye
Let blindness preside.

30th July 2015

So long as

I fully endorse your struggles
So long as
They don't become mine.

(Ahmedabad / 01-07-2015)

Fully Facebook support

You have my unsolicited
Fully Facebook support
Fool proof
Perhaps.

(Ahmedabad / 30-06-2015)

Go sell fish

Self
Selfy
Go sell fish

(Ahmedabad / 24-06-2015)

Show off Summer

Travelling from
Sion Koliwada to Chinchpokli
Wish I was
On Facebook
This silly European show-off summer.

(Ahmedabad / 22-06-2015)

What's left

I know what's wrong
I know what's right as well
If only I knew
What's left

(Ahmedabad / 20-06-2015)

Privilege

Privilege sought
Is privilege denied
Implied

(Ahmedabad / 19-06-2015)

FTII

Ghatak was here
And all of us were too
Basking in his shoe
(Not having ones ourselves)
Drinking in the cheap
Daaru.

(Ahmedabad / 14-06-2015)

Hot Stuff

I am heading for a breakdown
Breaking my head
Over what to down
In this heat
Oh sheet !

(Ahmedabad / 02-06-2015)

Aamar Na Khub Kobita Kobita Korche

Ebaar Jaabo Opaar Aami

I have a story

I have a story
I myself am a half one
On and off in the wind
Of life, and when gone.

(Ahmedabad / 18-03-2015)

Mere Paas Kahani Hai

Hein Daag Achhe Per...

Mujhe jor yoon kyoon...

Words

Words
Have a way
With words
Soliciting
A time on this earth
And a life that is
Words' worth.

(Kolkata / 31-01-2015)

Kolkata

01

Being
Where one had once been
Is a joyful exercise
Exercised in sorrow.

(Kolkata / 29-01-2015)

02

Should one be happy
That things have changed
For the better
Or should one be sad
That things have changed ?

(Kolkata / 30-01-2015)

03

Kolkata
Can I say I love you
With bit of a broken heart
And eyes that selfishly seek
The bare bones of survival
In place of towering, well-fed concrete
Cold, sold and erased.

(Kolkata / 30-01-2015)

04

When decades collide
On a street not that wide
Of memories that ride
The flyovers that hide
The decades that collide.

(Kolkata / 30-01-2015)

05

Much has changed
But not of this
The colonial queen
Still habits
The open green
And marble of yore
Kolkata moves
And stays like before.

(Ahmedabad / 01-02-2015)

Forgive me, for I have sinned

Well done
Said the Lord
You lived right
Till the end
Forgive me, I said
For I have sinned
I wanted to live left
Illiberal and unopened
To greed and gain
And umbrellas in rain.

(Ahmedabad / 27-01-2015)

Leaving on a jet plane

Just boarded a jet plane
Approximately know
When I will be back again
Behave, I ate too slow.

based on 'I am leaving on a jet plane'

(Ahmedabad / 27-01-2015)

Some days

Days
Turn into years
Years to lives
Lived or scorned
Lost and mourned
On some
Days.

(Ahmedabad / 26-01-2015)

Posting stuff on Facebook

Posting stuff on Facebook
Is like talking to a wall
You never know
What is on the other side
Of vanity.

(Ahmedabad / 26-01-2015)

Re public day

01

Patriotism is
Recognising our neighbour's right
To the same
Happy Republic day
May it live to see
National boundaries buried at sea
And people, of hate, set free.

02

Re public day
Time to make public again
The deeds that were done since
To undo the day.

(Ahmedabad / 26-01-2015)

Oba maa !

01

He is here ! He is here !
All is sorted out with dear dad
Its well known by now how
The West (and East, North, South, for that matter)
Was taken in, and had.

(Ahmedabad / 25-01-2015)

02

Obama ji has come home
And we are well prepared
With paper in our loos
And visas in our views
Long live USA
Long live khakra, dhokla, what say?

(Ahmedabad / 26-01-2015)

Warm, well-stocked, wicked

It would have been nice
If life had turned out to be
What the womb promised
Warm, well-stocked
And a little wicked.

(Ahmedabad / 24-01-2015)

Like you

I have loved
Like you
And hated
Likewise
I have tried
To be unlike
And less wise
Like you

(Ahmedabad / 23-01-2015)

Company

We seek company
In order
Not to be alone
In order to be lonely
In company.

(Ahmedabad / 23-01-2015)

Life

Dying everyday
To make born
Its stories
That's life.

(Ahmedabad / 22-01-2015)

Obama

Where will Obama eat
And who
Where will his dogs
(I mean the canines)
Go and poo
Breaking now
On TV news
And you.

(Ahmedabad / 22-01-2015)

Big Boss

Why do I watch
Big Boss
C'est simple mon ami
Idiots ragging idiots
Is kind of
Familiar.

(Ahmedabad / 22-01-2015)

Vibrant

I steal a rupee
You call me a thief
I steal hundreds
You call me smart
I steal crores
I am vibrant.

(Ahmedabad / 21-01-2015)

Making cinema

Making cinema
Is like penance
Seems like a mistake
While you are at it
But hits you
Like an undeserved boon
When you are through.

(Ahmedabad / 20-01-2015)

Life

Life takes you
On a high
Releasing, without notice
To the to be sore
Bums.

(Ahmedabad / 19-01-2015)

Fake in India

Make in India
Students for your universities
Your oriental think-tanks
Then with their NRI or hyphenated nose
Fake in India.

(Ahmedabad / 18-01-2015)

Freedom

Freedom
Is an idea
Realised
In routine.

(Ahmedabad / 18-01-2015)

Ways of the world

Can I teach
Ways of the world
To young ones
Already cool
Or to adults
Much colder ?

(Ahmedabad / 17-01-2015)

Love is

Love is
Never being able to to say no
To the yes
Which should have been a double negative
To begin with.

(Ahmedabad / 17-01-2015)

Being Swachha

If you look at the world
Carefully
All that dirt
So what should one do
Be dirty
Or join swachha bharat
And be dirty ?

(Ahmedabad / 16-01-2015)

Freedom to ignore

Freedom
To ignore
Is as good as
The right to
Get hurt no more.

(Ahmedabad / 15-01-2015)

I knew this boy

I knew this boy
Posing with such a flair
Twinkle in the eyes, and a hint
Of upper lip hair.

(Ahmedabad / 15-01-2015)

The Vibrants

The vibrant people
Of the vibrant state
Nay, the vibrant county now
Fly their kites
(Pun intended)
Knocking off all opposition
Including birds, brains
And other truths bitter.

(Ahmedabad / 14-01-2015)

When I was young

When I was young
Yes I was young, once
I believed in age
Now since I have it
(Age, stupid)
I have doubts
About my youthful
Once.

(Ahmedabad / 13-01-2015)

The God Of Small Things

Hating humour
Or humouring hate
Caught in a bind.

--- --- ---

The problem with People of the Book is
They haven't updated the edition
And the older one is out of print
Leaving half-understood photocopies in its wake.
--- --- ---
The poor
And the marginalised
Have a greater right
To take offence
The new Charlie Hebdo discourse.
--- --- ---
Class
Caste
Creed
All breed
Hate
Is it too late
For love ?
(Ahmedabad / 10-01-2015)
--- --- ---
If God were a little more reasonable
And reason a little less profane
Most of us would lead a life
Generally happy, and mostly sane.
(Ahmedabad / 12-01-2015)
--- --- ---
My God
Your God
His God
Her God
Our God
Their God
PBUH (Peace be upon Him)
(Ahmedabad / 13-01-2015)
--- --- ---
If one is hurt
Or if one wants to avenge
All one needs to do
Is draw a likeness in revenge.

(Ahmedabad / 17-01-2015)

Love

We want to be loved
Without loving
Besides
Is love possible
Or peaceable ?

(Ahmedabad / 08-01-2015)

I love
And hate
In equal measure
Cheating
While measuring.

(Ahmedabad / 09-01-2015)

Patriarchy

01

Patriarchy
Rule of Men
Enforced by
Mothers and Daughters
Sisters and Sister-in-laws
Girlfriends and Wives
And their Men.

02

Be a man first !
Said the emancipated girl
Disdainfully
To her patriarchal
Diminutive opponent.

(Ahmedabad / 07-01-2015)

The Jungle

The Jungle
Stood by the roadside
Obliging
Taxiloads of selfies.

(Ahmedabad / 06-01-2015)

A hard lesson

That moment
When your student
Delivers you
A hard lesson.

(Ahmedabad / 05-01-2015)

Being oneself

What is worse
Being selfish
Being selfless
Or being oneself ?

(Ahmedabad / 05-01-2015)

Men

Men have it all
Fame, Infamy
And oblivion.

(Ahmedabad / 05-01-2015)

Lo Subah Ho Chali

Losing the Plot

You know what
I teach
The right path
To the right nirvanas
Having lost the plot
Long back.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 05-01-2015)

Ancient India had planes

Ancient India had planes
Maybe it did
Maybe they flew too
More important question is
Who did they fly
The stupid contestants in Big Boss
Or stupider Sallu bhai ?

(NID, Ahmedabad / 04-01-2015)

Borders

Truth
Is the first casualty
At the borders
Of sanity.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 04-01-2015)

Wisdom

But you state the obvious
Said the wise one
Wise enough not to see
The obvious.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 03-01-2015)

I believe in cute puppies

Do I believe
In cute puppies
Do I dislike
Upwardly yuppies
Do I keep left
On the road
And off it, happily
Release the load
Do I wonder
About rich and poor
Do I make you
Of me sure ?

(NID, Ahmedabad / 02-01-2015)

Happy New Year

01

Happy New Year
To the correct
And the delusional
Let both
Cohabit
In sin.

02

Lets be happy
As the season demands
This too shall pass.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 01-01-2015)

The lady in question

The question is not
About the lady
But is about
Throwing the bath
With the baby.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 31-12-2014)

The Right Path

Men, women
And the herd
Shoving you, oh so gently
Down the right path.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 31-12-2014)

Lost in translation

Victims
And perpetrators
Lost in translation.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 31-12-2014)

Reactions

Reactions reveal much
Like the provocation.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 31-12-2014)

Clean chit

A clean chit
Is all it takes
To wipe the stuff
Off we know where.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 30-12-2014)

The Doctrine of Deeds

This world has three kinds
Ones who do
And the ones who don't
And the ones who write bad verses
On the doctrine of deeds.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 30-12-2014)

PK

Pious fervour
In the fervently impious
Thank you, PK
For showing them
Them.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 30-12-2014)

Knowledge

The more you know
The less you know
About most of the
Least.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 29-12-2014)

Holiday selfies

Holiday selfies
Have the desired effect
On those left out
Bring it on...

(NID, Ahmedabad / 29-12-2014)

Good intentions

Good intentions
Are not enough
Neither intended
Nor upto any good.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 29-12-2014)

Com passion

Of what use is compassion
If not coming to use in passion ?

(NID, Ahmedabad / 29-12-2014)

Wisdom for the night

My quiet wisdom for the night
May sound foolish at sunrise
Dream up something so real that
Of dreaming does real comprise.

(NID, Ahmedabad / 27-12-2014)