When surrounded by young, sprouting greenery, even inanimate objects appear to become alive with thoughts of their own (see photo above)…yes, life can be quite infectious indeed!
Life Can Be Infectious
Monthly Archives: May 2022
An Explorer
Yesterday, 26 May 2022, while walking to my office, I saw this curious crow (see photo above) at the roadside delicately rummaging through a bag of garbage. He (I assume it was a male) had such an unusual expression that I just couldn’t help clicking his photograph.
A Slice of Life (A Poem)
The poem below was inspired from the photo above.
Stray pigs are foraging,
Men are peeing,
Transgenders are cajoling,
The dark murky lake nearby is flowing,
And women like me are walking,
Eyes averted, silently wondering
How deep can shamelessness be.
As deep as that dark, murky lake?
When A Bench Speaks…A Poem
What kind of thoughts come to your mind when you see a bench showered with flowers? Rather, let me put it this way. If a bench suddenly starts talking, what would it say? Here’s my latest poem inspired from my pics of some of these specially gifted benches…First, the photos, then the poem.
Seasons come,
Seasons go.
New flowers appear.
Sometimes here,
Sometimes over there,
In that corner,
Red, yellow, orange, white,
They all ultimately fall,
Their lives so short…
And I, a stolid bench,
Impassive and helpless…
Oh, but don’t get me wrong.
I am not an unfeeling, lonely bench.
With strong shoulders, arms stretched wide open, and a big heart brimming with love,
I invite everyone, come one, come all.
Some walk by,
In a hurry,
Some look at me wistfully,
Pause, and walk away clumsily,
Thinking of days gone by…
But some happily accept my invitation;
Some old,
Some young,
And some not-so-young.
In the peace and quietude
I offer them,
Their stories unfold.
Patiently I listen, record them all,
In my kind, trustworthy bosom,
An open, blank book
That tells nothing.
With their burdens removed,
If only for a little while,
They get a reprieve.
But alas, everyone must return
To wherever they come from.
Some walk away hurriedly,
Some shuffle away clumsily,
Some go bounding happily
And I return to being
What I appear to be,
An impassive, stolid bench…
Bougainvillea & Alia
Yesterday, while passing by the white Bougainvillea bushes on the roadside on my way home from work, I spotted something quite unusual. A few white petals now had some light pink hues. How can white bougainvillea suddenly turn pink? I wondered about that.
A funny thought then came to my mind. It made me smile. You will also smile when you know why. Don’t these Bougainvilleas resemble Alia Bhatt, the famous Bollywood heroine, on her wedding day? White dress, blushes, smiles, dimples, and all that stuff. Well, that’s quite uncanny, isn’t it? Look at this pic of Alia below and you will understand what I mean. It shows everything in this universe has a connection somewhere…Like sunlight, love also spreads its joy everywhere…
Amaltas Of Delhi, 2022
When I spot yellow petals on my terrace after a dusty storm, I know it’s time to visit thee Amaltas tree next door.
Here’s a quick shot of an Amaltas tree I grabbed on my way to work today (see the photo on top)..
Amaltas trees are like Saif Ali Khan who often works in multi-starrer Hindi films with other co-heroes just as talented and handsome.
These lovely golden yellow flowers share their spotlight with red-orange Gulmohurs, which start blooming around the same time. Whenever they stand together, they create a great jugalbandi. See the photo below.
Another Life Gone Awry
In huge, overpopulated cities like Delhi, we often see young men sprawled on pavements in grotesque postures; fast asleep, with callused, sooty, and blistered hands and feet. Their clothes are generally dirty and tattered. Their faces look haggard and emaciated. Heavily drugged, inebriated, they remain on the cruel, hard roads for hours; oblivious to the blazing hot sun, chilly winters, and torrential rains of Delhi; far closer to death than life. They might as well be one of those unloved stray dogs wagging their tails around them.
What do we as common people do about them? You might ask. Well, we just walk past them with twinges of guilt and feelings of helplessness. We have enough problems of our own, don’t we? All we can do is hope and pray that God takes care of them. God does, indeed, intervene with the help of NGOs and the Police. But who knows where life throws us into next?
But yesterday’s case was somewhat different. See the photo above. That was what made it look all the more tragic. With a chain around his neck and a clean, tidy look, the man lying on the ground with eyes shut looked like any other normal city guy. Certainly not a vagabond. His slippers lay neatly near him below the long bench at the bus stop.
What could have driven him into this hell? I wondered. Was he a victim of his circumstances or his karma? If only someone could take him back and save him from himself, I prayed.
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