POTENTIAL

A piece of string
Or wire
Not a ring
Perhaps fire?

A wall with just one coat of paint
Just fabric
Address book
Uncreated music

Suggestions
Syllables
A blank cheque
Parables

Dough
Batter
Not cake
nOr cooked matter

Not instructions
Nor goals defined
Nor laws framed
Or space confined

A door ajar
a young mind
an open map
the quest to find

the possible
more than the probable
the pliable
more than the liable
the conceivable
more than the admissible


the dormant
the latent
stem cells!!!

aren’t they ALL potent?

Change the Voice

Change the voice
The teacher taught
Subject and object shook hands and changed places.

Use the right preposition
She said;
In jostled with on, off and by
To accompany ‘let’ and ‘get’

Change into indirect speech she said;
‘‘I am feeling good’’ slid into
he was feeling good

Write the following in précis form she said
And a flowery paragraph shorn itself
Sheep like
Into two telling lines

Punctuate she said
And commas and colons
Full stops and exclamation marks
Took position like soldiers around a sentence.

Refer to context she said
And the connection was established
With a larger text

I wondered….
If only we taught ourselves
To punctuate life correctly
Pause when needed, to not exclaim without reason,
To question
To accept appropriately
To know that subject and object
Are only like being the dog today
And the tree tomorrow;
That by and off and in still connect to the same reality;
That ‘should’ and ‘must’ and ‘ought to’ are just empty abrasives
‘should want to’ is what counts in life.
To know that most happenings can be précis written
In the mind;
To frame people and events in contexts and yet
Know to undo the frames when the whole picture of Life is called for…

Wouldn’t it be a more worthwhile lesson in semantics?

I am an Imp

What is this says the daughter
Is this how potatoes are cut?
What is this
The mother asks
Is this how a daughter is brought up?
What is this
The husband says
Is this how accounts are kept?
I don’t know…

Is there a manual for the Perfect Housewife
The Perfect Mother
The Perfect Human?

I left the beaten track of the Perfection Quest
To let a big potato piece mash itself to size in the stew
To let the daughter bring herself up
Bring me up too in the process
To let accounts tally
Mentally
With largest columns pretty solemn
for the Unpredictable
The Unforeseen and the Let it Be
The Let Do
The Let Go

Potatoes, accounts, daughter,
Is that all to /of Life?
Its all the same;
Cool is the name of the game;
Imperfection is but Perfection
As seen by the Imp
Where Life is not straitjacketed
Packeted
Into bits of perfection
But lived with a merry twinkle in the eye

Watching
Things fall in place
Sort themselves out
In the Big Tapestry of Life
Where moles and frays become
Silver dots and rays.
All it needs is some imagination
to see
the Perfect weave of Imperfections.

What is it?

It beckons
Lures
Intoxicates

Sometimes real
Sometimes a mirage
Sometimes cloaked in invisibility

Mostly heady
Rarely steady
Ready?

It holds you on a pedestal
Twirls you whizzzzzz….
Props you on a pinnacle

Sometimes topples you
Baffles you
Muzzles you

Success smells sweet
Success breeds Success
Life is all about Success

But did someone say
Success is Failure
Lived inside out?

The guru

I yearned for a Guru
A Guide
A Light
To see my through Life.

In the quiet of a Gurukul
Living life to the full
Where Love would flow
Knowledge glow
Spirituality grow

Whence I would emerge a
Complete Person
With a New Vision…

It took years
Fears and
Tears

To acknowledge
Understand
And feel blessed


When the Guru happened
When home became Gurukul
When Child became Father of Man
When my Special Child became my Guru

For Life

Oneness

Oneness

Merry Me, pensive Me
Passionate Me, spiritual Me
Child Me, mother Me
Friend Me, Loner Me
…
As many flowers, as many colours
As many notes, as many flavours

Strung together, hummed together
Splashed together, dashed together

Which is
The Real Me?

Or you?

Or is it You and Me?
You as Me?
Me as you?
All as one?
One as All?

Oneness?

Definitions

Does Possession
Material or mental
Make Happiness?

Does Time
A date or date
Mark Auspiciousness?

Does an Event
Designed or casual
Bring Luck?

Isn’t
Happiness as much a State of Mind
As Auspiciousness a State of Being
As Luck a Perception of Life?
Not to be defined
Or tagged by others
But
Sensed, Experienced, Acknowledged
As one’s own breath?

the weave of life

Election promises
Daddy’s concerns
Tickled armpits….
Pet cats
Forecast Weather
lottery
Astrologer under a tree
Daughter’s bank balance
2+2
Mummy’s anger
Allergies
Cake in oven
Chemical reactions
Bollywood movie-the second half
Nature in spring
Yes?
No?
What will be her answer?
Seasoned artists
My thinking-says my nephew
The Final Destination

Such is the weave of Life
warped by the Predictable
and marked by the deft weft of the Unpredictable.
But very often
It does happen
That one merges into the other
Predict rain, predict pain
Predict joys, predict ploys
Seek a foothold on life-
but
Kill the thrill
Still the will
Stifle the survival skill….
If you have had ALL predicted…
Around the bend is still your bill.

infinity

The sea and the sky are before her
Sensual stirrings of the deepest blue greys
She walks to the end of the promontory and stands there.
Still…with
The softest syllables of the sea,
The briefest bubbles of breeze,
Thewarmth wafting from waltzing waves
Jots of jiving light in the eerie expanse
The casual chug of the first fishing boat
Juggling jelly juliennes of full moon in the water


And then
Silence..
A lone human, her beingawash with sese-a-tions…
Elation
Elevation
Oneness with All.
Peace.
A moment …or is it Infinity?

She turns back…
The boat’s chug is a whimper
The sky is stone-washed,
The moon’s gauzed grey,
The breeze is no more,
Raucous crows noisily exploring the promenade,
Perfumed men and women walking briskly
A radio blaring music
A day beginning.

Peace haloes lightly on her
Oneness undisturbed,infinite,
For not having been sought
Made a big deal of
Clung to;
Butmerely felt with all her being, embraced in passing.

MOTHER DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP

(with apologies to Kahlil Gibran)
Let there be paces and spaces in our togetherness
And the wind chimes ringing between us
Let us love one another but without making it a burden of love
Rather a mysterious mist-covered valley between our souls….

Let us fill each other’s cup and say ‘cheers’ but not choose the same drink
Give one another our ATM numbers but withdraw not from the same account
Let us bank on each other’s reserves
But shore up our own resources
Let us move on together like the hands of your Swatch
But let each one of us be alone
Though we pulsate with the energy of the same cell
Let us share our day’s happenings, best friends, sarees and dresses
But keep just a little je ne sais quoi for one’s own
Let us know each other’s longings and long wholeheartedly for them
Let us shop wholesomely-holesomely-
And let the holes in my purse become investments for your happy memories
And for a big thinking heart and a large feeling mind
And let us stand together-looking like sisters
Yet not near together
For something alas! Has to define our relationship
And the Capri and the Leo thrive only in their own spaces
With no strings attached

Fate makes relatives-choice makes friends
Let our Fate be our Choice and our Choice our Fate

With Love and care total!
meera

keeps the world going

The squeaky wheel gets oiled
The shrieky baby gets fed
The splashy leader gets voted

demand and get
fume and fret
till your needs are met.

How tiresome
Yet winsome…

It is the wilted croton
Which reminds of a duty forgotten
Problems are solved
Through a leader’s resolve
Someone fights
For your rights
Someone strikes
For your pay hikes…

And yet…

Does unasked favour have flavour?
and unwanted food savour?
Doesn’t uncalled for aid
Soon turn staid?

Some need more than it matters
Some less
Some have it all on a platter
Some feel blessed
to live to give
Some to take
Its my due, for heaven’s sake!

But isn’t it this eclectic mix
Which keeps the world going?
Bickering, simmering
Battling, rattling
Yet
Surviving, reviving
Giving and forgiving?

Beeps and rings
You name it –and it sings
In all pitches
In all tones
From the shrills
To the drones
Milk cookers
Water filters
Kids shoes
Tight or loose
A car reversing
Singing ‘happy birthday’
The thrill of an sms
Coming one’s way
Toothbrushes, greeting cards-
All modern day bards
The vegetable vendor’s cellphone
With the latest ringtone
Machines that answer
ATMs that whisper
Watch out for the beeps!
Aren’t they the key to
The secrets they keep?

And so on and so forth….

Soon the soundscape may be
Beep and ring
Anyone anything…

thank god kids still bawl the same
and mothers still yellllll out their names!