Who will survive this voilence

Yes you can kill me, take me hostage or try to show how inconsequential I am. You can be brazen and laugh at how ill prepared I am now.

If you don't succeed to kill me you will only strengthen my resolve to live. To try and build a better place a better system and rectify my deficiency.

Collectively I have mutated, collectively I have evolved. You too will strive for your reason for existence. For sure will work towards achieving newer lows.

I don't think this is new at all. We have been through this often times in the past. Different place, different times and different era. Some of the stories have now become fables, some legends and some even newsprint.

The day you are strong enough to strike you will and harm me. Then you will become casual in your acts, killing at will.

Seeing the implications a few of you will flee, some will be swayed enough to trap and fight against their former selves.

We will continue to build our world, heal our wounds and go about normal life.

In the end neither can you debilitate us nor can we exterminate you.

Be aware it is your time to lie low and die slow.




© Ratish

Give me back my joyrides

To work we go each day
Lose part of self along the way
And return as automatons
A cog in global delivery mechanism

Feel the wind back on your face
Let sweat be your exhaust fume
Be the fuel, go green - break rules
Return back to your innocence

One feeling will change your stride
One passion will be my drive
One resolve will turn back the years
And give me back my joyrides

© Ratish

On cycling to work

The Race

Let the gauntlet be thrown
And the challenge be announced
Step over crowd, clear this stage
For those who dare to respond

Limitations and hurdles are many
Each one is fighting to gain ground
Yet there is an unwavering will to finish
Not to lose hope or be bowed down

No glory, no sight of victory
Just a chance to compete
Against your own fears and assumptions
And fastidiously held beliefs

You and the elements, you and space
You and the sweat on brow of your face
Every single step on the road
Takes you towards end of the race

© Ratish

Dedicated to all participants of Mumbai Marathon 2010

Childhood

I see you grow, spread smile
Try hard and Walk Slow
Every now and then
You take a quantum leap to glow

Memories of your previous self
Slowly begins to fade to insignificance
I try to focus on your current feats
And small steps towards independence

Your toys change every so often
Unable to catch attention for long

I may not smile so easily
or open up myself to others
I am still trying hard to grow
In games that will fade to insignificance

My paths my learning will not guide you
In your coming day and age
May be you will have imprints from past
of best parts from the time we shared

© Ratish

Centring

I heard the tune
Again..
And rushing back
All the moments came

Thread that was broken
Sometime ago
Became a stream
And started to flow

Was lost in the wilderness
of this world
Suddenly I stared at
Me

No joy, no sense of loss
recognition of self
Is all I've got

I became me
How simple it can be
I just realized
I am eternity

© Ratish

Words

The words that I put together
Are not deep and meaningful
But dry and incoherent

They lack logic, rhyme & reason
Strongly biased by who I am
And totally oblivious of others

Yet I can defend it, if needed
With rhetoric & hyperbole
Against one and all

With you however I don't need them
But to be playful
At times

Do not care for my words
They are useless
If possible be comfortable with my silence


© Ratish

Color of sky

I saw through my minds eyes
The thousand colors of blue sky
The lights, shades and frothing mist
I knew I understood the gist

Then I watched my mind do tricks
Revealing the patters of my prejudice
Moments ago - of things I was sure
Were fools belief - no less, no more

Now I don't have any fixed view
The sky may be grey, black or blue
Or it may be of no particular color
Changing with time, place and weather

© Ratish

Poem - Part We Must

Days that are most hard to go by -
are the ones in which you have to say goodbye
to someone who is close to your heart
of your life who has been a part

Memories of time spent together are fresh
- as if it happened just today
But fate has brought us to a crossroad
From where we have to part our ways

Go my friend with a smile on your face
May success kiss your feet
Remember us all who are left back here
Until the day again we meet

© Ratish

Poem -Souveniers

Time has come for us to part
There is smile on my face, tears in my heart
Here are a few souvenirs to remember me by
I give you the stars, I give you the sky

Stars don't shine or show the way
They twinkle constantly from far away
What is sky but a vague concept
- It turns blue as it gains some depth

You won't have to search too hard
I'll be in flowers, I'll be in cards
I'll be the journey you undertake
I'll be in your inadvertent mistakes

Remember me in clown; in an innocent child
In foolish talks and schemes gone wild
Remember me in carelessness and arrogance
In songs, in music and in dance

These presents are of no significance
for those who don't value trivial things
A dreamer has but his dreams in hand
to give, to share and to expand

The final judgment is for you to take
to keep these wares or to forsake
Rest assured you'll always be there
in my dreams, memories and in my prayers




© Ratish

Poem - The Apparatus

The apparatus

An intricate recorder

To reorganize the frames

And put perceived reality in order

The skill – an acquired art

To focus on the desired shot

Light, sound, setting and aperture

To capture that perfect inverted picture

The moments, people & places

Frozen in time & space

For our viewing pleasure

When we find the leisure

Random images are retained

By this apparatus at days end

What happens to events that fade away

Without leaving its trace in any way?

Is there a thrash can in out head

Where lost memories are constantly fed?

How it matters what we retain or discard

When every apparatus ends in a junkyard?

© Ratish

Poem - The Gist

I draw the same breath (as you)
to feed my consciousness
And my desire leads
To my chosen indulgence

Unrealized
Our lives appear isolated flicker
In essence
We are the same flame

I exist - creating, being, discarding
reaching out and contemplating ...
In you
I recognize a part of me

© Ratish

Poem Born Again

Another day flies by
Another night sets in
Sun and moon r like
Lights that flash & blink

Do not know who I am
Do not even care
Another life I live
Another truth or dare

Each day I die again
Each moment I am born
Another smile I paste
When the last one is torn

What I have to show
In so many years
Are a few moments shared
Of my hopes and cheers

Do not know where to go
All I can do is walk
Another path I take
May be it leads somewhere

© Ratish

Poem Wheel of Life

The wheel is on its roll
We are on different side
You yet to take a step
And I at journeys end

When you pick and hold
Morning dew in you hands
Hope you have no regrets
of the life you have spent

Time flys fast my child
And the day is not too far
When wonder will fade
From your inquisitive eyes

You play this game alone
And learn rules hard way
I can only share mine
May be it will help someday

Live your life as it comes
Be always true to self
Follow your inner voice
Above everything else

© Ratish

Musings

Being inquisitive is our second nature. There is always a drive to learn and know more. One part that is often left unexplored is the terretory of self exploration.

Often times we tend to look outside world for inidicators and benchmarks for this. We need to realize that our basics premise for leading our life needs to be figured out first. This will only come from time spent on pondring our things that matter to us and making changes in our outlook based on the outcome.

Our behavior is reflection of what we tend to think in any given situation. Hence first step is to take time out to reflect on our life.
Where we are..
Where we want to go..
Is it reslly where we want to go..


© Ratish

Poem - What I might have been....

What I might have been...

Today again I spend my day
Chasing the shadows away
Doing the best I can
Faking a smile and being sane

I pick the pieces from the floor
Of trampled smithereens of broken soul
And try not to become
The kind of man that I am

I still latch on to a hope
That some day I will easily cope
With these nonsensical thing I do
To prove to self that I am true

When I turn and see all around
Crescendo of this useless sound
I take a refuge in space within
For a glimpse of what I might have been....

© Ratish