The Poet in me - 7

Sangeeth ki kami

एक समय की बात है...

Dhoondne chala mein ek avaaz ki talash mein,

Ek tarfa pyar mein jo gira,

Utha liya mein ek Guitar ko,

Socha tha dard bhare geet gaunga,

Magar patha chala mere andar Sangeeth ka Sa bhi nahi tha,

Pyar na milne ka dard toh mit gaya,

Mere andar Sangeeth na hone ka dard cha gaya,

Isi gham mein liktha chala gaya mein,

Likhte likhte pata chala, khalipan aur niraasha phail raha tha mein,

Aur andhar khoj ne se, Sangeeth phir bhi nahi mila,

Mila tho sirf shabdhon ka khajana.

Khud se pooch

Kuch khoj ne nikla hu...saath chaloge?

Ek safar tay karna hein..saath nibhaoge?

Safar lamba rahega...aakhir tak rahoge?

Samandar paar karna hein, terna nahi aata...sambhaloge?

Har mod pe mushkilen milenge...hosla badaoge?

Ruk jaunga, haar mantha jaunga...Josh bharoge?

Iss safar mein, teenon ka "Haan" zaruri hein...teenon ko pooch:

Uss se pooch..

Khuda se pooch..

Khud se pooch.

A Boat called destiny

In search of peace,

I sat in a boat,

Running away from what I built,

Leaving behind my guilt,

I started rowing away from the chaotic shores.

I faced my fears,

I faced the monstrous waves,

With a sense of achievement,

That I have travelled afar,

Only to look back and see nothing but endless, open waters.

In search of God,

I have rowed for eternity,

Neither do I find a Ship to take me to my destiny,

Nor do I have energy to go back to the chaotic shores.

I only hear god's audacity "I am the reason for everything, I am the creator and destroyer". I begged him to either send me a Ship, or continue to write my destiny with his favourite pen, and I would fight with my favourite sword.

Self Exploration

Floating through life,

With imaginary ambitions,

With false aspirations,

Accepting my flaws,

Acknowledging my disabilities,

Living in fear,

Waiting to lose,

Hiding my psychopath self,

Protecting my sadistic self,

Trying to be the good person that I am not,

Flaunting the angel in me, that is never in me,

Camouflaging smiles and happiness with existence,

Expressing my inner thoughts,

Writing away lines and phrases,

At some point, people reading it as Verses and as thought provoking words,

While many rejecting it as frustrations and desperations.

I wonder why my writings shape up this way that prompts readers to ask me "All ok, what's wrong?", when actually life is reasonably fair!

Free thoughts - 6

Heal the world, but heal yourself first

M.J had said "Heal the world, make it a better place, for you, me and the entire human race".

To make the world a better place for myself, I should have found what makes me happy...but looks like I haven't really figured out what I am looking for, seeking for.

I keep looking for meaning in Songs, I keep asking the roads that I travel, to find a peace place, I keep asking every new place I visit - Are you my Home? Hope I figure out what I need, and what I want.

The more I am irritated, agitated, angry, I am sure I can't contribute to make the world a better place.

The undelivered Email

I pity eMails, it's still considered a young, undependable younger one amongst the communication siblings.

The poor eMails are not given a chance to do it's job, as soon a mail is sent, the same communication is sent by Message or through a call and the worst part on how the communication ends "I have sent you a mail on this, please check and revert".

I am like "Then why did you even message/call, when you have already sent a mail?"

Is it that they don't trust Mail delivery?

Is it that they don't trust us reading Emails?

I guess Emails have become an integral part of our work, and most of us have access to Emails 24/7 both on Laptop and Mobile phones.

Gone are the days when I used to say "I am on vacation and have no/limited access to mails".

It's high time Email is given its due credit as a dependable mode of communication, it gives the recipients the liberty and prioritisation to respond to the communication!

Explain your Smell

I can describe my feelings in words,

I can put words to my emotions,

I can explain what I see,

I can elucidate what I hear,

I can describe how my food tastes,

But I can never describe what I smell..

We only tend to explain a smell as "that odd smell, that pungent smell, that smells great, that smells good", but we can hardly explain how it smells.

How do you describe the smell of a News Paper, new Car, voggaraNe, my body smell, her body smell, smell of my bed, my room?

Each of us have a unique body smell, that our sensors identify and recognise, but we can never explain how it smells!

What Man cries

I want to cry my struggles out loud,

I want to scream from the top of a building what pains me,

I want to pour out my frustrations with everyone I meet,

I want to share my heart break sagas,

But what the heck..

What kinda man is he who can't endure pain,

What kinda heart is it, if it isn't broken.

Heard this impressive dialog in a movie "If the pregnancy and delivery pain was supposed to be borne by Men, then there would be no more Men left on earth, that's why the pain is given to women who are built to endure pain".

So I now resort to crying under the rain, writing my sad stories on a white wall using a white chalk, screaming at myself while driving alone in my car with loud music, with all windows rolled up.

And pretend I am unfazed, unbreakable and composed to handle any crisis or challenge!

Timelessness

Somewhere far, up on the Arctic circle, is an island called Samanoy.

People there have abolished time!

There is no clock, no one urging you to do anything, no schedule to follow, you can sleep, eat, work whenever you feel like.

It makes sense, as they either have 24 hours of sunlight or 24 hours without sunlight.

It's a Mirror without time!

The first thing that came to my mind was, what would Narayana Murthy do if he was packed to that island, or what would those Norwegians do to him!?

What would I do if I was there?

There are things I want to unlearn, there are things I want to not learn, and that's what I will do.

There could be logical, practical questions, but I guess we just need to change the perception of life, a life without a sense of time!

What would you do if you were there?

My Frustrations - 2

The trophy of war

Not sure if Media is hyping, or if there is a genuine build up for another World War. Enough and more nations already have the bugle in their hands, and are ready to blow the war bugle.

Wars in those days atleast was the norm for expanding, protecting Kingdoms.

Take any modern day conflicts that have led to Wars, most of them (as per my limited history knowledge) are for religious and ethnic reasons. Take any armed conflicts, be it Iran, Palestine, Myanmar, Ukraine or Kashmir, ethnicity and religion are the root cause.

Religion is supposed to bring in peace, take us closer to God, but the mindset in the present world literally takes us to God!

What's the trophy of the War? Religion is saved?

I recently came to know that many Hindus hate Gandhi and one of the primary reason is his speech "Hindus should not retaliate against Muslim's violence, but to face it bravely".

What if he had said "Don't spare them, Kill them all", would he be considered a Hero?

Time or Tom

How is Tim so calm? Doesn't he have any opinion? Doesn't he have a stand on this sensitive subject? Doesn't Tim get agitated, irritated, frustrated?

Or Tim's belief in his belief system, philosophy, reality so strong that other views don't matter to him.

Or Tim must be aloof, doesn't care about anything.

Or Tim's tolerance levels are beyond the ozone layer.

What would Tim do when he accidentally brushes another bike/car, he is abused, beaten and snatched away money.

But when someone else brushes Tim's Car, he is again abused, bullied.

What if Tim has people around who are brainwashed, biased, illogical, unconcerned, selective morality, subjective sensibility? Can he still be calm?

Hi, I am Tom, I get perturbed with everything and get stressed out with every wrong around me.

Are you the Tim or the Tom?

Belittling Bengaluru, it hurts

It hurts when my city is made fun of, especially from people who have migrated. With all its flaws, infrastructural vows, traffic chaos, rain havoc, it is still my home town, it is still my city, and I am bloody proud of my City.

And I am very sure it's the same emotion, sentiments for everyone about their respective home towns.

People making fun of Bad roads, Pot holes, Waterlogging is rather sadistic, because the problem is not unique to Bengaluru, but it's the same or worse at any other city in India. Like any other metropolitan cities, even Bengaluru faces population explosion with 100s of migrants pouring in everyday, and it's obvious the infrastructure will have limitations causing Traffic chokes.

It is unfortunate to see migrants spewing venom on Social Media, with one Tamilian creating a Blog of Potholes in Bengaluru and calling it "Potaluru", another Northie making fun "Start speaking in Kannad, and the water will recede", memes on boat rides to Manyata, waterlogged streets and Apartments.

No city, no village in India or abroad has ever been spared by Nature's fury, no Govt, Municipality can avoid or be prepared for such incessant rains.

Opposition blaming present day Govt is also funny, because it's not the first time it has rained and it's not the first time few areas are under water.

Making fun of a kamadhenu that provides them shelter, livelihood, lifestyle that they had never seen before, prosperity, only shows their attitude and their upbringing, but is also disheartening that these guys are in my City corrupting our Bengaluru charm!

The Conversations

 The Conversations

By

Murali Murthy

The connect to the almighty reflects the way we engage with him.

Can't speak on behalf of all religions or everyone in general, but I feel Hinduism gives enough space to have conversations with our deity.

Though the customs, rituals are rather followed with all seriousness, dedication, focus, devotion and submission to the deity, conversations with him/her what makes one feel connected to the spirit.

A festive and celebrative conclusion to Navrathri this year.

Itching to hit the Ghats in my New Creta, got an invite from a friend in Moodbidri to be part of the Dashami festivities.

It is a genuine reiteration, realisation of how Hinduism is intact and deep embedded in the roots of the depths of rural India, as it's their culture, way of life, livelihood, and entertainment as well.

We Hindus especially have defined God the way we want to see it, we have humanized Gods, given them human form, created stories with a sole intention to interact with him better, connect with him better through conversations.

The day long celebrations at Moodbidri included folklore and music.

Ofcourse some sumptuous food fiesting marathon.

The deities are invited to possess the performers and have conversations with the deity! The vibrations, the energy you feel witnessing such celebrations of spirits are beyond words.

When you witness such rituals where you feel God in front of you, where you see God talking, people connected to nature, God, "Hinduism is in Danger" narrative being pushed by pseudo Hindus, politicians, city-bred Hindus, is laughable and irony too!

Hinduism is intact and safe as long as you and me follow our rituals, be connected to our roots, carry forward our family legacy, and not by using Hinduism to prove one upmanship not by falling for new age Guru's, Politician's agendas!

The Poet in me - 8

Why we are, what we are,

Why we are, what we are,

Why we are, how we are,

Why we are, who we are,

We think public roads are our Vihar,

We want to be ahead of the Traffic,

We have the freedom to abuse and be violent with people in the Traffic,

We think we are right,

We think others are wrong,

We have the freedom to be indisciplined,

We have the freedom to be irresponsible,

We are free, we are Indians,

We are chaos, we are rich, we are poor,

We are, what we are, we are free, we are independent!

I want to reach the unreachable

ಕಾಣದ ಕಡಲಿಗೆ ಹಂಬಲಿಸಿದೆ ಮನ...

My heart yearns to hit the sea one day, the sea that I can't see,

I wait to reach the shores, while I am at the sea,

I want to see the depths of the sea, that I can't reach.

I dream of dreams, that can never come to life,

I aspire for heights, that I can't reach,

I hope to retire right now, but the work won't retire me,

I long to write stories, that would never hit the stores,

Blessed with love, companionship, laughter, friends, happiness, skills, every struggle seems worth!

The Door stopper

When I become a symbol of resistance, I am the door stopper,

When I rebel, I am the door stopper,

When I carry the weight of my responsibilities, I am the door stopper,

I am holding back my emotions behind the door,

I am hiding my strain behind the door,

It's taking the juice out of me, it's still fun to have a purpose,

I hold doors on all possible floor types,

I am the door stopper, trusting my grip to hold the door,

I am bonded to my door, I have no choice but to hold the door,

Praying for strength for each of us to hold our doors, and continue to be efficient door stoppers!

The doors that I have

The doors that I keep'em closed,

The doors that I keep'em open,

The doors that I hide,

The doors that I am ashamed of,

The doors that I boast,

The doors that I shy away from,

The doors that I let some in,

The doors that I let everyone in,

The doors no one knows I have,

The doors that even I am not aware of,

The doors that are locked for ever,

The doors that I hate to open,

The doors that I am forced to enter,

The doors that I am willing to break,

The doors that I can't break open,

The doors that I can barely hold,

The colourful doors,

The happy doors,

The dark doors,

The secret doors,

The fantacy doors,

The damaged doors,

The doors that has no walls,

The doors that opens to more doors.

What doors do you have?

Question of question

It's a question of right to question,

It's a question of freedom to question,

Questioning the questionable,

Questioning the kings,

Questioning the Gods,

Questioning the myths,

Questioning the unfathomable.

The audacity to question,

The hurt ego when questioned,

The question to hurt ego,

The question of a hurt ego.

Sangeeth ki talash mein

एक समय की बात है...

Dhoondne chala mein ek avaaz ki talash mein,

Ek tarfa pyar mein jo gira,

Utha liya mein ek Guitar ko,

Socha tha dard bhare geet gaunga,

Magar patha chala mere andar Sangeeth ka Sa bhi nahi tha,

Pyar na milne ka dard toh mit gaya,

Mere andar Sangeeth na hone ka dard cha gaya,

Isi gham mein liktha chala gaya mein,

Likhte likhte pata chala, khalipan aur niraasha phail raha tha mein,

Aur andhar khoj ne se, Sangeeth phir bhi nahi mila,

Mila tho sirf shabdhon ka khajana.

Khudh se pooch

Kuch khoj ne nikla hu...saath chaloge?

Ek safar tay karna hein..saath nibhaoge?

Safar lamba rahega...aakhir tak rahoge?

Samandar paar karna hein, terna nahi aata...sambhaloge?

Har mod pe mushkilen milenge...hosla badaoge?

Ruk jaunga, haar mantha jaunga...Josh bharoge?

Iss safar mein, teenon ka "Haan" zaruri hein...teenon ko pooch:

Uss se pooch..

Khuda se pooch..

Khud se pooch.

Life Experiences - 2

My Strange Mind and it's imaginations

I found myself in the Jail's visitor lounge...there was chaos, people crying, anxious to meet their relatives, the officials denying entry to many.

I somehow could get in easily. Though I struggled to fill a form that was very complicated, my application form was immediately approved and was asked to enter and wait inside a huge hall.

The hall was dark, scary & intimidating. While I was slowly walking towards the seating area, I was regretting that I didn't bring him anything, either to eat or as a casual gift.

He was sitting in the corner, dejected, disinterested, angry, frustrated. I was there to visit a friend from my school days. We were never close, we never met regularly, we don't even have each other's Number.

He didn't even make an eye contact, yet he knew who I was.

"Why are you here?"

"I really don't know...something called me"

"What the F@#£, we have hardly met a few times after School!"

"I know it sounds strange, but something in me pushed me to come here...or something in you called me here... it's a calling which I couldn't resist or ignore"

I woke up to this strange dream, which made absolutely no sense. I don't know why that poor guy was imagined to be in Jail.

I can never understand the strangeness of how our mind thinks, imagines. I don't know what transpired for my mind to create such a scene. My mind is a stranger within me that elopes myself from me. The sudden spike of anger, behaviour, reactions, responses are just not so me!

Process of getting Old

I am at that age where I feel everyone else of my age looks older than their age, except me.

While the reality is...

My wife seems to be becoming younger with her thoughts, her choice of music and she finds me 100 years old with my choice of music, travel options. She likes crowd, people, hustle, and I hate people, love seclusion.

I request them for growth - the earnings refuse to grow, my hairs deny to grow, but my best buddies are my tummy and debts, they keep growing without even asking me!

I instruct, I preach, I correct, I find mistakes, I am angry, I lose temper, I get stressed, I get frustrated, I get irritated, I welcome myself to the process of getting old!

The unexplainable unease

In the thick of action,

Busy with the hectic life, unending work,

Eternal struggles,

Amidst the daily marathon,

Running around to fulfill duties,

Busy living life,

Despite getting respite from breaks, vacations, friends, there's always this empty space, that needs to be filled.

The unexplainable unease, unanswered questions, and when the empty spaces get filled, that's the contentment one needs.

The power of manifesting

A good friend of mine strongly believes in the power of Manifesting. He says he was able to fulfil one of his biggest dreams, mainly by manifesting and things started happening.

I have personally experienced the power of help pouring from unknown quarters and getting me through a tough phase, when I had made up my mind to get through at any cost.

When I shared my biggest dream with him, he said just Manifest and see the magic, not half hearted, not half baked approach, go all out, give your everything.

I can relate to his belief, as I believe in the power of imagination, than the power of knowledge. Knowledge teaches, tutors on foregone conclusions, based on someone else's experiences and understanding.

While the power of imagination makes me do things that I never knew. This can be over simplified by few and call it "self learning".

How many of us do things at work, that we have learnt or been taught? How do you prepare for a question or a problem posed by a client in a meeting? Do we go prepared? The ability to imagine the problem and the probable solution is what we do.

Do you Manifest? Do you trust your imagination?

Indianness

The Pride

The pride in calling ourselves as Indians at times, and distancing ourselves from rest of India at times to suit our convenience, to suit our situation, is yet another proof that we are a Union of mini countries within a country.

As more and more states are seriously considering reserving 100% jobs in their own States, proves that it's a farse and superficial to identify ourselves under one Nation.

We are so used to the concept of reservations, as we started with Caste, Sub caste, Religion, Gender and now based on Language, that eligibility, merit is literally shown middle finger.

Imagine every State bringing in this law, and Business, employment and opportunities are limited to our own States. What if every Company decides even Vendors will be within the State, then our play area will be restricted, and competition within the small region will kill many smaller companies! Kudos to the idea of reservations!!

Should I think as an entrepreneur, employer or a Kannadiga!!??

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day, Happy Independence Day...the wish is peppered all over, to spend this Off day.

Today it's supposed to be a moment of pride, feel patriotic, feel the oneness, feel proud to be Indian. The leaders unfortunately are political and lead the nation based on their personal, ideology based agendas.

The executives, officials work to amass Money. We citizens live for ourselves, we are selfish, we want our problems to be solved first, we feel we are privileged.

Probably only the Military and Defence are the real Indians who proudly, without any expectations, with absolute respect for Nation and Borders, put their lives at risk.

What is the idea of India? It's a union of States, each State very distinctive in culture, language, practices, history, aspirations and no reason to be accommodative to someone from another Indian State. We want our Water for ourselves, our land for ourselves, our jobs for ourselves, our resources for ourselves.

The idea of India was formed during the freedom movement. The freedom movement was all about ousting a "foreign" ruler. Should we accept someone now, who doesn't speak my language, whose ideology I don't agree?

PS: Now = all PMs since 1947 till date.

We are indisciplined, we give a hoot to people and lives, we want our job to be done first, we have all the right to abuse and hit someone, and even funny we have loopholes to getaway with anything!

And yet I am obligated to express great pride and emotion, especially today, because it's become a Fad!

If one has to be proud of the Nation, there should be clarity on the idea of the Nation. Should we continue to be proud of our definition so far - unity in diversity? Or should we start feeling pride with the new definition being pushed - Hindu rashtra?

I would say, things are very fragile. Language, religion/caste, Political barriers are so solid, strong and the pride is towards these than the nation, these three aspects can put down India to it's knees in a blink of an eye. A Mob can just turn a town upside down, vandalize everything and it's freedom.

I am forced to pay heavy taxes for even breathing, but no freedom to question how it's being spent by our Leaders.

An unruly guy can drive most dangerously on the roads, abuse and even hit me and run away, but I don't have the freedom to cross 60 KMPH speed, because I will be fined.

Why am I highlighting only Negatives and downside of our Nation and not the Positives? Everyone else today are highlighting only positives, good speeches, I am highlighting the other side, so that balances out.

Happy Independence Day - Now what?

The day to wish "Happy Independence Day" on all WhatsApp groups and posting Status is over.

The moment of pride, feeling patriotic is over. I wonder if those wishing "Happy Independence Day" are really proud with objectivity or just emotional just because their favourite leader is giving a speech.

The political push for celebrating Independence Day is more of their opportunity to stand and give speeches.

For India to progress, we were always looking out for a visionary leader, and we trusted and believed we got one in 2014. But he again turned out to be just another Politician, but with better oratory skills. He has been good at coining new terms "Ache Din", "Amrit Kaal", "Viksit Bharat", but the hopes remains a hope.

How can we progress as a Nation? Before that how can we become a better Nation, that each of us are really proud of?

I feel the no.of Languages, States, Religions, Castes are the main culprits that is stopping us to move forward.

Education, Poverty are not the real reasons for one to be indisciplined and disrespectful. Being a Human being is a good enough reason to be civilized.

I have realised this during my visits to a few countries from the last few years.

The discipline, respecting others, being mindful, sensible, considerate has nothing to do with Education or Poverty, it's just engrained in their Culture.

We do not have commonly accepted social sense, morality and ethics, each of us have our own definitions.

Unless we inculcate discipline and social responsibility and make it a basic quality to live in a City, we will not progress.

For India to become a better Nation, we citizens should improve our quality of behaviour in society as Step 1.

The politicians must focus on generating Jobs, improving infrastructure outside the Citys to ensure people stay in their hometowns.

I still will not have hopes of any changes, because our Language and Religion differences will keep pulling us down, and Politicians can't survive without fingering these two!

If every citizen follows law to the word, traffic rules and stop littering, without being policed, half the battle will be won!

Basically, we are not ready to take criticism positively and this quality of ours will keep us where we are forever.

Multi linguistic problem

Another instance of Hindi Vs local language conflict, where an auto driver was made the villain.

Not sure why the immigrants expect the less educated, born n brought up in smaller towns to know and learn another Language, while the educated, migrating to other states in search of white collared jobs, can't learn any other language!

It is a worldwide phenomenon and a problem/conflict faced by many countries in the world, and not a unique problem within India. Recently, Sweden announced a $34K payout offer, if immigrants decided to go back to their home country.

We Indians have to first accept the reality that "India" is a union of mini-nations, with individual identity, culture, heritage & language.

India is a loosely knit nation, as our idea of India is the State where we reside.

If every mini-nation focus on developing infrastructure, creating job opportunities and yet co-exist with mutual transactions, that's when we can superficially call ourselves "one nation" and welcome each other for transactional purposes.

Let's Celebrate - Part 4

Tata Airplane

As you enter/exit the Delhi Airport, there is this beautiful and imposing stretch of wide, well made Road and the passersby can get stunning views of Flights taking off and landing.

And people park by the side to take pictures, selfies & for Reels.

What caught my attention however is a group of people standing on a small heap of Mud to get a better view of the Flights. With each sighting of Flight they were clapping & waving, the innocence was a happy feeling, with no Mobile clicks but were consuming what they were witnessing with an ecstatic feeling.

It reminded me of our younger days in the old Bangalore Airport, where we could have similar sightings of Flights up close behind the Gallery as we waved Goodbye to our Uncles even as they entered the Flight.

The excitement and elite feeling was there as we started travelling by Air, but as we all become frequent flyers, it's only a pain to wake up early, stand in long Queues, those security checks, impatient copassengers, long walks, knees and legs begging for space, neither can you sleep or sit, yet one guy will be snoring aloud!

What does Krishna mean to you?

He is my source of strength, he is my source of belief, he is the light, he is the music, he is Love, he is an emotion, he is the calming sound of the crystal clear waters of the Yamuna river.

Krishna is exquisite, he is a friend, he is a Guru, he is a bliss. Krishna is my protector, Krishna is my saviour...I feel him, I connect to him, he knows me, I know him!