The Nomad

When our ancestors found that wheat

Was a good bread to eat

They settled in Jericho.

All of us are settled now,

But in our souls there is a great woe:

We don't know where to go.

I am settled in a fine place

I own a house, I live in grace,

I have a patio

But late at night when the wind lament

And  the garden shivers - my soul is rent:

I don't know where to go.

One day when I say good-bye

To life and wife, and die and fly

somewhere in a great flow

I shall be free to roam again

I'll try to find but try in vain

Where to go, where to go.

- Henry Shore

I found this beautiful poem in the biography of JRD Tata "Beyond the last Blue mountain".....and it echoes the very emotion of the nomad within my soul. 

That's the beauty in poetry...you read a poem and find the very emotions of your soul mirrored in the words of someone else and you know that you are not alone on your road, that there have been many before you and that there shall be many who shall come after you. 

कुछ लम्हें सुकून के

रात में ढलती सुबह 

सुबह में गुम होती रात के बीच 

सपनों की रफ़्तार से भागती 

इस ज़िन्दगी में 

dhundhti हूँ कुछ लम्हें सुकून के |

सुबह सुबह दौड़ते हुए 

गरम टोस्ट और चाय की दो चुस्कियों में,

हडबडाहट में निगले 

माँ के प्यार से भरे लंच के डब्बे में,

शाम की काफ्फी के अरोमा से  

गुम होती दिनभर की थकान मे,

dhundhti हूँ कुछ लम्हें सुकून के |

कभी,

किताबों के पन्नो में छुपी कविता कहानियों में,

कभी,

दोस्तों के साथ बिताये लम्हों में,

कभी,

गानों की धुन में बहते हुए 

कभी,

रात के सन्नाटे में बहती हवा के स्पर्श में,

कभी,

मोंसून की पहली बारिश में भीगते हुए,

कभी,

अपनी छोटी से दुनिया से परे बसी विशाल दुनिया

देखने की कल्पनाओं में, 

dhundhti हूँ कुछ लम्हें सुकून के |

छोटी सी इस ज़िन्दगी में,

सब सपनों को जी जाने की

बहुत कुछ पाने और कर जाने की 

इस मह्त्वकान्षा की दौड़ में 

क्षणभर को थमकर

दूर से

दुनिया के इस समंदर में,

बहती अनगिनत जिंदगियों की धाराओं की 

छोटी छोटी खुशियों में 

dhundhti हूँ कुछ लम्हें सुकून के |

Real beauty

Real beauty is what the eyes of a mother see, every time she looks at her child. The love that stirs within the depths of her hearts making her child the most beautiful thing for her, wiping away everything else.

Real beauty is what you see through the trusting eyes of children, who with their faith believe that this world is a beautiful place, where no harm can ever reach them. Who entrusting the beauty of that faith, trust us with their hearts, mind and soul to nurture them.

Real beauty is what you see within the delight of a child running down a playground, in the face of a flower that makes u smile, in the moment which is long gone, but is a memory that makes the times gone by beautiful. In the memory that lasts with you like a light to light up the darkest moment of your life with it's beauty.

Real beauty lies in anything that touches our heart, soothing it, filling it with delight, irrespective of how long it lasted and what it looked like. What matters is not what can be seen on the surface but what shines from within.
                What matters is not what it looked like rather what it felt like while it lasted.

(This post was written as part of an entry in the IndiBlogger contest 'What real beauty means to you ?' )

The Choice

Over the years she had filled up every inch of her loneliness with work. All the while it seemed she was missing a lot, but she was so full with what she had, that all that which she was missing neither mattered nor did she care about it. She was happy with what she had. She had made a choice and locked up a few things and forgot about the key.


One day she found the key again. Opened the door and beyond it she found all that she was missing. She found all that she had chosen to forget. It was all so beautiful while she stood at the threshold and watched. Lured, She walked in. And it all turned into chaos and she was lost..


Gradually, she found her way back to the door again. Quickly turned the key and walked away. But this time she could not leave the key forgotten. She could not remember why she had chosen to lock away something as beautiful as what she saw beyond the door from her life. And One day, she opened the door again but this time, instead of venturing inside, she just stood watching from the door. It was all stunningly beautiful to watch, yet she could recall how the moment she had entered in last time it had all turned from beautiful into a dreadful mess, a tiring, trying and confusing chaos. A chaos where she had no clue of where she belonged, who she was and what did she want. She just stood there looking on for a long time before closing the door and walking away again.


This time she was consciously aware of the reason that had led her to her choice. She knew that there lay a world just as beautiful and just as complete as the world she had once dreamed of. But she could not be a part of it. She was one of those people who enjoy things behind the door by looking at them silently from afar. Just as there were others who enjoyed what she was creating from afar. She knew she was not complete and she knew her life even when filled with work was still empty. But She had found her peace in the choice she had made, even though she was missing a lot while living it because while she was living her choice she was at peace with what she did have and did not. 


And now she always kept the key with her. And she opened the door, whenever she grew weary of her choice and the emptiness it came with. She stood looking from afar filling herself and then locked the door to return back to her world. Holding on to the key like a child holds on to the world of his fantasies. It exists in the mind and the reality of the child but so does the world and the child lives in both. The world he walks in and the world he enjoys looking at . And however hard it may seem to him, He cannot live in the fantasy happily forever just as She could not live torn between her choice and her dream.

In the Rain

I walked on,
leaving behind
the walls of the world,
I am caged in.

I walked on,
feeling the rain seep within
feeling the cold drops sliding down my naked skin
feeling the calm soak within, embalming my bleeding soul

I walked on,
letting
the song of falling rain,
drown
the noise of restlessness
threatening to engulf me in.

Breaking free

far and long into the rain.

I walked on,
feeling alive with every new step.

I walked on
till the fire
raging within turned into embers
to rise again,
from the ashes of Peace within.