Another year end looms ahead.....

And so comes another December,
with memories to remember,
And just like the days past,
They run away, the days, so fast...

Another year end looms ahead
And another beginning begins;
And what is left out there to be said,
But a remembrance of all our sins...

A year has gone by, where so much happened
And people still live on, waiting;
For smiles that never come, disheartened
But with hope alive, speculating...

For a chance at a new day, a new beginning
To set things right, and to celebrate
Random threads pulled by the Creator upstairs,
And another New Year comes, tempting fate...

My stupid greedy heart...

There's never peace in my heart,
It lusts for more and more
Of this, of that, like a big shopping cart,
It keeps all my wishes in store...

It'll keep beating away today,
Like it did yesterday,
To say,happiness can never be mine
And I know,I can never be fine...

Try as I might, but it seems so so tough,
My heart can never be truly satisfied
With the little things, that I say are enough
Somehow, it knows that I lied....

And I hope that some day, when I stand on a hill
And look down on all that is mine, so vast
I'll find it in me, some humility still
And find some peace,somewhere, at last...

The Coffee Table

It was a small wooden table but it held tremendous importance to the 4 people sitting around it.
Every day, they gathered around their hallowed table, steaming cups of coffee or tea in hand, and discussed the
world like there was no tomorrow. The table was their rock, upon which they laid the foundation of their friendship,
around which they talked, fought, joked and occasionally, stood upon to give a rousing dramatic speech or enacted scenes from
their favourite movie.
Today, they were fighting. It was over a silly topic, which movie to go to in the evening.
But still, words were being exchanged and the 4 were at the center of attention. It was after all a small cafeteria, and
there was only so much you could do or say without being noticed.
"I don't like that actor, his hamming is worse than his stammering...." said Person A.
Tempers flared quickly on hearing this statement, Persons B and C were evidently big fans of the aforementioned actor.
"So what, it's a superhit movie, isn't it? We are going and thats it!" said C.
"What do you mean it's a superhit movie? Have you even taken the trouble of reading the reviews? Two stars!! Why do you want
to spend all your good hard earned money on a two bit movie for a guy who can't act?" came back A strongly.
"Then why did it become a super hit?" came back B even stronger.
"Because of idiots like you. Do what you want, I am not going to that movie. I can stand outside for three hours if you want....", A
was now beginning to understand that he was fighting a losing battle.

Bang! Person D had just slammed the table with his huge ham-like fist. Cups of hot coffee went flying all across.

"No one is standing outside for three hours. No one is going for a movie. Guys, its our last day in this city, our last time together...
Is this how you want to end it?" said D, hoping to bring a bit of sentiment into the discussion.

Five minutes of discussion later, all apprehensions of a bad three hours put aside, it was finally decided that no one was going anywhere.
The movie would after all come on TV in a few days. Instead, they voted for a quiet dinner there followed by drinks outside.

"Gather around guys, one last photograph....There are so many memories of us here!" said B.

And so it was that the four gathered around their rock, their one steady thing in the years that went by.
They were software engineers, and for them their coffee table knew so much more about their minds and their lives. They thought that the dripping
coffee looked like the tears that the table had shed for them; for they were leaving, maybe never to return again...

Wrapped tight across, in a thick blanket,
of silence, we sit together
And wait and wait, for the ice to break
With awkward glances here and there, and whether
You would begin, or 'twould be me
To even say, "what lovely weather!"
And I look at your eyes,they hold such promise,
But those ungrateful words fail me,
when I need them the most
You suddenly turn your head my way,
my heart's in an awful mess
I look away, unwillingly,and I think I can see
An inward smile, a sigh of relief,
You too don't know what to say...
I pick up the courage, I sit up straighter,
You pick up your bag, get up to go
I wish I had said it,sooner than later
But suddenly you smile! And suddenly I know,
As you wave goodbye today, I know what to do
There's always tomorrow, when I'll wait for you...

Tonight I yearn, to write down a song,
But somehow it seems to comes out all wrong...
And how I wish I could hum along,
To a tune, thats stuck in my head so long...

And I know, it ain't just a feeling now,
Its what I've always wanted to do,
And I just know, I just don't know how,
These words, I wanna sing them out to you...

And when I try to sing, I just can not,
Without a little tear drop escaping me
And it leaves me all muddled,sad,distraught,
Why? For it is a happy song you see...

That only I could see, a hundred ways
That each word evoked memories and brought tonight
Of you, of the smile on your face,
When I sing this song, to you, tonight.

A Night Out on the Terrace

The clock struck 2 AM. A blanket of oppressive silence was spread throughout the house, punctuated only by the intermittent snores of my dad, my granddad, and my uncle.

I lay there in silence, wondering and pondering over why my sleep took so long to come. Maybe it was stuck in traffic. Or maybe the noise had scared it away. In any case, I knew it wouldn't come very soon.

It was the start of winter, and being in Mumbai, the cold was as alien to me as aliens are.

I slipped out of my room on the second floor of my bungalow, silently, making as much noise as the ants that crept up those walls. My destination was the terrace, and I stood outside the thick wooden paneled door to the terrace with a pillow, terribly nervous and excited at the adventure that I thought I was going on. I wasn't allowed nightly jaunts anywhere, and being awake at 2 in the night was considered a grave sin punishable by... I gave up such depressing thoughts of punishment and crept on forward to look for the key to the giant Godrej lock that kept the terrace out of bounds. Luckily enough, I found it hanging on a nail on the terrace door. What luck!


It was only when I began to unlock it, that I realized the futility of the effort. The noise that the damn slide bolt made was enough to raise an army of dead. I cursed myself and my silly ideas and slid out the last part of the bolt quickly. Somehow, nobody woke up.The stentorious snores still carried on with all might and power.

Now, my house being as old and creaky as it was, creeping up the stairs to the terrace again made me jumpy at every step. I had no idea when I used these very stairs during the day that they made so much noise. I finally made it up there. It was only now that I realized that I had bought no beddings or bed sheets. Drat!

I decided to spend a few hours here in the company of the stars and return to the relative comfort of my room. I lay down with my pillow looking up at the dark blue sky.

It was a full moon that smiled back at me, chiding me for being so naughty...I looked around. Not so many stars. Hmm, why? I finally came to the conclusion that most of the stars were either shy or had called in sick because of all the polluted air.

A somewhat cool breeze was blowing in an easterly direction, and I slowly felt the calm of the night descend upon me like a comforting blanket. I had to make sure that I wouldn't slip off to sleep and cause a heart attack below in the morning. I looked around the terrace. Everything looked so different in the night, the tiles on the terrace sparkled differently in the moonlight, the iron bars reflected it in strange ghostly ways with shadows playing across the floor in amusement.

I suddenly became aware of someone watching me with great interest. It was my cat, and she was regarding me in an imperious manner. She looked at me with disgust, how could I slip off like a night burglar in the middle of the night in her territory? That was her job!

She suddenly jumped down from her perch on the railing and giving me one final disapproving look, stalked off to the stairs, presumably to complain to my parents about my adventuring.

I on the other hand, took umbrage to this, and decided to stick around a bit more, just to spite her. Who was she to boss over me? I regret it to this day, and it has only taught me one thing, never disagree with the fact that pet cats rule over their owners and it is never the other way around.

Within five minutes, my dialogues with the moon and the stars were interrupted by the arrival of my entire family with expressions ranging from anger to amusement.

The cat, on its own initiative had woken up my mother who, like all mothers are, looked around for me to put the blame on. Not finding me, she came to the conclusion that I had finally come true on my promise to either run away, or spend a night on the terrace. They decided to follow the latter option first. I was lucky that there were no hockey sticks, or other assault weapons.

My adventure at an end, I was subjected to a barrage of choice abuse and lectures in the middle of the night. I have never ever tried such adventures since. I didn't even speak to the cat for the next few days.



The cat, on the other hand, had taken up this golden opportunity to drink up all the milk that was kept in the kitchen....

Random Thoughts

The random wanderings of an empty mind,
Take me,on a journey queer
To know and feel,what i've never seen
To places far and near...

I remember the past, like celluloid strips,
And sometimes create some stories new
I feel like I'm the master of the ship,
But I knew not how the winds blew...

I think of stories, and poems, and more
And yet I don't know why,
I somehow feel maddened to the core
And I feel my mind run dry...

Oh, 'tis good to be working hard,
To perspire, to feel the sweat upon my brow,to stand tall,
And bask in the glory of just reward
But now that i think it feels much better, to not have to work at all...