Start Ignition

Life is a strange word. You experience it with each passing breath. Yet you fail to notice it till the time you take your last. I am yet to discover what I will do in my afterlife. Will I look back at the days gone past and get down into critical evaluation? Or will I have no recollection and start from scratch? But more importantly, what do I really expect from it? And that’s the crux of life. The gist expressed in a simple question, “What do I WANT ?” Countless authors have gone into depth trying to analyse what keeps us ticking. The irony is, most of us go through life without believing that it is really what we make of it. I realized this rather late. I am twenty six now. More than a quarter of my life mana has gone. But will you believe it, I am a man who has just undergone rebirth and feel as if I have just been born. I don’t regret my past. Every single event, every single step that I have taken had some significance somewhere in this great web which comprises not only me and you and our neighbours. Oh no, it goes way beyond what we see around us. You see, the trick is to realise that the universe, or what we can grasp of it when we mention this word, is within us. You don’t need to look at a starlit night to realise its gargantuan depth. You can feel it inside you if you want. Every nook and cranny of it. And you realise that you can shape and mould your universe the way you want it to. I have only managed to touch the tip of the iceberg. But believe me, this force that thrives inside us is so powerful that it can literally transform the Sun into a giant apple pie, if we all put our minds to it. I might be sounding delirious. “This bloke has had a little too much”, you might say. Well, I do not care a donkey’s ears what I am perceived as. This world is my toolbox. And I haven’t started fiddling with it yet !

AN UNEASY PARADISE

I have been living in one of the most coveted regions of the subcontinent for a few months now. Ravaged with controversies, disputed, troubled and scarred by centuries of armed conflict and rebellion, Kashmir has a long legacy of generating controversies and issues which have often brought two neighbouring nations at the brink of a full scale war. The fundamental question of allegiance of the Kashmiris has been addressed in many a books. The blame game has been in motion for centuries. Everything from religion to human rights have played key roles in this never ending drama. But let’s not take the liberty of observing and scrutinizing these issues from a higher realm. Let’s get down to ground zero.

Since the past few months, my twenty six year old eyes have been seeing a community whose members are as directionless as a bunch of zombies. The youth suffers from acute identity crisis due to an education system that is absolute rubbish. Religion is preached by a collection of hoodlums whose attribute of intelligence had failed to level up since the dark ages. One common feature that Kashmir shares with the rest of India is of course, the inefficiency of state run civic administration. And failure of state administration simply implies, always and every time, the failure of the local populace to generate able minded leaders who are ready to bend their backs and make things happen. Let’s also not forget the close association that this region shares with our beloved neighbour. After all, birds of same feather “tend to” flock to each other.

The question is, why are these people given special consideration? Is there no depravity in the rest of the nation? Why is the rest of the nation made to bear the brunt for a community whose majority tend to believe that self destruction and obliteration is the only path to salvation? Tell me, how does a shepherd manage his livestock when he takes them out to graze? Isn’t flogging the only method to keep them on track? Similarly, if one has to deal with a population who are reluctant to progress with the rest of the world and remain fixated to the medieval era, is there any complicated mathematics involved here? There’s so much fuss about human rights. We should be clear here that human rights can only be violated if they have been preserved in the first place. Mob violence is indicative of a weak society and to keep such a society in check, one needs to be harsh. The community here has started to exploit the kindness that has been showered on them by certain benevolent organizations. The limit of restraint is being put under the hammer time and again. Social blemishes are being absorbed while the “good people” are being shown no mercy for the tiniest of mistakes. Here’s a fair warning: there will be no looking back once these issues reach the breaking point. And then, this paradise will once again incur the wrath of hell.

Homecoming

A trail of smoke rose from a pyre,
The fallen Master’s men stood silent in fear,
And those wise among them,
Knew there was no escaping his ire.

The smoke kept rising above the flame,
Little by little, the Master left his earthly domain,
But his men in morbid fear of their imminent pain,
Lay suffering in their self induced stream of guilt and shame.

A sudden chuckle burst into the eternal void,
It ceased to exist the moment it was conceived,
No being or form claimed responsibility for this minor feat,
For it came from the fallen Master himself who could no longer be perceived.

He laughed not at his men,
But at the insignificance of it all.
He felt no loss, no grief nor pain,
For all that he left behind were nothing more than grain.
He laughed at the fragment of life that had once imprisoned him,
Of temporal feelings that had chained his soul within.

“Fear not thou foolish men”,
Was how his message to his men began,
“I want neither thy blood nor thy hushed breath,
And thy can rule thy dying Earth for all of eternity,
But let it be known that it no longer matters to me.
All my precious stones and all that gaudy gold,
For which I killed many a men and pillaged many abodes,
Thy can keep without written authority,
For it is now time for me to head back home,
And cleanse my desecrated soul from the soil which thy Earth bequeathed upon me.”

Before the Fading Tears…

A light I had seen in yonder years,
When the trees were green and the Sun was sweet.
Within my decrepit and decaying memories,
I oft saw its fading rays.
Of hope all but lost,
Of love changing to rust.
I dreamt not of rivers and hills,
But only felt the eternal suffering of existence.
Dragging my soul through burning grass,
I ended up in the hands of Mistrust.
Embracing darkness in my lifeless arms,
I rose to rule this frozen Earth.
But all was not what it seemed,
As Death awoke from its momentary sleep.
Enraged and bitter it sneered at my putrid feat,
The sky it bellowed with a deafening shriek.

Shrapnel of hatred perforated my withering cheeks,
And as I lay dying upon the ashen heath,
A sardonic laughter echoed through the mist.
It roared and roared until my ears started to ring,
And then in whispers most foul,
I heard its final verdict.
“Thy faceth judgement in this auspicious day,
I gave thee humanity but thy chose to be devoured by death.
But I being free from all malice and malevolence,
Will grant you thy final wish of salvation and eternal rest.
But beware for a moment my dear heron,
For having witnessed thy malicious intent,
My blessing thus will have its own twisted bend”.
And a blessing indeed it was which I did get,
Of perdition and solitary confinement.

The Voice from the Shadows

Come and sit beside me ye old mortals,
Let your dying God speak to thee,
I will tell ye all how thee come to such a state,
The story of thy pitiful remains.
It started when humans crawled above,
From their sepulchral graves,
And rested on their two decaying legs.
It is ye all who made thy Earth fall on her knees,
As thy slowly rose above the shadows,
That lay beside thee.

Mankind earned his ghastly gallows,
By deriving pleasure from his own miseries.
Killing and slaying all that stood in his way,
He lived to see the digging of his own grave.
Filling his puny self with abject abhorrence,
He spewed filth in a fitful rage.
In the ominous darkness that followed,
He severed his own pounding head.
Then he took that one fateful step,
And plunged into that eternal well.
Ricocheting from one wall to the other,
He plummeted into the never ending shaft
Of unfathomable suffering and hatred.
Destiny laughs at thy twisted Fate,
Makes a mockery of thy intellect.
And when thy pledged repentance,
And begged for forgiveness,
The Light above froze into Darkness,
And whispered, “Too late too late!”

Signs of Bloom

I have finally found out the truth behind happiness. Yes, it's simple. Yes, it's practical. Yes, everyone of us can be happy. So what is it? Simple:
GIVE UP!
Yes, give up your hopes. Live for the present. Live for each second you face. Don't look ahead in life. Give up hoping for things that you do not have. But don't give up dreaming! Therein lies the difference. Hope is expectation. What does expectation give us? Nothing but burns! It burns your mind. It dries up your sinews. It leaves you vacant eyed and thirsty. So stop it from overwhelming you.

But always be a dreamer. Dream everytime you go to sleep. Force yourself to dream the impossible. Dream of money laden trees, moving mountains, golden tear-drops from the heaven above. Relieve yourself of your earthly burden by dreaming. And best of all, you will never hurt anyone by dreaming!

The Fallen.

It seems I chose the path of a cynic on my own. My misanthropic sentiments and icosahedron nature causes much grief and destruction. It's a sickening feeling inside which surges out at times. I don't wan't to cause harm yet I do. I don't want to mix with anyone to cause further suffering yet I feel entangled. My malignancy causes much suffering. A pain for others to bear. Yet this thorn lives on to bring untold misery in the times that will come by. But everything dies. And so will this carginogenic existence. If I am of such grave disposition, let it come sooner. Let it engulf me and accept my embrace.