Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Smart City


Build me a smart city that borders the seas,
By Malabar Hill where there’s plenty of breeze.
Where flowers grow on uncluttered streets,
And single-screen theatres play old movies.

Build me a walled city that’s free of crime,
Where no one slumbers on avenues of slime.
Appoint a policeman who is honest and smart,
Who won’t bend down to robbers and farts!

Build me a city where people don’t roam aimlessly,
And, work on jobs around the corner, yes, seriously!
Two bedrooms, hall, and kitchen would do fine,
To spend insomniac nights of lying supine.

Build me a city where cell phones don't rob sleep,
Where friendships are real and grudges don't keep.
Where friends, wherever they are, return urgent calls,
And, aren't just smirking pictures on walls.

Build me a city where Internet and wi-fi are free,
There’s no need to pay income tax or parking fee.
Where media is not always breaking false news
And ad jingles don't turn ear worm and confuse.

Build me a city where nights are not darkness wrapped,
Where women are unmolested and girls unraped.
Where homeless people can sleep in night shelter,
Where smiles are warm and free is laughter.

Build me a city where men don’t dart into hellholes,
To biometric systems and cubicles without souls.
Then train-compressed commute to their tiny flats,
To canned laughter and inane dramatic plots.

Build me a city where rain doesn’t lives disrupt,
Where sewage doesn’t overflow and streets are swept.
Where a man can lay his tired head on a bed,
And say, “Oh, it was a bad, but you will always be loved.”


Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Leaving the Country!

What's this about leaving the country,
As if we don't need talented gentry,
Where do stars disappear?
And then in the night appear?
"Twinkle, twinkle," said my friend from Rajahmundry!

Friday, October 23, 2015

Limerick: Cattle Thief

This limerick just happened. I don't know, it fell from the sky:

Once in village Kidangoor there was a cattle thief
He was accused of killing cattle and eating beef
Once he had some chicken
With bird flu it was stricken
He died; in heaven he gave up meat and turned a new leaf!

Monday, October 05, 2015

GIRL STUMBLES IN MALL



You walk on heels to the crowded mall
On the tiles you trip and fall
On your orange rain shoes light
And blue jeans oh! So tight
You back pack gets soaking wet
You swing it sideways to your breast
Your hair gets wet and matted
You aren’t aware of guys besotted
You furl your wet green umbrella
What’re you staring at old fella?
Then you trip and stumble again
In a puddle created by the rain.

You are a girl just out of school
Here to date that awkward young fool
Maybe he is not the boy for you
You should go find someone new
Perhaps he’s not worth your while
Nor is he of your station and style
Does he hurt you and black mail?
Does he tease, cajole, and rail?

I follow you to the crappy food court
In a sea of plastic; see him, wasted sort
His hair like uncut grass standing
P’haps needs soap and scrubbing
Skeletal looks, pants slipping down
Arrogance on face and on brows a frown
In which social network did you find this ape?
Looks like he does molest and rape.

Well, he is not your type, so let him go
Why do you hang on to these types, so?
Then I see you stumble, one last time
Here’s my opinion, ask for it anytime
Don’t end up a junkie ‘cos of your choice
He is not worth it, just take my advice.


Saturday, August 29, 2015

A Failed Writer’s Anatomy




Your brain is a jumble of unwritten words
Your head is as bald as the Avonian bard’s
Your teeth are chipped, those that exist are sallow
Your eyes are jaundiced and are turning yellow.

Too many hours have you spent reading
Other’s words that you have tried correcting.
Your hands are calloused from too much writing
Your skin is like parchment with no sunning.

Sitting too many hours has added to your girth
I say you must stand up and write, forthwith.
Your heart’s irregular, yes, you can feel its beat
You can sense it to be your greatest defeat.

Your stomach bulges with excessive beer
Will it hold? You live in constant fear
Your chest has sunk into your rib cage
Your collar bones fight a losing scrimmage.

Your phallus droops like a lifeless exclamation
Your balls have run dry from too much fornication
Your legs are weak you can’t stand straight
They can’t bear your body’s hulking weight.

It’s only fair that you abandon your writing
Take up copy writing or letter drafting
Or, be a critic who wantonly demolishes books

And, the tender egos of those pompous crooks.

Wednesday, August 05, 2015

YOU ARE ADDICTED



You reach out to people in anger
But they don’t let you touch
Contact with you is dangerous.
You babble; you waffle for help
But they don’t hear anything.
You are afraid of falling again
You pause on the brink
You dance to a rhythm, lacking harmony.
You know what you desire
You think it’s so near
But you can’t have it.
You know money’s the problem
You know you can’t steal it
Have it; spend it;
Trash it; earn it.

Because you are addicted,
Because you aren’t yet de-addicted,
Because they lost hope, now you can’t be treated.

So, you teeter on the edge
Stumble on the ledge
Careen on the slender scarcement
Hold on to your perch
Scared you will lose hold
And come crashing down the embankment.
They are waiting for you to fall
They enjoy seeing people plunge
And crumble into blood and broken bones.

Because you know you are addicted
Because you are delimited
Because, too late, you cannot be adjusted.

There are no heights you haven’t scaled
No depths you haven’t dived
You step into home and say “Sorry Mom, Dad,”
They know there will be no return
There can’t be any compromise.
You wish you had better parents
You wish you lived in another age
On a mount called Cumbala Hill
On a street named Nepean Sea Road
In a city risen from the sea of Arabia
Smelling of dried fish and sea weed.

Because you know you are addicted
Because of what uncles and aunts predicted
Because of the way you conducted.

You are alone, always lonely
You stare into space, silent
Every time you sit down
You gravitate to that familiar space
That hides a leashed beast inside
Nerves tingling, hands shaking.
Withdrawal visits in a moment too soon
You curl like a fetus
You roar like an animal
You scream and moan like a canine.

Because you are addicted
As they had predicted
Once they have stealthily detected
Your mock cremation has been conducted.

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

PLUTO

PLUTO'S HEART
The heart that’s on Pluto isn’t benign
It’s a torn and bitter heart, full of regrets
It’s a heart that yearned for something
All of which came to nothing.

When the solar system was born
Pluto wanted to be near the sun
It wanted to be the red hot planet, Venus
Was denied and then slunk to a corner.

Pluto was the original Venus
The planet of love and beauty
But Venus’ jealousy won the day
Pluto was cast away, broken-hearted.

The Planets laughed at Pluto's misfortune
Their laughter was a galactic scream
They rejoiced in its abject misery
As if a hypocrite has been unmasked, shamed.

More insults came when it was downgraded
And called a piece of rock, not a planet
Pluto wept tears; didn’t say a word
Its tears had turned to ice in a far orbit.

Now they say Pluto is like the earth
It knows what it is to love and forsake
In its tender heart is a fiery wound
Never to heal, no, not even with cosmic love.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Terms and Conditions Apply


I love you dearly
Following terms and conditions apply
Our marriage will be in five star hotel only
Terms and conditions apply
You will prepare food the Malayali way
Terms and conditions apply
Sambar must have ten ingredients
Terms and conditions apply
Vegetables must be sliced small
Terms and conditions apply
The broth must be thick
Terms and conditions apply
The rice must be boiled brown rice
Terms and conditions apply
It must not be too sticky
Terms and conditions apply
Thorans must not be repeated every day
Terms and conditions apply
Mezhukuvaraty must be made in coconut oil
Terms and conditions apply
Idlis must be soft and fluffy
Terms and conditions apply
Vadas must be crisp and crunchy
Terms and conditions apply
If you are agreeable dear please sign this prenuptial agreement
Hereinafter, wife-to-be my terms and conditions apply.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

FACEBOOK CELEBRITY


So, you are a Facebook celebrity

Posting selfies with lips sweet and pouty;
By stony emoticon you show your emotion
Yet, we know your smile is put on, an ornamentation.

You have been to Amsterdam, London, and Paris
Your pictures are posters of nature and bliss;
Your man is rich, your home is luxurious
He is an obedient fool, so are your curs.

Whimsical, you add and delete without mercy
Anyone who upsets you will have no clemency;
You “like” a lot of good things, I guess
Your comments are generous, sans much fuss.

You support causes, share things, sign petition
Without a moment of doubt or hesitation;
Your friends love you, though, be careful
A pervert hides behind those masks beautiful.

Your poems are succinct, essays are dull
But your comments sections are always full;
Indeed, you are a Facebook celebrity
We endorse, you can say that with all sincerity.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

A DOG’S DEATH



A dog died this afternoon; since ages they have died
No inquest, no investigation, or, wreaths laid
Unsung, unlamented, but for few barking mongrels
His funereal goodbye without much fuss or laurels.

They say you are man’s best friend, but that’s a lie
You are born to guard, give company, and a trophy be
When the bark has no bite they discard you as old
No way would they keep a mangy dog, heavens forbid.

They say dogs don’t deserve rites in a h’ble world
A dog is but a dog it feels no heat or cold
It can survive on waste and go to sleep whenever
It can lie anywhere in sweltering heat, rain, or, wherever.

Why do you sleep during day and howl and bark at night?
Why are your internecine battles always fought out of sight?
“Bad Dog”, “Mad Dog”, “Sad Dog”, “Dead Dog”, they say
Without a care for your feelings, respect, I say.

Nocturnal beings, disturbers of sleep, watch dog
Why did you die under the car’s wheel, you poor sod?
You could have died a better death, had you been abroad
Here you are a “stray” into nobody’s home allowed.

I badly need a dog to take away my loneliness
How could I have adopted you in my fecklessness?
Dogs are expensive to buy and keep these days
This I can’t do unless I mend my errant ways.
Goodbye dog, be well in dog’s hell, goodbye forever!





Tuesday, January 06, 2015

The Pariah Dog

The Pariah Dog

I don’t want to be your pariah dog
Or, for that matter, your sacrificial hog.

All I want from you is some respect
Of a clean grown-up kind and aspect.

No, I don’t want your stale bread crumbs
One of the many you cast to your chums.

No, I can’t go everywhere to please you
Late nights, award nights, party nights, too.

I want to be a free bird not a pariah
I want you to know that, now, yes suh!

If you don’t want me around just say so
I will only be too glad to disappear, to go.

I don’t want to be your pariah dog
No, it won’t look good on my daily blog.

(A song in Soul, Rhythm, and Blues (SR&B) Style)

Saturday, January 03, 2015

FOR YOU SOMAN, R.I.P.

For a cousin brother who died recently:
FOR YOU SOMAN, R.I.P.
In a ward smelling of imminent death
You died; the doctors gave up hope
I am devastated, broken, brother
It could have been my tormented soul instead
God took you, the wrong man, and left me here.
All the days we played in the courtyard
Spent time together talking nonsense
Are those days gone and buried forever?
Will there be no repeats of those times?
We grew families, put food on tables
Working extra hours to pay the loans
Neglecting ourselves, for our wives and children
Till wrinkles, grey hair reminded us of time running out.
I was shocked to see you on the hospital bed
Looking a pale grey shadow of your self
Doctors said the disease has claimed you
And it’s today, maybe, tomorrow, can’t say.
You, brother, were a heavenly beam of light
Here on earth for infinitesimal time
Here we met in the interregnum of birth and death
And then you faded away and died.
Soman, my brother, rest in peace.

Thursday, January 01, 2015

A Happy New Year!


A Happy New Year!

(A Song to be sung Dylan style to the strumming of a guitar.)

For the people of Syria and Iraq displaced by war
A Happy New Year!

For the families of people who lost their lives aboard AirAsia QZ8501
A Happy New Year!

For the 141 military-school children, murdered in Peshawar
A Happy New Year!

For the hundreds who lost their lives and possession in floods in Kashmir
A Happy New year!

For the family of Michael Brown, killed by police in Ferguson
A Happy New Year!

For family of Steven Sotloff and Jim Foley killed by extremists in Syria
A Happy New Year!

For the homeless, old, starving, and dying without caregivers
A Happy New Year!

For the people of Ukraine trying not to let their country be split in two
A Happy New Year!

For the girls kidnapped and raped by extremists in Nigeria
A Happy New Year!

For the slaving construction labourers in the deserts of Arabia
A Happy New Year!

For sick people and people undergoing life-saving surgery in hospitals
A Happy New Year!

May the New Year be one of hope, caring, giving, compassion, and faith
A Happy New Year to you all!