Steps of Love

Holding Us in an Embrace,

Two hearts melt in silent rage.

Yearning Eyes search in the other,

Finding Souls that seek another.

Late now to be afraid,

Love now, & celebrate.

How Beautiful

Long tresses caressed,

Sway them Away,

Winds of my Passion.

Hungry kisses bloom,

ignite the dark room,

Flashes of Lustful Light,

Pulse through the Night.

Day breaks,

makes space,

How Beautiful,

might it have been,

had she stayed.

~nanda

7 A.M

Bulbul's last day of School,

She would be free tomorrow,

She would be at college tomorrow.

"I have college at 7 tomorrow"

She woke up at 6 tomorrow,

She dressed up for college tomorrow.

She was there at 7 tomorrow,

In an empty class, all by her own,

An hour later, there were many more.

She was there at 7 again, tomorrow,

In an empty class, all by her own,

"I have college at 7 tomorrow"

She was there at 7 again, tomorrow,

In an empty park, resting on His shoulder,

"I have college at 7 tomorrow"

~nanda

Aside:

Inspired by the regular sight

of lovers in a park during

my morning runs

RUN !!

My extremely short animated video :D

A Word

He Wrote the word with Earnest Care,

Chisseling out Letters in a Tender Embrace,

Nervous Fingers balked at the task,

To engrave the unsaid, All In a Single word.

Unformed Unfathomable Words, That

Weighed Too Heavy for lips to Utter,

Words which pulled the Lips to a Kiss, Words

Which only two love-lorn lips would procreate.

Jailed in her Jolts, Unable to Escape an Express,

Aspiring to let them fly free, he fluttered

Sensuous Strokes that would tell a Tale Of

How a Thousand words wouldn't bear that which,

Only a Lone Word, would out-weigh, and Paint in

Myriad Hues with his Delving pulse A Picture,

All Captured in a word, in a name, in her name.

~

nanda

~

The Lashing Rain froths up a Calm,
A Placid Peace Prevails in its Noise.

No, its Music. As a Million Beats
Throb the Muddy Ground, Coaxing out a Kiss.

They Stand 'neath a tree, Seeking Refuge
from Invading Drops, that Only Suck them Closer.

She welcomes his Arms around her, A fortress
that he builds, under his brooding brows.

He envies the promiscuous drops, as they cheat
their way onto Her Lips, Leaving behind,
A Trail of Lust, which he Furtively Follows,
with a trembling delicate invisible finger..

He claims her succulent treasure, as she surrenders,
not with shame, but with a burning flame,
That Devours. And when the rain seeks recompense,
they bite a small nip, and Ooze a drop of blood,
that falls along, A sacrifice, to satiate the rain-drops,
with their share of Life, and they leave to scourge,

For another Place, For another Pair,
For another Drop..

~nanda
0230 hours

Sharpened Pencil

A String Of Haiku Poems that tell A Story:

Sharpened I, My Pencil Twice,
To Carve In A Page,
Letters Of Love, In Rage..

Silence Evades, the Nil Night,
A Rick-shaw sputt-ers,
Dogs Howl, Adding Voice To Noise..

Feets Ache, Sleep Beckons Embrace,
Red Bed Light Nudges,
No, I Stave, A Lyric Waits.

Winds Arouse, Rustles O' Leaves,
Breeze Please, Take my Fees,
Grant me Three Poems, On Lease..

~1~
Lux-ury, To Admire Rain, Or
A Fi-ery Lady
In Bed, You Have it Made, Mate!

~2~
Sa-ree Clad Beauty in White,
Mad Mon-soons Soak Her,
Gods' Greed Claim Her, Be-fore Me..

~3~

Her Lips Tremble in Mur-Murs,
As I Suck Her Breath,
Tremors Can Quake, In Love's Act..


And So the Sa-ga Does End,
Of Leased Mid-Night Poems,
My Pencil Blunts To A Bow..

To Be Sharpened Yet Again,
Twice, Or Maybe Thrice
Perhaps, On Another Night..

6.6.11
~1:00-3:30am
"Nights Belong to Poets and Madmen"
Who Might I Be?

-nanda

A Diner Affair

Darkness Sweeps the Noisy City
Into a Moment of Calm, & before
A Semblance of Soul could Stir,
The Many Lights were Thrust On.

The time past dusk left the moon,
Perching high in the night sky,
A mere cotton ball, unable to cool
The baked Earth of the summer day.

Walking along these basked paths, which
In their heat desperately try to Melt
Their way into my day-long Chastity, Beads
Of Sweat Leave me, fall to their advances.

While They evaporate into nothingness,
I walk Past Along a path that leads
To a tiny Diner, Dark Amber Light
From where, Leaks out into the Night.

Just Two tables fill the quaint space,
An Old man with A Pipe Sits in One,
Fuming Alone, filling with circles
Of Smoke that Dance a way to escape.

I take the other table in the corner,
Sink into the hard chair, which Creaks,
Ask for a glass of White Sparkling Wine,
To Twinkle in this Starless Night.

Deep Rivers of Age, Course Along the
Old man's Visage, Weathered look he wears,
And spews like an ol' vintage steam train,
Hoary Like him, That crossed many a terrain.

The old man's smokes billow away,
Where the wind carries it away,
No, it is not a breeze, that i see,
In stepped a Lady, behind the mist I see.

As the Fog vanishes, the old man douses
his pipe, in the presence of a fine Lady,
An ol' Train like he would chug to a Stop,
Smoke Snuffs Out Lest it tarnish Frail Beauty.

She ponders where to sit, Or not,
The other table is full, of Dishes and Age,
On the other Glitters a Glass of Lonely wine,
She sits in front of me, with a smile.

I sneak a glance each time over my glass,
Once, at those twitching red lips deciding
What to choose, Twice, at her long curls,
Wishing they spiral, into me, into me.

It takes me 2 glasses to push the glass away,
And I now without a shield, without a prop,
Feel foolishly ready, arch to reveal myself,
What Am I doing? I hold my chin and look away.

I look away, and hear a soft chuckle,
I look away, past her Pretty Floral Skirt,
I look away, and a whiff of her fragrance
Brings me back Snugly, Towards her, Into her.

They bolster Me to look her in the Eye, In that
faint amber light, Spirals of her Milky White Eyes
Ensnare me into those Dark Oceans of mystery,
Lured by them, I drown, I shriek, pleasurably.


The lady of Beauty, Beautiful eyes is she..

What Is time, I not know now, I Sway there,
As those Eyes Puppet me, Where Am I, Am I
Where I need to be, Why What where and why? When
My I is killed, by the Lady of Beautiful Eyes.

The Feast is past, Now is the time to part,
She asks for Dessert, No don't desert me I weep,
"Blueberry cheese Cake" said she, "Make that two"
"One for me, and another for my ............"

The Old man Smiles at Us both as He Leaves,
A Black Hat to his Chest, Blessing? Or Wishing,,
A Radio kicks in with a Mellow Old Tune,
"Life is made Sweet, In a Moment or Two..."

Lady of Beautiful Eyes - II

Yellow Blossoms crowd around to capture her,
"Quick", they say, "Enslave the Essence for our Vibrance"
But a Pinch of Red lips & a Dash of Nighty Lashes Trounce them,
Yellows Blossoms, thou can't usurp the beauty, of the Lady of Beautiful Eyes.

Love Quartets - I

A Naked Page

She left a hair, Coiled around the Pages of my Book,
I traced a finger, along the Curvy Silky road..
Each letter it touched, lost it's Voice, Disappeared,
Now I stare, A Naked Page, framing a Vestige of her Grace..


A Dip In Bliss

A Damp Dark Night Cloaks Us Into Intimacy,
Making our Ways into Another, Under the Light of Familiarity,
Inching closer to the Warmth, Breathing our Lives into the Other,
Finding No Words to Address Another, We Speak into A Kiss, A Dip in Bliss

Happy Valentine's Day

Lady Of Beautiful Eyes

Oh Lady of Beautiful Eyes,
Making Everything Seem so Nice,
Did Magic Make those Eyes?
Or did they make Magic? those Pretty Pretty Eyes..


~~~~

I looked at them Bleaming Gleaming Eyes,
And wondered If I ever felt so Alive,
One can die a thousand more Lives,,
To be Cradled Alive by the Lady Of Beautiful Eyes..

A couple of Quartets for the Lady Of Beautiful Eyes..

A Silly Girl

A silly happy girl was she, her little girl,
Ammi rued, "Ammi Ammi", she screamed,
"Ammi the days are just a few more"
"We are getting a new bride home!"

"Yes Sana, a new bride for us", she smiled into a mirror,
The lady in it looked back at her and corrected
the fake smile with a twitch of her painted lips,
And applied support for lying eyes with dark mascara.

Ammi slaved herself the ensuing days to the ceremony,
She noosed round her head a dupatta to drown
The merry noise of her silly girl who longed for
the bride like a mother does for a new-born ..

Today the Nikaah, Ammi surrendered where she stood
Wilting as holy lines usurped her place and bestowed it,
On the new bride, while her silly girl celebrated and completed,
A happy picture with the bride and her Abba Jaan..

Tonight the first night, Ammi moved out of their room,
She took to her new bed and lay lifeless in a coffin,
Her silly girl entered prancing around, stinging Ammi,
"I am so happy Ammi, a new bride for our home!"

Ammi fought her rage, she is only a silly girl,
Her Abba will now not be her's only now, let alone mine..
Sana's hand circled her from behind, let me alone in grief
she tried a protest, "I waited so long for this Ammi", Sana said.

"I have you now for always, I will never be alone"
"I will never have nightmares, I can talk with you till I sleep"
Ammi gripped on to Sana's hands, drops of tears trickled by,
She wiped them away, faced and pulled her to her bosom.

"Yes silly girl, you have me for always now"


Aside:
Why I wrote this-

Almost ALL my posts have something to do with my experiences.
This also. It happens that sometimes just before I dip into sleep,
the intermediate stage between consciousness and sub-consciousness,
I imagine things, day-dream. So, one day I imagined a young
girl is happy that her father is getting married again, and her mother
is also in this scene talking to her. After I woke up, I wondered, how can
anyone be happy about this. After some thinking, I found this ending to be
a plausible explanation. what made me imagine such scenarios? I do not know!

ಸರೋವರ

ಹನಿ ಹನಿಯಾಗಿ ಬೆಳಿದು ಭೂಮಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ವಿಕಾಸವಾಗುವೆ ,
ಚುಕ್ಕೆ ಚುಕ್ಕೆಯಾಗಿ ಸಾವಿರ ಸೂರ್ಯನ ಅಲೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸುವೆ ,

ನೀ ಸೃಜಿಕರ ಸರೋವರ ..

ತಾಪದಲ್ಲಿ ತಂಪಾದ ಚುಂಬನ ತಾಗುವೆ ,

ಪ್ರೇಮಿಗಳ ಹಿಂಜರಿಕೆಯನು ಕರಿಗಿಸುವೆ,

ಒಲವಿನ ಸರೋವರ ..

ಪ್ರಾಣಿ ಪಕ್ಷಿಗಳು ಜೀವಾಧಾರವ ಬಯಸಿ ಬಂದರು,

ಮಾನವರು ಜೀವನೋತ್ಸವ ಅರ್ಚಿಸ ಬಂದರು,

ಜೀವಚೇತನ ಸರೋವರ ..

ಕಾಲ ಯಾನದಲ್ಲಿ ಆವಿಯಾಗಿ ಕಾಣದಾಗುವೆ ,

ಗ್ರಹಿಸಿದೆವು ನಾವು , ನಿನ್ನ ಮೂಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಗುಳಾಮಿಗಲೆಂದು

ಮಾಯಜಾಲವೆ ನೀನು, ಸರೋವರ ..

Translation:

Drop by Drop you Grow and Bloom on Earth,
And create a thousand Suns like stars in your ripples,
You are the Lake of Creation.

In the heat you lash soothing kisses,
and Melt the Hesitation between lovers,
Oh Lake Of Love.

Birds & Animals come to quench their life,
People come to celebrate the festival of life,

Life Infusing life, Sarovara...

With passage of time, you disappear like a spirit,
And we realise, how you enslaved us under your spell,
You are a Net of Magic, Sarovara...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~

~~

Thanks to Khushi for Kannada Edits

Background music-

Artist: Shigeru Umebayasi

Movie: In the Mood For Love

Sound Editing Software used-

Audacity(Go Freesource!)

Flute background-

Raag Bhairavi

Lyrics - Music(flute) - Sound Editing - Photography

Nanda

She Did Not Know

She held in her dirty hands,
A Clean Crisp Note.
She touched her Chin to it,
To soil the note.
She held in her dirty hands,
A Once Crisp note,
How & Why it lay in her hands,
She did not know.

She remembered collecting bottles,
To give somewhere,
She remembered collecting plastic,
To give somewhere,
And She remembered the crisp note,
It came from there somewhere.
But What she would do with it,
She did not know.

She saw people, clean and bright,
Walking hurriedly along.
She saw cars, glossy and fast,
Flying people along.
She tried to look at herself,
She saw a cloth in rags.
She felt her rough stiff hair,
It too was in rags.

She sat in this safe place where none,
Might drive her away.
Other People too sat there, she would tense,
But Buses would soon take them away.
Others saw her, dirty and looking with lost moist eyes,
What is she doing here?
Before they could Wonder and Answer her,
The buses Thankfully took them Away.

A lone man saw her, spent his time and let buses pass,
He wanted to answer her.
He went to her and handed his pocket of coins.
Take it he said, to those moist eyes.
She looked at him and the coins, She did not know why,
She paused, wondered, and took it.
The man went and searched for buses to take him away,
He had answered her, he felt relieved.


She held in her dirty hands,
A once crisp note,
And She held in those dirty hands,
A few shiny coins.
She took out a coin, and looked into it,
She saw someone familiar in it.

She held in her dirty hands,
Notes and coins,
How and Why she got it, What to do with it,
She did not know.
She took out a coin again and looked into it,
And saw that someone again.
Who was that who looked back, she wondered,
She just did not know.

She looked at people, walking hurriedly along,
Could anyone answer her, she wondered.
She did not know.

-nanda
True happenings with imagined feelings.

Life throws at you some powerful moments,
Out of everyday simple life.
You can either take it and try to feel it,
Wonder why and why not.
There might be no answer.

Or you can always just take a bus,
And run away from it.

Das M.A, L.L.B

Reader-friendly pdf here:pdf

Das M.A, L.L.B stepped on to the bus and took his usual seat. Marked reserved for senior citizens like him, 65 years and above. It was a pair of seats at the end of bus, just behind the rear wheels. He thought it illogical to seat old men at the bumpiest part of the bus. “Oh well, It really doesn't matter in the end”, he felt.

Over the years, people lost track of his full name. His qualifications gradually took on the role of his surname, and his surname stood now for his first. What was his first name? It took a second even for himself to fish it out of his foggy memory. He wished he too didn't end up losing it in course of time. He adjusted his heavy spectacles oiled with age over his ears and thought that even if he did forget, “Oh well, It really doesn't matter in the end”

The bus would leave this first stop exactly at 9:30 AM. Plus or minus ten minutes. And Das would be on it every alternate day. He alternately visited his only immediate family, his son and daughter, since his wife had departed and he had sold away his house soon after. He paid these visits more to spend time with his grand-children than to see his children. He loved his grand-kids and they too loved the bespectacled old man with white hair who wore only white. He carried chocolates for them every single day and so he held them in his sway. His son, however would drop him at his daughter's house the next day. Why to trouble his son in this manner he worried sometimes. “Oh well, It shouldn't matter in the end”, he felt.

On these bus days, he would quietly observe the stream of passing passengers. At any time, he would see people across all ages. Looking out of the window, he would see more people. Everyone has a place to be, a place to go to. Life is one long Journey. Life is Motion. Life has a final destination? Everyday you need to be somewhere. And there are days when you wish you weren't where you were. “Oh well, It doesn't really matter in the end”, he sighed.

Today he saw a child with his mother. The small boy wore his uniform of khaki shorts and blue checked half-shirt. He looked gloomy. His mother on the other hand showed evident displeasure. The boy didn't do well in his tests perhaps, Das thought. He laughed to himself. The boy's mother probably was thinking that she bore a failure. He vaguely remembered instances of his own son and wife in such situations. And he chortled a little bit more discreetly. He felt like telling the mother, “Oh don't worry, You'll see that in the end, it really doesn't matter”

Halfway through the trip, the bus was crowded and many were standing. Among them was a middle aged man, 40 perhaps, or 50. Das saw him holding on to his luggage and was finding it difficult to balance and stand. He was eyeing people who were sitting one-by-one. Das thought he was trying to evoke sympathy and get himself a seat to sit. Das saw uncertainty in the man. Das remembered his middle-age phase. You have to give up a lot on how you used to be. You have to prepare yourself for what eventually you'll end up to be. Like everything, this also will pass, Das felt like telling the man. “And in the end you'll see, that it really doesn't matter”

It was now the last stretch of the journey and a young man came and sat just in front of Das. He was wearing a strap bag on his shoulders and now he kept it on his lap. He looked smart, and Das thought he must be in college or probably he might even be working. And of all the people, Das had seen today, this young man looked the most sullen. He was staring out of the window and it seemed like he was trying to spot clouds, and then find the silver lining in them. He was lost in the deluge of the infinite blue sky. Das saw him tensely gripping a phone in his hand and every now and then, he would stop looking out and glance at his phone like he was expecting something to happen. Poor man was tormented and it could mean only one thing. Only one thing can put a man, in the prime of his youth through such torture. It had to be a woman. Maybe he is just missing her or maybe they had a fight and he is worried, Das thought. And Das knew quite well how it felt to be so. He remembered his courting days with his yet-to-be wife. He unexpectedly had to work temporarily in a different city far away from her. With passions flying between them, he remembered the only way to satiate them was through writing letters. But this meant the correspondence would often take 3 days and sometimes up to even 6. He remembered how he felt when her letters would arrive,

I Read this Letter of Letters,
Where the River of Ink courses through,
I follow along the Curves and their Loops,
Which Promise Me My Fiery Desire.

They Pull me towards in Spirals,
I Lose myself in their Sweet Speech,
And Blind myself in the Images that Reflect,
They Pour me with Life, Her Letters of Life.

Lost in these thoughts, he awoke in a jolt from them. His stop was now just a minute away. He felt like talking to the young man, “Oh young man, brighten up! The passions will pass, the torments will end, your love will be yours, and your's alone. And then you will see with time that, in the end, it all really doesn't ..”

Before Das could finish the sentence in his mind, he saw the young man suddenly sit up. He was glowing now. And the sun too had changed sides to cast rays upon him. Das was surprised and was at a loss to comprehend what had happened. He stared clueless at the young man, and as he arose to proceed towards the exit, he caught a glimpse of the phone in the young man's hand. And there on the screen were displayed just two characters.

And there on the screen were just two characters- :)

Das had learnt what that meant a few months back from his grandchild. His past flashed by him all over again. He wished he could relive, and escape those difficult times like this young man did, in just an instant. He remembered those days of wait to hear from her, those harrowing days of agony, sweeping all over him. Thoughts of his Khushi visited him all over again.
How he had wished he could be with Khushi always,
How he had wished there would not even be a grain of friction between them, and
How he had wished there would not even be a second of time uncommon between them.

Khushi, talk to me,
Khushi, write to me,
Khushi, come to me,
Khushi...

He tried to shrug off these thoughts, and he knew he would fail.
He heard a faint voice whispering, “In the end, it really doesn't ...... ”

But Das chose not to listen to that voice.

-nanda

for Khushi
:)