A tuppence for you

Grumpy days in winter

2010-11-25T02:43:00.000-08:00

Its 7 am and the alarm goes
Struggling to even hear it go
Its too comfy in bed with toasty toes
But no, its time to Tally Ho!!

7 30 and it is panic mode on
Dont ask me about the last half hour
Have to leave soon and its not even dawn
Grumpy already, and increasingly sour

The underground madness to face, Drat!
Small pleasures in life there are
When you can scurry in like a mountain rat
Through the scores of people near and far

And finally get your own little space
Owning a pointy umbrella does help
Noone dares come near my face
Any closer, and poke I will and you will yelp!

Cold and wet and angry
I finally make it to office
Feeling so so hungry
The day already seems to lose its fizz

Everything I see today
Reminds me of my favorite food
Lunchtime is far away
So work away, trying to be good

Lunch goes and then comes tea time
A little bit of break to chat and breathe
And to write this nonsensical rhyme
Back to the grinding work it is

The hardest bit of work day
Is the last hour before it comes to a close
The sun sets and it is not so gay
I miss Vit. D's much needed dose

With my backpack I make my way home
Reversing my steps of the morning
Better mood and polite people some
My umbrella point is in hiding

A hot meal to end the day's misery
And a double series of Frasier
Makes me nice, warm and lazy
and bearing winter easier!!

Tomorrow maybe the sun will shine
In spite of the arctic winds outside
Depressing it is the cloud with rain
Sucks your soul from the inside

hope it is that keeps me going
Day after day in this season
Waiting for sun, and happiness
And any other warm reason!!

So long.

Consumer is King!

2008-10-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

Ive spent hours with the consumer
Looking for that elusive insight
But I hear not a sound nor a murmur
For its forever out of sight!

And then I think and think and think
To get the right words to frame
A sensible insight on paper with ink
But none to me that came.

Anyways, as always, there is something
Which can be passed on as 'eureka'
Beauty is a superficial plaything
asli khoobsoorati ko kisne dekha?

Thus came about floating in the air
A big balloon from around the globe
Trying to turn all maidens fair
Which could very well have been done on adobe

The intent is pretty, its sheer poetry
Beauty has no age, no caste no creed no bar
But a pink balloon with a bathtub frothy
Might be taking it a bit too far!

Much as I may scorn all this as nonsense
While still playing along as a marketeer
As a consumer, I love being a little dense
And succumb to the message from the beauty seers

The same nonsense makes me go gaga
And nod emphatically at the dialogues
As if we are together in this great saga
And everybody else are a bunch of rogues

No matter who one is, what one does,
One still loves to be understood
And let everyone make such a fuss
over an insight inspiring greater good!

Superstar

2008-08-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

The name appears
The crowd roars
Then hoots and whistles
Mobs on the floor

One word is spoken
There is hushed silence
The sentence over
The noise deafens

One finger raised
All watch in anticipation
Hold their breaths
And leave in fusion

One cigar is flicked
And then loud applause
Bones are broken
Without a pause

What magic, what spell
whats that chant?
Its not hard to tell
Cos its Rajnikant!

Long Drive anyone?

2007-09-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

I kept reading one of my friend's blogs with great interest about the myriad journeys he undertook with his splendid new car. Very impressive. Very very super i say! How it must be to slide behind the wheel of your swanky car, your OWN car please to note and drive around (again please to note..DRIVE yourself) to wherever you want to go, blasting music of your choice..aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh...Seems like nirvana. Me, who when first heard the term "sliding behind the wheel" and asked "Which one? Front or back? and WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT?" took some time to appreciate that driving is a task of not only great skill but also only for the brave. Everytime i get driven around, i appreciate the driving skills of my driver the way Arjuna revered Lord Krishna's. In fact, getting onto the road is like being in the middle of a war. It all depends whether your "sarathy" can take you across safely or not.
It is my dream to one day be able to learn how to drive and do it as effortlessly as my other talented friends. Well, I did learn how to drive and I do have a license by the way. Very proudly i would flash it if only my photograph in it was flattering but anyways. This license that I have is for a 4 wheel light motor vehicle and for a geared motorcycle. IMPRESSIVE isnt it? I still remember the woeful days when I would be rudely awakened from my nap because the driving school chappie had come. Sleepily I would go and clock 45 minutes of driving time everyday. Excitement had dwindled away from the first day. First lesson. Eyes shining, I slipped into the driving seat. Happily I realize that there is a second set of controls with the coach. (don’t know what to call him). We hit the roads. First signal. I am asked to brake gently. And I hit the accelerator abruptly. (Those days I was so much into rebellion that it was in my very subconscious all the time I suppose). Car hurtles to the centre of the junction. Brakes screeching all around me. But thankfully, the second set of controls came to our rescue. Thoroughly chastised for this lapse, I resume my lesson. Keep to the centre the chap said. The white line on the road should be positioned bang in between your left and right wheels. The novice me couldn’t spot the line. So as not to repeat my goof up, I promptly stood up while the car was moving so that I could keep an eye on the line and position it as I was asked to. A la riding a cycle standing up. One swerve and another swear and finally we reached the end of the lesson. And so continued my lessons, each day getting more eventful because of my half asleep state. Finally it was the day to apply for license. (it was package deal with the driving school you see). I queue up amongst many other eager drivers in the snake like line for license. After a couple of hours, I finally reach the counter.
Clerk: Name, Age, Blood group, Address….hmm all details are there.
Me: Yes sir.
Clerk: Hmmm….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......MOTORCYCLE? WITH GEARS?!!
Me: Standing tall with pride: Yes sir!!
Clerk: Oh! What do you mean by that?
Me: Scooter Sir. ( by now I am giving the clerk the “omygod why are you so dumb” look.
Clerk: Ah…Scooteraa?? Which scooter? Kineticaaa?
Me: VESPA Sir. (Ah all those driving sessions with poor dad in the back seat and me screaming instead of pressing the horn, while I drive right into a middle of a herd of goats….but that’s for another day)
Clerk: hmmmmm (now he is giving me that “yeah right, you wish” look)
But he signs the form anyways.
Clerk: Go down this hall, the second door to the left for your theory test.
Me: Yes sir.
A hop, skip and jump later I am in another queue for the theory test. There is a long board with all the road signs and their meanings. I quickly mug them up. Those days, I used to be very good at remembering stuff. And so it was no surprise that I could come out of the test with flying colors. I am told to return the next day for driving test.
My heart sinks. All memories of my cousins and friends proudly describing their tests come to me. “You will be asked to make an “8” in the middle of a ground.” I go weak in my knees. The day of the test dawns. I drag my mom along. I need a shoulder to cry if I make a fool of myself. My biggest worry was the “SCOOTER TEST” if it happens. Cos I dint remember anything of a scooter. Test time. I am given a car. There is another chap sitting next to the driver seat. He beckons me to sit behind the wheel. By now I know what it means so I do as asked. And I am instructed to hold the wheel and look straight ahead. I do so. The car zooooooooooooooms ahead. I manage to keep a straight face. The car stops. Reverse zooooooooooooms back to right where it started from. The examiner gives an approving nod. I get out. License signed. Scooter is forgotten. By everybody. So there I am, a proud but underserving owner of a license.
Now its time to justify it I guess…..To redeem myself.

The song remembers when

2007-09-12T03:36:00.000-07:00

One day, sitting alone and despondent on a wintry night, i was trying to inject some excitement in my life by trying to listen to new songs. After a series of "not good, forward to end" songs, i stumbled upon this song called "The song remembers when...". I dont want to post the entire lyrics here but to give you a glimpse...

I was standin' at the counter
I was waitin' for the change
When I heard that old familiar music start
It was like a lighted match
Had been tossed into my soul
It was like a dam had broken in my heart
After taking ev'ry detour
Gettin' lost and losin' track
So that even if I wantedI could not find my way back
After drivin' out the mem'ry
Of the way things might have been
After I'd forgotten all about us
The song remembers when....

The song remembers when...a phrase i had never heard before...never considered. But now it seems so true! I started looking around my folder and playing those long forgotten songs one by one. I realised I had forgotten what it was like to wake up to "Take my breath away" blasting from my comp alarm clock.Had forgotten that the last time i had played those four songs in a loop, i was biting my nails trying to resolve a misunderstanding with a dear friend. Had forgotten how it was being made to dance to American Pie in front of strangers while ragging was going on. Had forgotten how i used to love singing Malarndhu Malaradhu with my mom. Forgotten those long walks in the middle of the night humming "Starry Starry Night..".So many forgotten memories. All came forward one by one as if taking a bow again in front of the nostalgic audience when the right song played. Yes. The song remembers when. It was like being transported back in time. Suddenly i felt old. Tired. Corrupted. Bereft of the happy innocence that was me a few years ago. WHat had changed? Well, the whole world along with me. But then, those songs are still there. Though forgotten, they are still there in the folder "Misc". And the songs remember when...

the mumblings which went blank!

2007-08-16T00:39:00.000-07:00

There are times I wonder
Why life has turned out like this
Wonder why don’t I just surrender
To ignorance, for aint that bliss?

Knowledge is power so it is said
Only the knowledgeable rule
Ignorants! Oh! Off with their heads!
Still the parliament is a nursery school.

Anyways in the hustle and bustle
Its hard work to smell the roses
With a shove here and there a scuffle
To survive without bleeding noses.

Cynical this rhyme has become
What happened to good old limericks?
Probably the next one and some
Humour might just do the trick

Revival...

2007-08-15T23:46:00.000-07:00

An inspiration…

Is what I need to restart this blog

A witty creation

Is what I need to clear my mind’s fog

A devine intervention

Is what I need to get both together

A praise worth mention

Is what I need to continue for ever

A suitable mission

Is what I need to mobilize the crowd

Unmentionable fashion

Does the same thing, though in a manner loud

An ambient fusion

Of all the above, I hope to achieve

A flourish as Branson,

I hope this world I shall peeve.!!!

Mumbling away

2007-05-17T02:02:00.001-07:00

Mumblings...

2007-05-17T01:59:00.000-07:00

Me n My Diary...

2006-06-13T01:13:00.000-07:00

There was a time when I
Would write a diary regularly
My joys n sorrows, my pen would fly
Over those pages daily.
Someone had told me that it is
a habit one must cultivate
And hence i wrote piece by piece
Of describing the events on that date.

Then it went from mere description
To perception, emotions, to my dreams
Every night in reclining position
I filled up reams n reams

I wrote with such fervor
Even I was surprised
All the freedom n all pressures
Went in the diary, gladly inside.

Guess things which flare with a bang
Are quenched with the slightest drizzle
And since my diary was so jhing jhang ;-)
It went out withot a fizzle

Today I still carry this diary of mine
To wherever I am going
Hope to open it again
And pen my thoughts n doings.

When pondering one day such
Wondered how it would be
Nothing great, nothing much
But to be my own diary.

Inja's Diaryspeak:
Dear Diary, she would write
Without having an idea that
These moments make my day so bright
Like a holy book on a prayer mat.

And then would follow one by one
Words which are the most honest
Of how sometimes the day was so much fun
And yet sometimes she so did detest

Of all the giggles she shared with friends
Of all the tears and disappointments
Of all the mails her best frnd sends
And then the day's biggest dents.

Of angst and pride, of joys and sorrows
Of missed assignments, of wasted times
Of living like theres no tomorrow
And then of her petty crimes

These are times when I believe
I was her bestest friend ever
For it was to me she would come to grieve
Or just to be happy together

I laffed with her, and I did comfort
Without saying a word ever
Wishin for all I was worth
Someday I will talk to her

Talk to her like she does to me
Share my day's every single moment
Hopes and dreams I do not have any
For, a diary to be I was sent.

And then one day it suddenly stopped
She dint talk to me anymore
Maybe her other friendships topped
And I missed out on all her lore.

Still she does take me with her
Which gives me some hope
May be someday, in the future
She will come to me to smile or mope.
Some day.......................

Rhyme me you...

2006-06-11T23:45:00.000-07:00

"My first blog and what shall it be?"
So asked this eager net surfer
"A poem, an ode or a funny story?
Cant make up my mind, o bother"

And then she thought of this little game
Which might not make sense whatsoever
But a beginning must be made all the same
And thus is born this rhyme clever.

Timepass some might call it
And some might even be impressed
The purpose is served isnt it?
My empty blog is finally dressed!

cyo in a while
till the next i compile...