Thursday, August 31, 2006

What's in a poem

I recently completed a poetry writing course at NYU. It was indeed an exciting eight week period for me. For a change, I had started looking forward to Thursday evenings.

I learnt a host of poetry terms and poetry forms, which is not what I am going to show off here. There was something much more fundamental missing in my earlier poems and my perception of the whole process of
writing was flawed. Here are a few things I learnt/ observed.

Read your poem aloud - I never used to do this, always muttering the lines under my breath. I never heard how the words sounded or whether they rhymed well. But this new habit gives me a completely different
perspective about my poems. Even by reading it aloud to the four walls, I've rid myself of the fear that someone may read what I write.

Be honest about why you wrote a poem - It's not that I wanted to be dishonest intentionally, but I always thought I should give very valid and concrete reasons as to why a poem came to my mind. What the heck.
It's just a poem and you could write it for any silly reason. I've written many poems only because there were certain words I wanted to use.

Every word is not the same - I am a strong believer in equality, but I have to admit that no two words are the same (even if they are synonyms). Some words are melodious and in harmony with others, while
some are not. For e.g., nozzle, fish are not beautiful words. There's something about them that's not pleasing to my ears. I've realized this and try to avoid using those words which I don't like.

That's all I have to say for now. Later.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

As a teen

Profanity was my armor as a teen
I heard it in school - it smelt to me
like blood does to a carnivore,
tasted like my choice dish that
I couldn't let go, so as I used it
I felt in control and saw it as
the start of a revolution in me.

My parents hated me the most
and they felt terror as I spoke.
They loved me more than my sibling
Lu, who went to school in Beijing.
My dad was home on Mondays and
my mom was home on Sundays, so I
stayed quiet two consecutive days.

To rid me during holidays, I was
sent to my grandma's place
I threw my cousin into Lammond bay
so she spread rumors without delay
"Su swore and called God gay", which
upset my grandma so she sent me away.
I will show her it wasn't my mistake.

I was with a cute owl that whole night
when I actually saw a black rose bloom.
The owl tried to make some rose-hip jam
I hit him in the head, called him thug.
"Je suis desole, ne chatier pas moi"
he cried, and light, light the night smiled.
Then I fell off the tree with a smash.

My parents promptly arrived to find
my ankle bruised bad as a rainbow -
red, blue, green and indigo - my naive
cousin of deceit watching with regret.
Soon we hugged and smiled like mates,
made up before I left, but she is a bitch
and I cursed her under my breath.

Those words had life, but I used them so
much they are now old and almost dead
that I've laid my weapons to rest.

This is a sad attempt at Jim Simmerman's twenty little poetry projects. It is a challenging task to combine the projects into one poem.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Time to Smile

Seven hundred and odd smiling faces, and why not?Yes. I'm referring to our MPs indeed. Their pay package is increasing!! Doubled pension, doubled daily allowance (for attending parliament), two cell phones, dozen more air trips a year and much more. And the bill gets passed faster than the Embraer jets that carry our VIPs. Another one against sting operations might get passed soon. They're working tirelessly.Parliamentary affairs minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi says --
Indian MPs were the lowest paid in the world although they represent the highest
number of people.
So as India's population spirals out of control (1.6B plus by 2050), our MPs are finally beginning to get the dough they deserve.
"If our house functions well, not only salaries but all their allowances should
also be increased. Look at how the private sector pays and look at how MPs get
paid across the world,"
said Rahul Bajaj, Independent MP.I concur completely. Unlike the corporate world, it takes a lot of effort and time to vegetate. This merits some recognition from our side and I'm glad the taxes we pay are helping sustain the homes of these MPs.And then, some MPs also want compensation to be related to performance which, given their history and other pressing issues, will take a long time to implement.

On Lex

I hear the rhythm beside me
like the faint beat of a drum
it flows with the mild breeze
and abruptly ceases, to free
me from my skein of thoughts.

It resumes in a few seconds
once the white man shines
its evenness stands apart
from all the soft voices,
giggles, and clamor around.

I'm focussing on the beat now
but I fear my curiosity may
kill the constancy it shows.
But she walks ahead, not a step
missed as her blue skirt flows.

Between those few blocks I've
heard the rise and fall of strides
before they fade into the subway.


I was on my way to a subway (metro) on Lexington Ave a few weeks back. There was this lady walking near me with such a rhythm in her stride that I was tempted to swing around and take a look. That I did. A few days later when I remembered it, I just scribbled these few lines.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Mind

My mind just created its twin
and they're playing tug-of-war
how I wish one would just win
they're identical, but never concur.

One is here, other is there
and they are both getting stronger
one is happy and the other gloomy
I can feel the increasing polarity.

While one is loving, but despaired
the other loathes, but is inspired.
I know not which one lies, I see
not which one is a friend of mine.

The game goes on and on
can't they sing the same song
be of the same stripe and kind
oh, the ambivalence of my mind.


Contradiction and chaos are integral part of my life. I built this poem around the first two lines because I liked the idea of twin and tug-of-war applied to my mind.

Complete publicity makes it absolutely impossible to govern

Soren Kierkegaard was a famous nineteenth century existentialist philosopher. I understand that much of his works relate to religion, ethics, theology etc. I have not much idea about the political system in Denmark in the nineteenth century or the context in which Kierkegaard made this statement -

Complete publicity makes it absolutely impossible to govern.
However, I feel these few words render themselves very apt in today's politics and governance.
Publicity as I interpret here is the condition of making known or aware, rather than advertising or promoting something. Post self-promotion phase (manifestos, campaigning), any new government usually falls silent abruptly - as if stupefied by their own victory. Anyway, on a more serious note, a governing body needs privacy during various stages of their functioning, which is available to them. They have no obligation to make public their day-to-day discussions, and all those brain-storming en route to any final decision (it would show them in a very bad light). But there is a host of information a governing body receives at various levels, in varied forms classified as social, legal, economic, political etc. This is presented to the public in a suitable way on a need to know basis, which is justified. For instance, any confidential information they receive on an impending terrorist attack or a similar event is best handled by cautioning rather than declare openly and struggle to handle the chaos it creates, along with averting the disaster in waiting. Any nuclear test conducted is best kept a secret until completed. These are just two instances that come to my mind, concerning security. A host of other less critical news reaches the public after a lag.

There is another side to this discussion, albeit slightly out of context. Unfortunately, our government is not very discerning on this front - which news to leak and which one to conceal. There's also a tinge of indifference here. That's why Satyendra Dubey was brutally assassinated when he blew the whistle on the Golden Quadrilateral corruption. Apart from security of the state, the government should also be keen enough not to leak any information which puts a civilian in jeopardy. It's time to consider implementing some form of Whistleblower Law, because an individual citizen's security is also a foremost responsibility of the state.

To conclude, in today's situation, the government reserves every right to keep certain information confidential. At the same time, they need to apply keen judgement to determine when and how something of classified nature is headlined, which is equally important.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Violent peace

Over the last few months, I have been volunteering with this lady who conducts music workshops for children aged between ten and fifteen. She has a modest grant of $500 from Manhattan Cultural Council and is required to conduct workshops on peace. While it was real fun to work with kids and peek into their creative minds, it also brought forth a picture I had been missing – maybe because I seldom interact with children.

Some of the songs/ poems the groups of kids had come up with were amazing. There was home peace, animal peace, brain peace and so on. However, there was this group which came up with a song, whose first two lines ran thus –
This world will see peace
when Bin Laden is beheaded
Needless to say, I choose not to quote further. This is sample good enough. Obviously, we ended up not using the song for the concert. However, I kept thinking why they came up with this song, despite our repeated emphasis that this was a peace workshop. Do they not understand what peace is? Perhaps they don’t. The media blares from all fronts about the Iraq peace process, Middle East Peace process, South East Asian Peace Process and also attributes numerous deaths and civilian casualties to these. Thanks to the Internet, children have access to all news and events in their entirety.

When I think carefully, it’s not surprising they came up with a song like this. At this impressionable age, we are setting such a bad example for them. They have come to believe that violence uproots violence, death is paid back with death, and life is not valuable at all. And it’s not their fault. We need to pause and think what we’re doing. Besides ruining the present, we are sending terribly wrong signals to the next generation. If this goes on, in a few decades there will be nothing left to salvage. It is our responsibility to leave for them a world that is tolerant and peaceful. If you interact with children, I request you to take a few minutes to tell them what peace is, give them a broader picture of what’s going on in this world and why certain things are not right. I don’t have to elaborate and it’s never too late.