RICH KIDS GET DEPRESSED TOO

The people seem relieved

The rain has fallen and quenched the heat

Chirping birds wake the morn

The Sun is out bringing the dawn 

I am a face not unique

From amidst the crowd, a soul

I see no Sun, the rain falls hard

And this haggard self stands alone

I have a pain that nags me so

I have a stereotype to break

I live in fear everyday

I'm mocked and beaten, in terror I quake

They say a roof over your head,

A love, can beat times tough

But when you can only see through broken glass

Can food, money and family be enough?

A thousand suffering eyes

Look incredulously up at me

They recount the blessings I have in life

And yet, and yet...

I can't seem to get free

I want to rattle my shackles and scream from my lungs

Till the world hears my pleas

I will not be guilted by

The 'luxuries' I get, 'with ease'

Why is it that one negative thought, sometimes,

Cancels out every positive emotion?*

You risk your happiness and peace of mind for that one cause

Such is the passion, such is the devotion!

You know you are right; the world couldn't care less

The promised tomorrow becomes a drone

And that's why the pain gnaws away all colours around

Till I stand in the dark, writhing and alone

That's why the rain weighs me down

The storm is a blizzard through my heart

The desire to be happy flutters weakly

Under the Fire that tears me apart

The birds of dawn spread their wings wide

Their freedom is more than I can ever take

I climb a high-rise building and perform the final act

The empty, hopeless, deluded life - Couldn't leave. Couldn't stay.

My wistful eyes tell a story of many

Yet, they condemn me for my decision

The thing is -

Everyone's on to the emptiness 

But it takes guts to acknowledge the hopelessness of the situation.**

*Inspired by the TV series Sex and the City; season 5 (2002), episode Critical Condition, 
'Carrie Bradshaw: Why is it that we only believe the negative things people say about us, no matter how much evidence to the contrary? A neighbour, a face, an ex-boyfriend can cancel out everything we thought was true. When it comes to life and love, why do we believe our worst reviews?'

**Taken from The Revolutionary Road (2008), 'John Givings: Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness.'

Slavery and Escape

For every beat of the drum, in steady rhythm

A whip cracks, chains tauten; humans, chains themselves

A beat, and an axe digs into the trunk, a scarred willow

Sweat, blood, pain, cry, pleas and prayers- silent and unheard; tears unseen

A membrane is torn, yet the drumbeats

The slogging ’machines’ are worn, yet the whips

One stroke of the axe, the last straw

The cut too deep, can bear no more; collapse, fall.

But the land is same, destined to be enslaved

The scattered seeds, a new generation is born

The children rise, doomed with the same ill fate,

The axe whips on.

 

The membrane is torn, but now no drum beats,

For they pounce and render their master slave, all man and beast

But abused in body, mind and soul, they succumb to fatigue,

It takes its time, but life comes around in its own way.

Slaves now remain no more, at least in man and beast,

But the axe, the tree, no metaphor; Nature too abused,

Tortured and enslaved by the same master, 

Its atrocities haven't ceased.

Slaves remain no more, but the ‘lost master’ still exists,

It crawls beneath and finds its last few moments of comfort bestowed by the shadow of the tree,

The slave-driver sought compassion from the same Nature it exploited so brutally,

And then, eternal peace.

Revenge, sought man, and finds for itself Death, its true home,

After its ‘Master-Slave’ sojourn;

Love, sought the tree, and it lives on

Bearing the scars for all to see and learn.

A SONG

GONE BY

Mama said, “Do it now,

‘Cause time ain't waiting for none,

Your life’s there before you,

And you've only just begun.

A moment’s slip’s all it takes

And you fall like a pack of cards.”

Her words fell on deaf ears,

(Well, she was old) and,

I had no time for retards

I was too fast for her

Yeah, my technology!

Only, now I wish, if I could've heard

Her out, slow it down,

Now I clutch onto the stream

But the water flows past

It strips me, I'm nothing

No, it won’t last

The pendulum swings

And no one hears my cry,

It’s not coming back

No, time has gone by!

They preached and they pled

They whacked me on my head

Some pulled me down

So I learned to get up instead

"Your life’s your car

Go, steer it as you want!"

But, there’s only so much you can do

When you’re out of fuel

Before you even start

It’s a nightmare and it haunts, Oh!!

So I held on to the ground

But it’s broken beneath my weight

From between my fingers

The sand’s slipped away

The pendulum has swung

The seconds have ticked by

Now it won’t ever come back

The time has gone by!

‘Was so much I could do

That I needed to

Now no fear, no pain

Will bring it back again

And all that it’d ever be

Is what it’s always been

Just a dream!!

Now I clutch onto the stream

I try to awaken the dead

But the bullet’s left the gun

My sky’s a lead

But the pendulum has swung

The seconds have ticked by

Now it won’t ever come back

The time has gone by!

The time has gone by!

Mama said, “Do it now.”

No One’s Slave

Each day unleashed before me

Brings a new sky to the fore

A new colour in the rainbow

That I’d not noticed before

It spreads its wings, wide and fearlessly

Knowing, without it, the picture is incomplete

And though it’s not understood now

It will be accepted eventually

And when the Sun goes down and twinkling is out

Night sky brings to me

So many lights – dull and bright,

Where each one counts,

Though some can’t be seen

They tell me their heart is their guide

There is no wrong, there is no right

So brave, they explore and cross lines!

Not scared of failure or envy

I want to reach for the sky

And put it all in me,

There’s a difference inside

That wants to break free!

So tear apart my heart,

I want to make a fresh start,

So, I am what I want to be

Trying to figure out my life

Who says I can’t take time?

Don’t like the answer I’ve got

That’s not what I want

I don’t want to be

Yet another slave to Stereotype

MY GRANDMOTHER - THE INFINITE MOUNTAIN

The mountain stands still

Calm and serene

Her head held aloft

Yet unheard, and almost unseen

She seems to go on and on

Like the infinite

Standing beside me, with me

Day and night

She begins with pure white

At the top

Her body follows thereafter

Like a pearly frock

O, my! She is not pretty

No, not in the least

Not with the wrinkled Earth she bears,

Nor the wild bushes she so lovingly cares,

No, what stands out is her beauty

Unmatched, by any animate soul

That walks the planet,

Till its deepest bowl

She’s not even inanimate

Yet, beyond the living

She is with me all the time

She is tender and giving

For, when I feel tired, worn out

Her warmth is what comforts me

More than any patting, her cradle I desire

The lap above her knee

She is not perfect,

No.

Thus, I rave at her sometimes, for her imperfection

Yet, on Doomsday,

I see my true reflection

And realize,

She provides me so much essential for existence

Yet makes no sound about it

Remains silent, and just does sit

I regret angering her.

I feel really sorry

When she displays her landslides, her rules, her norms,

I take her for granted

Till, at last, she storms

Oh, so royal!

And I think-

What would life be without her?

Close to nothing,

I want her to be with me,

All day, all night

And shudder when I fantasize

What would it all have been like

Had she not have been

Infinite…

Love you, Nani!!

RISE UP TO CHALLENGES

Thousands of years ago

The Sun stared at all below

“I am the King of all beings,

Before me you’ll bow”.

With this he stood tall

And became as hot as hell,

A soul did not survive thereafter

Not a creature on Earth did dwell.

Heaven above was disturbed

To see such fury,

Deciding something had to be done

He chose to act jury.

Succumbing under the hot sun

Tears fell from His eye,

And drops of rain were first felt

From the azure sky.

“Ha! This is what you send, O Lord,

To defeat Earth’s royalty?!

Why, a thing made of drops,

How could it possibly overcome me?”

No doubt a tough call ‘twas

To look up to the sun,

But something had to be done for sure

The battle had to be won.

A tiny droplet opened its eyes

“A challenge did I hear?”

“Oh, get back, you fool,” did the ocean sigh,

“Aware are you what you’ll have to bear?”

“Yes, sir, aware I am,

That I’ll exist no more,

But does that make me sit back,

Is that the true cure?”

“Go on, then,” roared the ocean,

“We’ll see what you get,

And when you break in agony

Don’t you dare fret!”

“So then, so long! Fare thee well!”

The tone was unusually grave,

“For time will tell, and you’ll learn

How fortune favours the brave!”

And so he dared to see eye to eye

With the Heat above,

Who said, “You’ll soon be gone, you proud twit,

Go remember the ones you love!”

Escaping ocean was one thing

But what about the rest?

The newly hatched never knew

What lay beyond the nest!

The sun glared down upon the drop

Lo behold! It turned into a wisp,

“Yes! Come forward to challenge me,

And I’ll deal you a death kiss!”

At the sight of the vapour drop

The ocean booed and sniggered galore

The failure pierced the tiny heart

Right through the core.

“Am I a fool really,

To dream beyond the infinite?

Can there really be no match

For the sun’s might?”

In the sad eyes reflected

The wicked looks of all,

Fire and ice together

Were determined for his fall.

The condensed drop was charged again

To prove ‘em all wrong,

For faith he had in God,

“He won’t make me wait so long!”

This time he aimed for the ray

That needled him so,

“Die, if I must, I shall,

But I will defeat my foe!”

So he went to touch the sun above

To see himself win

What happened? He got lost,

The yellow sun within!

A moment of silence,

Not a whisper, not a word,

And then it spread into the sky

Like the wings of a bird!

Together, they watched awestruck

As the beauty unfolded before

A white light split into the magnificent colours

Of the rainbow!

“So there! Yes, friends,

What I have done, you could've too, long ago,

Go rise, at least try,

Don’t lie so low!”

  

And since time immemorial

This practice began,

Reminding us of the tiny drop

That dared to say, “I can!”

So, rise up and take the challenge

You won’t be you, for sure

Try, as much as you fail,

Rise up, and dare to dare,

And you will be much more!!

Caged

It’s pelting down outside
I look out of my home
I see a creature trapped; I'm moved by its plight
The beast is a miserable sight.

Its eyes are confused and scared
It doesn't seem to know how it ended up caged
Tears of worry, fear and dread well up
Its whimpers plead with me to set it free,
It looks at my world with envy.

I think it’s cursing its milieu
That thrives on survival instinct, where might is right,
Where one animal devours the other mercilessly, and
Cages and clouds of darkness and sorrow are, sometimes, impossible to fight

Who must be so cruel, as to cage the helpless soul?
Why must it be caged, while I walk free?
So I take a step towards it
I want to help it escape,
But they tell me it’s a bad idea

“That beast has ruined our homeland”, they tell me,
“Our peace, our children, our shelter are in peril.
It deserves what it got; it brought this onto itself,
The Earth can survive only by rejecting that devil.”

“But, to err is human,” I feel for the soul!
They say -
“Ah! But the error of being a human is grave!
That thing has always frowned upon us, as creatures so base!
Now it looks to us for help, the knave!

Nature chose it to discern right from wrong
So it mistook itself for the mightiest of all.
It prides on its spine, and struts proud and tall,
I've never seen a more spineless creature,
But son, the higher you rise, the harder you fall!

The divisions it created to satisfy its ends
Backfired; its atrocities ghettoed it, without a care!
Bar after bar, the prison closed in,
The entrapped soul was forced to drink its own poison,
Do you still think it’s unfair?”

So I acquiesce, and walk back to my den
I turn my back on the perfidious beast; it looks outraged
I walk back, free, with my pals – the birds and the animals,
While the human sits there, unhappy and caged.