The poem thats not mine

This has to be there on my blog.. as a memory of my days back in Vivekananda college

Under the same tree

By R Prasanna Venkatesh

It was under the same tree
The days of youth, carefree
Hours of fun, right under the scorching sun
What was there to fear, with many near and dear
A craze inflicting aura, dangerously contagious,
All books lay forgotten, the fun voracious.
It was under the same tree
The bond developed, defying differences
It was under the same tree
Egos clashed, then dissolved
It was under the same tree
dreams became reality, lived through words…..
Rain or storm, it stood, just like us
Rooted from deep within, togetherness
like birds we were, seeking shelter
And the day came, when we needed to part
flew we did, fortunes sought
Under the same tree
I sit now, thinking deep
Would we all flock again, under the same tree……

Heights of Randomness

Tears – Small and almost weightless drops of water and still they carry within my burdens..

Life is a train which runs on the tracks of belief

To love and not be true is bright enough to keep your sleep away

Pain, Joy and love.. The secret portion for successful philosophers

Travel – makes you realize the importance of home!

Advertisements – Looks nice..sounds nice.. Works never

Friends – Are what dreams are made of

Ipod – A balm for the weary traveller

Winter – Makes a man out of you!

Sun – So near, yet so far

Computer – Unplugged!

To miss a Wedding

With the wedding season setting in, sitting miles away from all the mandapams and temples I realize how much it hurts not to be there. It hurts even more because the pain is surfacing from events that happened in the long past. A time when I thought the event didn’t matter to me.

How nice it would be to a part of a wedding – running around looking for room keys, serving people kaapi, responding to comments on how people knew me as a kid and how I have grown up, eyes burning cos of all the smoke , manning naughty kids, Eating out of plantain leaves amidst the resonating “slupr slurp” sound, the lightly-heavy music at the reception and a fitting dinner after a tiring days work.  

How I wish I could change certain things, how I wish I was there for my brother’s marriage, but then you cant change what you can’t control.

USEless

Thoughts without Action

Words without Sound

Life after Death

Sex after Sixty

Pullover in Summer

Happiness in Hell

Used Tampons

Unused mind

Music without Joy

and Life without You

Candle Light

 

Cross at Cologne Cathedral

It was 10:30am. We had just entered Köln’s Cathedral – Europe’s biggest Cathedral. It was a magnificent sight. We were both lucky and unlucky to have entered when the priests were offering their prayers. Unlucky because we could not have a closer look of the altar, lucky because their presence added to the feel of the Cathedral. 

 

To my left, there were a few people lighting candles and immersed in prayer. I felt an urge to go and light a candle too. I really have no clue what prompted me to do that and I approached the candles with a perplexed state of mind. But then, sometimes its just wonderful to give into impulses

As I lit the candle in a corner of Europe’s biggest cathedral, I felt the same kind of divinity or that sense of peace which encapsulated me every time I surrendered my’SELF’ to God. Be it in Tirupathi or the temple next door. I lost sense of things around me and everything seemed to stop. The candle light grew bigger and my eyes began to water. As I began speaking to myself, thanking him for this wonderful moment, thanking him for all that he has given me and asking questions to which I have never found answers, I realized that irrespective of innumerable differences in traditions, rituals, culture, sacred texts and guiding principles the underlying emotions and connection to God was the same across people, countries and religions. As I placed my prayer candle amongst all those other candles, it struck me how every single flame there stood as a symbol of hope and faith and then…. my candle flickered!!

The exit had a small bowl filled with some Euros and cents and as I put my 5 cents in, I asked myself – “How do you value such experiential services?”

Prayer

First Impressions – Germany

Apples and Vineyards

Post 23:00 hour silence rules

Endless game of cards

Early morning hues

My first week in Germany

Interesting and exciting

A bit slow to my liking

But worth every penny

 

Fresh air and chilly breeze

Raisin bread and cheese from Greece

Salat and salted potatoes for lunch

wish I had some spicy chips to crunch

My first week in Germany 

Bland but nourishing

and a bit slow to my liking

But worth every penny

 

Pavements Clean and wide

with Cafes sprinkled all over

its been a pleasure to ride

but cant get out there without a pullover

My first week in Germany

Cold but beautiful

and a very peaceful school

makes it worth every penny

 

A utlitarian campus

with a scenic lake to chill out

our only worry for now – the bus

it’s 19:24 or we are locked out

My first week in Germany

has its own 4Ps

Pleasure, Pain, Punctuality and Peace

and worth every penny

The power of Silence

“You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts. For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.” – Khalil Gibran

Wise words from a wise man. What are the implications of that sentence in this fast moving world? In this context what comes to mind is another proverb – “Empty Vessels make more noise.” There are many other regional sayings stressing on the need to remain silent and how wise men are mostly men of very few words. I wondered what SILENCE means and how do we interpret this in this world where cell phones are ubiquitous and have changed the way we communicate.

Everyone wants to be heard. Now-a-days the one with the loudest voice is the one who wins the arguments. You impress people at work by making most noise of the least significant piece of work. In colleges those who can market their actions ( however insignificant and unimportant they may be) are the ones who get noticed. In between all this, do we all understand what silence is? or is it that phenomenon which takes place on the 30th of January to pay homage to perhaps one person who had truly understood the power of silence .

According to the dictionary, Silence can be defined as – ” The absence of sound; stillness. ” How many of us would have actually experienced(lets say today) the STILLNESS around us. Did we actually stop and notice the moon up in the sky or did we take pleasure in the way the breeze caressed our silent souls. I am sure most of us ( including yours truly) would have been too BUSY or caught up in our own noisy world to be affected by such trivial factors. This I believe has serious repercussions.

For instance, the need to retaliate emerges from this basic need to respond.. the inherent urge to produce noise and not think one bit about what complications it may cause. Its just about he said something and I have to produce at least an equal if not higher decibel level. Those who remain silent or take their tone down to a lower decibel level are termed as losers. Its a scientific fact that a major cause for break ups are the refusal to listen to the other person.

In this backdrop, I believe that we are going through a monumental period in our country. We were always people who loved to communicate with each other, be it striking a conversation with a stranger in a bus stand or bitch about the government in a public park. We had that people touch to it. But of late, the warmth of communication is eroding and what was once a strength might become our major weakness. It is in moments like these that we need to seriously think… What if I am silent?

Note: Try controlling your urge to comment immediately. Ask yourself if it was better to remain silent

The Missed Call

I called you
You did not pick up
Guess you were busy doing something
But i was busy thinking of you
No wonder it was a call to signify that i missed you – A missed call

Mother’s Touch

The Caring hand which feeds you when you are Hungry
The Soft hand which puts you to sleep when your Enervated
The Stern hand which wakes you up to head for School
The Helping hand which leads you through gloomy circumstances
The hand that can touch you so tenderly that your eyes begin to swell
The hand which gives you all it can hold and yet never expects anything in return
The hand of your Mother.
I wish I could recollect as to how it felt when I first grasped my Mother’s Hand. Can you?

I was in Love

On a Cold Winter night
I had my first sight
Her radiant eyes were sucking out all my energy leaving me
Paralysed and Stranded on the road
My soul was burning with want
My body was numb due to the cold
Imaginations bodied forth..
Time stopped to flow..
When i finally saw the clock tick..
i realised that I realised that i loved her no more….