Drought

Hanging on the tree of temptation,
petrified fruits of love.
The prophecy sears on the parchment,
like the dry river carved in the parched Earth,
like its dust craving a drop's worth.

The world ain't over,
the showers never stayed.
As the ark rots,
scavengers tumble to the ground
wishing the pairings hadn't failed.

Sinking in the sunshine,
thinking of Clementine,
the mind sweats poison.

The diligent clouds are aloof.
In the inkblot nights
as scorching as the day,
Promises wait to be washed away.                                                      

An arid heart thirsts in a drought... Will a Monsoon come in June?

At Om Beach

The undone world with its pink lotus moon, sits on the sand smoking what could be coconuts. Friends recant stories and try to kill memories on the rocks. Cinnamon smells, ankle bells, shimmering voices and ribald LEDs displace the moonlit waves. The brow rings and tattoos on drained bodies, ebb with the tide. Puppies snatch attention from twirled moustaches as caffeine incites me to dance. The wind pairs Canna and plain vanilla tobacco in the same shacks, and they breed glowing ships that float out of the misty horizon. Mosquitoes suck on barbecued skin while intellect is distracted by Bollywood. Glass clinks and plastic strips. At the end of days, when nostrils are deaf and eyes tired, music guides the ears to dreams.

On the rocks

What is it like to drown in a glass of whiskey?
Jump in and swim to the rocks at high tide. Let the sea spit at you. Allow yourself to be ruminated. Let the voluminous waves roll you in their stickiness and dash you against the hardness. Let the spirits of the sea seek your assimilation into their forces crushing the rocky bastions into millennia old sand. Grope in a bed of knives without handles. Breathe brine and palpitate. The moment your fingers get confidence in a hold and the salts anoint the painful cuts, the rocks spit you back with equal vengeance. Your soles are slit and the soul looks for someone to give up his life for you. It may be a Good Friday, but Easter is far far away.

Munfarid (मुनफ़रिद)

A few years back, I came across these beautiful lines in a well made Hindi film "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara". Listening to them, I felt that I have had the same feeling. But I have also had it in another setting which is quite off normal (expressed with all due respect to Akhtar saab).

तारीक़ जिस्म पर, समेटे सैकड़ों कहानियाँ,
राज़ छुपाती तिलिस्मी रात,
हर शब्, अनछुई सी,
लेती है करवटें,
नाज़िश को नज़ाकत से देती मात

क़ैद कर लूँ सियाह समंदर के ये उजाले,
के आतिश-ए-गुलों को लिए, सुबह आए न आए

इसीलियें
अनदेखी रोशन दुनियाओं को अँधेरे में ताकता
बस मैं हूँ,
करोड़ों में एक जागता

इस मुनफ़रिद आलम में,
चिंगारियों की तपिश के साथ,
साँसों की जुम्बिश के साथ,
अपने होने पर मुझको फिर यक़ीन आ गया                                                     

I feel this direct connection with the Universe every time I look up at the dark sky and especially when I capture some of it's beautiful secrets with my telescope. Below I try to translate it.

Wrapped in a thousand tales,
the Night's mystical substance.
In nocturnal obscurity it moves,
transcending vanity with elegance.

I aim to capture the lights on this dark ocean.
These worlds of illuminance
I alone am awake to see.
When among the ephemeral sparks,
I discern the primordial brilliancy.

Amid this divine silence,
in this warm desolation,
I find myself breathing and shivering.
And I am convinced again... that I exist.                                             

I am glad something poured out of me so fluidly after a long time. It was on a previous astronomical event night, that I had somehow shut myself and started looking for Earthly connections. I spent the last weekend nights, awake, under the brilliant sky at the IUCAA Girawali Observatory. Out there, I actually felt closer to the universe and the energy that gushed forth was one that rarely fills me these days. I spent hours photographing the sky, to try and see all those things that have been confirmed already by so many astronomers. and lo... all those 'things', that have existed long before Mankind... they appeared in front of me. The skeptic in me, that rises often to question my existence in this unreal world, was silenced. And from the complete Silence, came the above...