Staring into an abyss

I find myself staring into your eyes.
They smile at me, a hundred thousand bulbs
Seem to light them up…

Such is the glow that radiates
From you to me,
That it lights me up

And I smile back,
Am not myself now, I am you,
We are flying together, there we go!

I am imagining it all,
Your smile, the glow and the possibilities
That do not exist, but I see…

In a moment, we are apart,
And long after you are gone,
Your ghost follows me

It feels my skin,
Answers my desire,
Tells me all that I wish to hear,

Yeah…Wishful thinking, it is
I am staring into an abyss…

THE PRESENCE

Here's a poem by Jane Bhandari, who lives in Mumbai... Re-read this today and felt like sharing it with all...

I have not seen your shadow yet,
But I hear you often.
>
The rain patters down
Like the rubber sound of your feet
>
Flip-flapping along the passage:
I hear you go outside
To smoke a cigarette.
The wind creaks the door:
It is the creak of your chair,
The little rasping click of the lighter
The screen door closing,
And the smell of the rain
Creeps into the room, almost
The smell of a long-gone cigarette.
>
I have not seen your shadow yet,
But I hear you often:
Your presence still haunting me,
A little bit, here and there.

MY FIRST SONG!!!

Hi friends,

This is a song composed by me. The voice and the lyrics is mine as well. Have never written anything in Tamil before. But here it is. My first attempt at song-writing and composing.

The recording was done at Sa Recording Suite, 5th Street, Dr.Subbaraya Nagar, Kodambakkam. Thanks to my friend Sreejith at the studio who helped me score the music for this song. Haven't uploaded the version with instruments because there is much more work left to be done in the song.

Please listen to this voice-only version and give your feedback! :D

Sookhi paati

Kabhi sookhi paati se poochna, us oonchi daali ka choh
Bichud kar peele hone par, woh hariyali ka moh
Tan sookha hai, man sookha hai, par jeevit uski aasha hai
Padi hui hai gumsum si, par yaad abhi tak taaza hai...

Tribute to Mother

This is an old poem I wrote for my mother. Just reproducing it here.

Let me hear your song again mother;
That song ridden with pain and agony
Which you have often sung to me,
For in hearing it I can feel the pain

Through which you have been all your life.
You think I will not understand it, perhaps,
For I have never experienced the same
But I promise I’ll listen to you with all my heart.

Mine are the same brown eyes, mother,
Wrapped in wrinkled eyelids. The same tears
Flow through them, those useless salted pearls:
Once a symbol of womanly weakness.

All you wanted was a bit of love, right?
A tender loving hand that would support you
In distress and pamper you with caress
And make you forget the world…?

But violent hands had bent you in force, they broke you almost!
I can see now how your mother (her tale another paean of pain)
Had thought you no less than a burden, only meant to wash
Clothes, cook food, be shut indoors and lay rotting thus for life.

You thought marriage would be a means to escape
From that house which overwhelmed you
With memories of a bitter childhood but
You only found yourself landing into further trouble…

For you became somebody else’s burden now
And your life became a monotone of melancholy,
Hummed in lonely corners of the one-room
Apartment where you spent eighteen years of life.

From that corner of your heart where motherhood
Lay rooted, and from the cracks that were formed
Due to suppressed desire, burst a fount of fury; you
Rebelled in silence, nourishing your womb with dreams…

And the sole aim of your life became the education
Of your daughters, to make them capable enough
So that they may lead a life of freedom and dignity.
Now, after twenty years of nurturing, I stand before you,

A different individual but your own reflection, all the same
With the same brown eyes, wrapped in wrinkled eyelids.
The same tears flow through them, those useless salted
Pearls. But today your daughter proudly bears testimony

To that legacy of patient suffering which you have bequeathed her.
I shall sing this song for the whole world to hear, mother.
But I wonder if I shall ever be able to sacrifice as did you
Or carry forward this legacy, this pillar of womanly strength…