Wide eyed at night

Those nights
Those starry nights

Those dark nights

Those moonlit nights
Those wondrous nights
Those thousand nights

Spent gazing at hope, belief, unknown treasures

A movement, a formation, a shooting star
a glimmer in the dark
Was that a UFO?

Or a God
or the shine in my awestruck eyes

Skyfull promises never let you down

If not a flying saucer or 

 a meteor

At least a welcome shower

The songbird

Every morning around 4
I hear loud and clear
The sweet number
As I snuggle under my cover

Who is she that sings life
After a dark and dead night
I feel connected to this melody
In the socially distanced world

Its best to leave joys unquestioned
Pursuits cannot have great returns
I learn the vocalist is a he, pouring his heart out
Proactively yours, to strike a chord

The delight is lost with the identity
Sweet strain turns a war cry
Grace gives way to arrogance
I feel the song no more

What are we missing?

As we sit inside our minds, gape through the window, and imagine our world a few months ago - What do we see? What do we miss? - The hunger games? The hunt? The frenzied dance? The alien crowd? The indifference?
Deep inside, is there a numbness, a feeling of disconnect?
What are we doing?
Where do we go from here?
Is the story starting? ending? or are there more twists in the story?
Were humans such great social animals? Is being social about some interdependencies, spurts of kindred feeling and more about inhumanity, cruelty, hatred, indifference, apathy, conspiracies, struggles, power games, differences, loneliness, depression...?
Is the social distancing killing us? Or do we need to be social just to give vent to our baser instincts

#I want to go to office to pull my colleagues down and badmouth every achiever
#I want to be back in the seat of power to exploit the weak
#I want to make billions to ignore the needy
#I want to look at the miserable to feel happy
#I want to be around something to justify my existence
#I want to get back into the human arena to fight


Why do we really need our kind?

A hen named Teju

Once upon a time there lived a hen named Teju.
As the name suggests, she was bright.

Teju made quite an impression on us with her matronly figure, her one-eyed stature, and heroic vulnerability. She had cautiously walked into our house and lives in that challenged state: Never got to know how she lost sight in one eye. 

She quickly endeared herself to us through her affectionate and smart ways. We fed her and she fed us in return. She laid an egg almost every day.
Her handicap made her vulnerable to all kinds of threats - aggressive roosters and hens targeted her; dogs and cats in the area knew she was easy prey; children loved to chase her. But smart Teju managed to keep herself safe. She even incubated some eggs once and became a hyper and overprotective mom of 7 chicks. Unfortunately, she lost all her chicks to the predators. But her zealous effort was an incredible and heartrending sight.

Teju responded to her name. She would come running from far on being called. She trusted us.

Then one day, it happened...one careless second... and our dog grabbed her. We separated the two. Teju was not wounded.

But Teju died...It was the worst moment till...

Teju was served as dinner that night...

Corona Corona

And the Goliath fell.
The vulnerability behind the arrogance was laid bare to be ravaged.
But we are not just another easily pregnable living organism. Are we?
We rule the world; we are the mighty
Corona can break us but not change us
Today we lie low

Tomorrow, we rise again
We will continue the reign of toxicity
We will attain more power with newer weapons of mass destruction
We will build taller buildings, industrialize nature
We will rule with divided boundaries, hearts and minds

We will be back meaner, vainer, stupider

To the one that gave up

Though a cord had us bound
Liberating was the bond

Blood, cells, heart as one

The freaky system was almost divine

We put up a wall
A shield against all

Together, we stretched

Together, we grew

You, I, our life
We were going strong

The silent promise was broken
I was unsuspecting of your intent

You gave up, you gave in

Without a sign, you stopped breathing

Food for thought

I walked into a restaurant craving for a decent North Indian meal.
The scene was not very welcoming. There was an assembly of loud people. My entry went unnoticed.
However, I was focused on the roti and sabzi. So I took a seat and gave it a wait. Gradually, the cause of the commotion became clear. The 4 guys speaking in Kannada were officials from BBMP  and maybe some other State department. And the others, speaking in Hindi, English and spurts of learnt Kannada, were representing the restaurant.
Post inspection of the restaurant, the green brigade had found carry bags (used for food delivery) made of a banned substance. They were demanding a fine of Rs 25K. The proprietor (a multi-lingual woman in her early 30s) of the restaurant seemed least flustered and assertively refused to pay up. The officials kept reiterating the need to cough up 25K as fine and the restaurant lady kept refusing. She claimed that she had purchased those bags as the vendor had labeled them as cloth bags.

In a brusque manner, she brushed aside their threats of non-renewal of licence etc. Time and again, she made it very clear to them that there was no way they could make her pay 25,000.

Then, she changed her tone a bit, and offered a deal. She was now willing to pay an amount, but definitely not 25k. After few more minutes of no-nos and head-shakes, the officials agreed to a sum of 10k. And the restaurant lady brought it further down to 7k. 

She also threw in free lunch as offer. The 4 officials graciously declined the food, and gulped down the 7k.
Before leaving, they suddenly realized that the youngest of the officials (in his early 20s) needed to have his lunch on time and left him behind at the restaurant. Instead of a share from the heist, they decided to placate the novice with a plate of biriyani.

I got my long-awaited roti sabzi and he his ill-gotten biriyani!

Man vs Elephant

The man. The tusker. An epic confrontation.
The outcome - as nature ordains.

The scene - early morning, a small house in Sirikima village in Chattisgarh, 61-year-old farmer Sonsai and his family (daughter kausalya and 2 year old grandson) are asleep, a wild tusker heads towards their house, smashes the door, roof and walls cave in, Sonsai wakes up terrified, sees the tusker turn towards where Sonsai's daughter and grandson are sleeping, who are now awake and watching horrified as the tusker charges towards them...

What happens next is not ordinary...
Sonsai, in a flash, takes a burning torch and jumps between the elephant and his family and draws the attention of the tusker towards him by screaming and waving the torch. The tusker stomps on him and crushes him to death. The tusker then turns and leaves, the mother and child are spared.

What happens next is quite ordinary
The government equates Sonsai's bravery and sacrifice to Rs 25,000...

In the wild and elsewhere, might is right and the weak always lose!