A Year and How!

Just a few days ago, I had this longing to write something relevant, to mark my completing one year of stay in the US of A. Somehow, words didn't flow as well, and that remained a longing. Somehow the mood was set today, with YouTube humming A R Rahman's "Yeh jo des hai tera" from the movie Swades, and a heavy Indian lunch kept reminding me of the things I miss most about my Mother Land. A list of those few things ensued, and I typed them out in here. What better timing than on our very own Independence Day! On this occasion, here's wishing all my fellow Indians a very Happy Independence Day. It is not just on this day that we must remember our motherland and offer her our salutes; this sense of belonging is to be deeply rooted in us, etched into every single vein in us!

 

1. Since my reverie began with the song, I'll go with the lines in the song.. "Mitti ki Khushboo". I miss most, the sweet smell of Mother Earth when it rains. It has the power in it, to push away any hunger, any loneliness, any anger, anything at all!
2. The fact that despite numerous languages, communicating with one other is never really a problem, in general.
3. The fact that you can lay on your mother's/grandmother's/aunt's lap and get pampered, however old you might get!
4. You can stay away in a distant village with no television or internet, etc for a month, and still wish to have stayed there for longer!
5. There are innumerable festival, and EACH festival is a celebration
6. The colors
7. Every element of nature is a celebration in its own way, be it the Sun, the Moon, the Rains, Fire.
8. You can have the lousiest of days and still come back home in anticipation of cheer always!
9. A month long visit to grandparents' place is enough a vacation
10. The roadside food stalls! These are the tastiest treats you can ever get!
11. An aspirin is not the first remedy to a headache
12. Sitting on a comfortable cane swing, munching pakodas on a rainy day and reading a book!

 

And this is where I stop, and get back to my book…not on a cane swing, but on a couch; a fair compromise, I suppose. Proud to be an Indian, a very Happy Independence day, folks!

Two and two thirds

Once fun, once frolic
no impulse nothing symbolic
a thought here - a plan there
where are those visions,
where?

Effervescence, a flower
Higher, higher in the air, by the hour
hues, they claim cheer
plucked, unseen, that tear…
Created the way -
    pick it may;
    shrivel amidst those million leaves,
    picture now, adorns those cuffs, those sleeves
    lone - yet a bunch too big
    fragrance always picked swig by swig..

Peace with it, the sky
Moonlight subtle as though shy
gentle blowing breeze
nerves at such ease
    The morning dew,
    on it seen the Sun new
    shimmerin' on gliding waters
    no pain, no charters!