A UNI-VERSE ABOUT A UNIVERSE

Walking along the brim of the universe
I decided to peep into the bowl,
Walking along the edge on top
I could see existence as a whole.
Moving, running, circling
Chasing other forms
Playing throwball- 'There goes a comet'
Or simply cheering along.
A huge hotch-potch of all games
Being played all at once
Clashes, fights, jumps and roars
Everything living a life of its own.
Every form affixed a place
Every game having rules
I could see them, predict or imagine
Believing this is how it works.
But beliefs are fragile,
brittle and unstable,
mirages and illusions,
fairytales and fables.
Looking from the brim,
I couldn't figure it out
Everything had changed
All jumbled around.
A huge upheaval
the games are changing
A change of positions
Chaos between settling down.
Illusions faced me
As old expectations arose
Broken by the suddenness of the change
Images broke down, defroze.
The change was constant,
The illusions around me fluttered,
I looked at the universe around me
Surprised, shaken and bewildered.

- © HAEM ROY
10th November, 2007

Buzzy Fly - Mission 'Harass Haem'!!

"It has become so hot. The sun has decided to roast my poor delicate body. Now its impossible to fly around any longer. I will have to get some rest. Maybe a parapet or a tree will do for a while.

Hey what it that? The weather!! O My God, its changing. I can see the clouds coming. I can sense them. I will have to tell my fellowmates and warn them. We have to start planning now and start buzzing around in groups.

'Hey guys! Did you notice the change in the weather? Its here now. Any moment. Come on, lets gang up now. Its the attack season, the season on invasion. Lets prepare our strategy.'

This is what we do every time. We are now buzzing in groups or rather a swarm as you would term it. Oh my God, its starting to rain!!

'Come on warriors, that house there. I see the window open. Lets rush in everyone. Fast fast, move it!

Try and invade each and every corner of the house that you can. The rain will not get us here. We are quite safe. Just be alert of those stupid fly swatters. Have your reflexes on guard.

Oh look there... target spotted. I think it will be good to start attack. Everyone move towards the human. Her name is Haem. Surround her.

Now, everyone, remember your job is to keep on buzzing in her ear. Create as much noise as possible. But never do that in a way that she can see you. Stay out of sight. That is more irritating. The other, groups 2 and 3, you are in charge of the hand and torso. Work like you are playing Kabaddi. You have to touch and fly away. Just remember, touch and fly away, and do it in turns. Never at the same side. When one finishes his turn on one side, the other takes over on the other and then back to one, and so on.

Groups 4 and 5, leg area. Keep moving around it and while circulating, like groups 2 and 3, keep touching and flying away. Remember, fly within sight for some time and then disappear and then come back within sight. All this has to be very quick.

Group 6 should be incharge of food. Everytime a plate or any morsel is spotted, it is your job to attack it. Hover over it, sit on it, and dont let Haem peacefully finish it. We have our right on it too, so while some can distract her by flying around her, the rest can deal with the food.

I will be incharge of overall supervision, and will continue to hover everywhere, and distract as much as possible.

MISSION BEGIN!!'

We have begun our mission and the hovering continues. This will be our daily task till the rains stop. And since the windows will not be closed always, we always have a way to enter. Once we are in, who can shoo us out. Sometimes they try and scare us with napkins but we fool them as we pretend to get out of the house and come right back in.

Its invasion time, and our mission -
HARASS HAEM AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. NOT TO LET HER EAT AND SIT IN PEACE AND KEEP BUZZING AND KEEP BUZZING. HA HA!"

Try it!

Have you ever tried talking to them? Have you tried playfully asking them nonsensical question when they come begging to you, like you do normally with kids? And have you had the fortune of seeing the smiles on their faces?

Project Care, conversations at the sea side, smiles while I am walking, talks in the train... lots of times and lots of smiles I can remember.

I say, TRY IT. Its worth it.

The smile that was still there

A ragged pair of shorts on the plump body lay

debating whether to fall or not,

tousled hair more like the styles of today,

dark skin contrasting with the cream interiors of the local train;

staggering steps automatically finding their way.

Approaching you as soon as you are seen taking a bite

from your food, the lunch leftovers,

Hovering and staring, eyeing the bit,

Trying to pick it from your very fingers;

Not asking for money no whining no crying,

Not even a frown, no beggar seemed he,

Walking aimlessly without a word spoken

Just looking for something for a starving tummy.

Used to the urchins wandering in the trains

And stopping the gush of pity that flows,

You just hand over the food to him

As he grabs the offering, reminding you of scavenger crows.

You watch as he gobbles

And are filled with a feeling so different,

It’s pity, though not so distressing,

Sympathy – with more of compassion,

Sorrow – for the state, the extent of wasted lives,

Happiness – for having removed life-taking hunger,

Wonder – at something that so mysteriously arrives,

All mixed up somewhere deep inside,

None ready to subside.

The food is over, but the hunger lingers,

As he looks at you with grateful hope

Though he knows he can’t get any more.

And then he looks at you

With eyes that strike,

Sad, tired, yet twinkling,

Black and beady and uncannily bright;

And then you see the sign, the sign that says it all,

A smile of brown and disfigured teeth,

A smile despite the hunger, despite a lack of reason,

A smile, that has innocence hidden beneath.

Ten years of life or maybe more

Was what it took for that being to be so,

And was the time worth it

When now he has to forage for a meal, a leftover bit;

Yet, the smile is still there…

A satisfaction strangely soars,

A still it is, no picture perfect,

It haunts you, flashes often, out of nowhere,

Humbles, reminds, touches a chord

The smile that was still there.

- © HAEM ROY

EVERYDAY....

Just penned this in between studying... a sorta break between struggling with Ideology and Structuralism or the likes...

EVERYDAY…

Everyday…
I sit upon the very same wall.
Staring, gazing
Looking at the nothingness around it.
Everyday it’s the same routine.
I know I have to climb it daily
I know I have to sit and stare
But still that knowledge is not enough
‘Cos there is the fear of falling
Or hurt that I may have to bear.
What if I do not climb the wall some day?
What if I decide to penetrate the nothingness?
It will be a new experience
An entry to the unknown, a new door,
Made by my decision to stray.
The new way may be a dead end
Or a myth with monsters
But it’s different, I dare say,
Better than the wall
And its endlessness,
Better than the fear of falling.
The door opened may have just rocks.
But, a door has been opened
Leading me out of the nothingness…
Everyday…
Is now another day…
Taking me with my blindfolds
Allowing me to feel it
Everyday…
- © HAEM ROY 
3rd April, 2007

Life's unexpected turns...

You are going smoothly... certain doubts in mind troubling you...
But, in time, the doubts clear and then you see the bright sky as you look forward to the approaching good weather that you know is coming...
And suddenly... bump! there is a crash as something jolts you out of this happiness. There is thunder, there is a drak cloud, trying to keep you from moving ahead, trying to get you to stop, and not expect any more happy times!
But, the challenge is to face it and wait for it to clear...

There is another catch though (as always with life)...
Even when you know the fair weather is right ahead for sure, and there is sure confirmation too... you tell urself not to assume. you tell urself that it is wrong to build castles in the air... rather - dont assume and wait for an actual one to materialize. Dont hope so much. if it crashes, it will be shattering!

And between this hope and self-proctection, u are caught... waiting for THAT fair weather... that blissful moment!

Orkut woes!

Yes, fat, ugly, deprived, and one-track minded perverts exist in the world. That i always knew. And obviously you cant avoid such people cos the world is peopled with them. But, when you do come face to face with them, the least you can do is not run away scared. Hell, they are more cowardly than anyone you would ever know.

And when a public networking site, that has been opened with so-called positive goals of allowing 'bichde yaars' to meet falls prey to their lech and drool systems, as they slowly weave their ugly web into the larger Webworld, its time to realise that the society needs a clean-up drive. I mean, how much possible is it to keep avoiding places - virtual or real, just because such peeps invade these territories? the only possible way i see that happening is if you decide to restrict yourself to a four-walled, curtained room far away from civilization, and technology, living on food grown by urself and never meeting anyone from the 'outside world'. Quite an exile that would be!

And if not the exile, you have only two choices - run, run, run as fast as you can as soon as you spot someone who is remotely close to despo and hide in the first shelter that you find, drawing back all your resources and staying underground for a long time OR just face them determined to throw them out of wherever you are at least because considering they are such cowards and considering they are wrong in violating your space, they will get punished if reported!

And i can assure, that if everyone stops running away as if some earthquake has struck and faces this menace, it can be rid of. but no! Will people ever do that? Hah! What a joke! Will people ever come together and try to fight these menaces? hah! Cant see that happening! All that will be done is one person stands up, tries to shout and the others, equally troubled, just cower down under their seats and shelters, asking that one person to also join them as "nothing will happen, this is of no use...the menaces will not listen and this will continue"! I dare say... "You all are wrong!"

Orkut, opened as a site for friends to meet, did have a flood of friendship requests. But none very harmful. And slowly it has degraded into becoming a site where these cowards seek some sort of vago 'gratification'. Unable to hold themselves in real life, they seek the virtual world... plagiarise pictures, generate obsceneties, invade spaces, revel in troubling others... and as far as i see, this only gives them a false 'power' that they seek and lack in reality. The site needs to be cleaned up... such things eradicated. And yes, some laws updated. How can taking a picture from someone's album and misusing it not be an offense? How can you be allowed to take a picture from someone's album in the 1st place???

CLEAN IT UP I SAY!! the idea is good, and i do manage to keep in touch with people i would have stayed away from for years otw due to lack of contact. But then, I dont want unnnecessary invasions, cowardly menaces to plagiarise my world!

OF READING MINDS

Aah there i go again... finding it difficult to know what goes on in people's heads and how people think! Again, for like the millionth time, i really really do wish i had a mind-reader. Would have made communication so much more easier for me when u know what the other person may be thinking... but sigh, doesnt everyone wish for that? Sadly, we are humans, the species that is said to be the most 'brainy', but that very fact is what makes it so difficult too. How nice if like animals we were just instinctive, not bothering abt what the other animal thinks and liking, disliking, love, hatred, all being so instinctive and transparent! You know when there is anger, you know when there is affection, you know when there is liking... and its all for real... there is nothing hidden, no mask, no farce, and no performance. If there is fear, it is real fear, and not fear of being wrong, or saying wrong, or doing wrong or falling for the wrong! Nothing is WRONG. And if there is, who cares!
But, we are humans, and we have the fear of the wrong, we have the bane of thinking too much, and so we suffer!
WE THINK!

Gut feelings!

It is quite strange but when something is happening and your mind and everything else is working in the right way, there is something else that finds a small voice. The gut feeling interrupts sometimes when something is happening, or you are just acrrying on with what is usual or maybe 'natural', like going with the flow.
And it is most shocking to hear this small voice at these times because, firstly it isnt expected and secondly, it is almost always in opposition to the rest of you!
It is quite wierd, because just when u feel everything is going right, there it is to stun you for a second. And you dont know what to do. You should just continue with whatever's happening and ignore it cos everything seems so very right, or fret over the voice and suspect and dont know what else!! Just dont know!! Damn the gut feelings!!! Such a nuisance... how to handle them, what to do with them???!!!