Open-Mike Poetry Performance

Every fourth Tuesday of the month, Prithvi theatre café is not just a meeting place to romance over a cup of coffee, it is a special venue for poets to perform their poetry.

Yes, I do like to write poems but performance for me is light years away.

When I reached at Prithvi today, my friend asked me to recite a poem. Now, a shy person like me, who hates to be stared at, can I ever perform my poems in front of strangers?

Nah! I just cannot.

I like to sit there and listen to other poets, while sipping coffee. Most of the poems today were in Hindi and I find Hindi poems very different from English. I mean to say that English poems have meter and form and they are more chiseled, where as Hindi poems are very free flowing and quite dramatic. Well, that’s performance, I guess. People enjoyed and hooted at shayaris but during English poems, they just nodded their heads.

Maybe I should write something in Hindi too.

What is the moral of this story??

I got this humorous email that says: “If Columbus had been married, he might never have discovered America because of the following: Where are you going? With whom? Why? How are you going? To discover what? Why you? What do I do, when you are not here? Can I come with you ? Coming back when? Dinner ghar par hi khaoge? Mere liye kya laoge? It seems you deliberately made this ....Hain na... Why? Dont lie.... Why r u making such programs You seem to be making a lot of such programs….Why? I want to go to my parents place I want you to come and leave me I don’t want to come back.... I will never come back.... Why are u not stopping me.... I don’t understand what is this discovery chakker? You always do like this..... Last time also u did like this.... Now a day’s u always seem to do like this.... I still don’t understand what else is balance to be discovered... Itne sab questions ke baad..... America kya, he may not have reached the front porch of his house.” Hahaahaha and Ha!!! What this person doesn’t know is that today, it’s the men who ask too many questions… and then…like babies they whine…all the time… Women have learnt to take everything in their stride They have learnt to live in this world with grace and pride Managing their workplace and also thier home Leaving fragrance of fresh flowers in thier comfort zone If men choose to have a woman by his side And still if he wishes to travel for extra dime She can wait till dawn and never ever yawn She is happy to relax in her social networks lawns.

Diwali is just round the corner

To enjoy the true essence of Diwali festival, one should be in India. Last year I was in Spain, and I tried to create the atmosphere of the festival so that my brother’s kids, who have never visited India during this time, could experience this festival. I made rangoli, prepared sweets at home, performed Laxmi pooja at our shop and then went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, but that was all that we could do. No fire crackers, no lighting of Diyas in the house, no meeting people and no wishing every second person ‘Happy Diwali’ Ah nothing….. But this year, I hope, it is going to be different; I hope it to be the way I like it. The kids in my building are quite excited. I see them every evening with a big basket of fire crackers, having competitions of being the loudest joker. They pretend they are brave but take full five minutes to burst a tiny cracker, cowards! The only brave thing they can do is to burn fooljari. (sparklers). During my growing up days, there was great variety of firecrackers available in the market, like those triangular and circular fountains that sprinkled sparklers in the air, then there was a whistle that would go whizzing up in the air, sometimes in wrong direction chasing a frightened person. Then there were rockets, which we would keep in sleeping position at the end of the lane and see it flying parallel to the ground. We had snakes emerging from a small black tablet, there were chaklis that would go round and round, throwing sparklers in all directions. I don’t see these kids with such simple firecrackers any more, (I am sure they must be available but these kids don’t seem to like it) they just like those loud bombs, which me thinks, gives them thrills, you see them blinking their eyes, covering their ears and waiting for it to explode and then jumping and laughing, like tiny terrorists. I don’t even see any adults with these kids, except the watchman or a maid. Parents, aunts, uncles and relatives are too busy with their own lives to bother accompanying their kids. The streets are decorated with lights and lanterns, retail shops are eagerly waiting for shoppers, but everything is so damn expensive that sitting at home and networking seems like a better option.

Are There Two Indias In One Bus Route? - Will “1 thru 10 for India” help?

I am seated in an AC bus, comfortably settled, with a book and digital camera on my lap, on my right is this young man, surfing the net. Yeah, there is socket in this bus for people to use their laptop. Some have closed their eyes and are already in deep meditation while others are humming the song. The Bollywood music is playing in the background and it is calming the nerves of all the passengers. How much better can the life get? “India is shining” and I grin shyly. The bus stops momentarily at a signal and I look out on the streets. A five-year-old child smiles at me, raising her hand to wave at me, another child, six-year-old cradles one-year-old in his arms. I am thinking if somebody could guide them to the nearest pre-school where they could discover the magic world of words. They shouldn’t be here on these dirty streets at such a tender age. Ouch! "India is NOT shining" on other side of my window. Should I de-sensitize myself and not look in the direction of “other India”? The “Other India” is as much a reality as the “India Shining”? Is that fair? Is that right? Can we lend a helping hand? Do you care? Will you make your 3 days count? Can you go do something good for your country? Will you do something for the “Other India”? More on the topic including the "Africa in Peril" presentation that influenced/inspired 1 to 10

Needle work helps me on my blue days

Today is one of those days when I feel terribly blue. I feel nothing is right. What am I doing in this world? I feel useless and incapable of doing anything perfect.I am envious of those to whom everything comes so easy, almost on a gold platter and yet they find reason to complain. I wonder I am the only one feeling this way. May be it’s the weather which is so gloomy, no rain but so damn cloudy, even the birds are confused. I can only hear crows crowing (but then they always do to add to the noise pollution) I am trying to write but cannot. I want to visit somebody but I am too lazy to go out. Should I make a phone call..but ...what to say??? Maybe I should watch TV, if only there was something very, very interesting. Diwali is round the corner, maybe I should help my maid with the cleaning but she is more lazy than I am and she is always in hurry, I can feel that she is bored too because she is doing diwali cleaning in all the five houses where she does the same routine work everyday. I am bored. On the days like these, I think, my art work helps. Sewing requires lots of concentration and with failing eyesight, even this activity can be done only during daytime…I do it while watching TV. I finished this needle work last week and I shall gift it to a friend. Maybe giving something may ease me from this boredon, I so badly want to feel useful again.