The Turning Wheels
Staring at the thumbless hands,
Ekalavya sits in silence.
Gratitude, grief, sacrifice…
are possibilities only in a poet’s imagination.
The mountain stream keeps flowing
down the slope towards the sea;
The tree blooms luxuriously in spring,
only to turn leafless again in autumn.
Though the leaves fall, the branches
would surely blossom before long;
Not so in the case of a thumb! But for history,
who knows the many faces of oppression?
Again and again, the Dronacharyas descend
upon Eklavyas sitting in silence;
What follows in the turning wheels of our history
is doubtless known to you, only too well.
The Lamp I Light
I too light a lamp
though not with the delusion of defeating darkness;
When countless brilliantly blazing ships
have sunk in it and melted away,
I harbour no illusion that the lamp I light will last.
I, too, light a lamp.
No, not hoping to cross over from darkness to light.
Since centuries
our feet have stumbled from one to another darkness;
At times, needing illumination
we have struck matches,
have lit lamps.
Vedas, shastras, puranas,
history, poetry, science: varied
are the crackers we have fired.
Chanting the proverbial ‘from darkness unto light,’
we have fallen back onto the pile of ash.
I too realise
the darkness has an insatiable thirst,
even after consuming
all the light, all the time
it still asks for more, still more.
Yet I light a lamp.
No, not with the illusion of surmounting darkness.
But with the sole hope of your being able to see my face,
and I yours, in the time that is ours.
Because when the lamp is out,
you and I
may not be able to know ourselves.
I Looked Everywhere for the Absent God
I looked everywhere for the absent god
in temples of brick and mortar.
I failed to note the love and friendship
that is present among us is here.
Where is heaven, where is prison?
Within us indeed everything is.
If we do not become agitated,
our tongues are as sweet as nectar.
Fortified inside our ego,
aloof we stay from even the nearest.
Why living in harmony is so tough
when our lives are so short!
