homar al alooj

t: i was just reading an article by another uncle abdul
cd:on?
t: another wannabee ibn warraqite...thought i would respond...then had second thoughts
cd: why?
t: he belongs to islamwatch
cd: so? yes I know them
t: well just a quick glance tells me that they play with the truth the same way a jaahil mullah does...pick n choose n smash
cd: yes
t: and are too much on one extreme
cd: that's what annoys me so with mr. Rajkotwala
t : am SO wary of ANY born-again types
cd: you are absolutely right
t: the born-again zeal gets in the way of reason...khair...let us see where we go with this
cd: :)
t: hey what is homar al alooj beady is rapping about
cd: an obstinate fool or a brilliant mule
t: hmmm... wasn't alooj according to baghdad bob just a gadha?
cd: yes, a stinky gadha no less
t: and homar?
cd:a homar doesnt stink, he just kicks and brays
t: so that would be bush-blair as homar?...no no forgive me blair is a poodle
cd: (lol) a wimp of a wet noodle
t: and saddam would be the stinky one?
cd: depends on which side of the fence you're sitting
t: or the late asad or ibn asad...sorry am deluged by the third world tin pot dictators
cd: what's in a name anyway...despots are tyrants just the same
t: yeah whether they win by 99% all by themselves or with the help of supreme court;)
cd: (gotcha)....their win is their people's loss

(pause)


t: you mentioned perfume and attar...it is too strong...get headache...perfume is different
cd: five sense need to be addressed...smell is but one of them
t: true but what if the central processor is incapacitated...er...translation? what if a person does not have a functioning mind?
cd: then one needs to use the auxiliary one...multi task if necessary
t: this is leading somewhere?
cd: functioning minds are rather relative. malfunction is also a function
t: you believe in the predictability of unpredictability?
cd: again depends on which side of the fence you are sitting. creativity come from chaos
t: fence?
cd: crystal balls went out of fashion centuries ago
t: shhhh... i have one ...but back to fence for a moment
cd: fence, wall, borders, divide
t: we walk in a tightrope...a trapeze
cd: or bounce on a bungee
t: aha! wait...yes... fences divide...the tightrope was an individual's trudge through life...
back to perfume
cd: didn't they say no pain no gain? yes perfume is much nicer...(inhales ..exhales) sighs
t: my fav is no perfume...or the absence of one on a freshly scrubbed body
cd: for an asthmatic that is a given...like the too much of even a good thing is still too much
t: yes moderation is the key
cd: in everything
t: about the only thing that does not hurt in excess is moderation
cd: but then that means sitting in the middle...or maybe on the fence
t: not necessarily - think of moderation as an absence of extremism - live and let live?
cd: extremism is on both sides of the fence, if it isn't this then it is that
t: or one more cliche - to each his her own
cd: opposites here do NOT attract
t: hate is that… not the other side of love
cd: the other side of love still divides
t: and attracts israelis palestinian
cd: kashmir
t: they are undecided puzzled and confused ...don't know which suitor to go for
cd: if they were men they'd be able to marry 4
t: four marriages are passe ...in fact marriages are out...commitment is in (Q bit wrote an article on desi)
cd: (eh? I didn't understand that?)
t: Q bit argued in the article that marriages are a thing of past [link]
cd: lol commitments? mistakes are also committed
t: semantics -- ouch!!
cd: (laughs)
t: did adam and eve go to a registry? or to a priest?
cd: priest weren't created yet they just had each other and the apple
t: so we created a god in our image
cd: not even in ours ...we think higher of ourselves
t: explain this
cd: we correct God...we ascribe things to him...we interpret his words...we shove intentions down his throat....the created becomes the creator...and while he had the best in mind for us...we give him the worst
t: if i was adam i would not have eaten the apple;)
cd: hindsight is 20/20
t: there you shot down a brilliant and unique insight:)
cd: sorry,
hangs head in shame
takes all the blame
with that rhyme, lame
t: please don't drown me in humility ...i cannot be adam - heck am trying got be an insaan - and that is so difficult
cd: smiles...niyyat is all that matters

on making tea

a late night meant
getting up late and missing
.......................her
and the hot breakfast she makes
so non chalantly i strode
into her kitchen and
put the water to boil
and toast in the toaster-oven
and scrambled eggs
and while the pan warmed up
scanned the headlines

the usual stuff
a woman jumped off the bridge
with her four year old son
and ten US soldiers joined her
from eyeraaq as james baker
danced before the senate
and dubya talked with his god
and with cheyney and blair

the usual stuff, i said?

meanwhile something wafted
smoke or steam?
the toasts were retrieved in time
but the steaming kettle...

ah, eureka!

in this century and next
wars will be fought over water

:)

december 12, 2006

so

do i get to put the feet up and relax
having finished all the day's chores early?

but there is one thing yet to be done

have to scan the latest news
keep myself abreast of the bad tidings
from all over but first some tea

olmert is an opportunist
who inherited his job by default
and if he let slip a yawner
what is the big brouhaha about?
vannu let it out decades back
and paid for it too
as men of conviction do

and across the gulf his nemesis
responding to freedom of speech
and cartoon blasphemy issues
held a meet to question holocaust
to show them europeans
the iranians can match their hatred

the christmas tree goes up again
and two other headings
placed beside each other spell irony
grief and joy before pinochet funeral and
cindy sheehan convicted of trespassing
palestinians are cursed with a death wish
if not israeli bullets or bombs
they take it upon themselves
to kill and maim each other
while bush hold more talks
on the strategy group's suggestions
the killing spree continues in baghdad
(placed bottom right corner
in all google news versions
Canada, US, India, Australia, NZ)
and families lose their beloved ones
while the beltway bandits
light up for the joyous season

ho ho ho

hauteur's hubris

amputated vibrations of probationary impulses
angst ridden probes at the tentative remains
of purblind speculations rediscovering elephants
blind in dark, unseeing in daylight
unperceptive, unrepentant, incognizant
hindenburg ego matching zeppelin imbecility
merrily reassuring the world is not awhirl

conversation with a cute desi

cd: where have you been
t "aashiq bannayaaa..."
cd: himesh reshammiya?
t "aashiq bannayaaa..."
cd: what is the time there?
t "aashiq bannayaaa...two pm...am sober"
cd: i can sense something
t: have tears in my eyes
cd: men don't cry
t: am not crying
cd: are you writing?
t: yes
cd: and that moves you
t: read for yourself:

it hit me with stupefaction
in the solar plexus
with temperature edging up

cd: ah gaza?
t: no
cd: the grandma?
t: nahin bhaee
cd: hmmmm fearful of civil strife?
t: not that either
cd: the massacre?
t: no no baba no even the five car bombs in Baghdad
cd: alright continue with you poem. want to see what brings tears to your eyes

t: it hit me with stupefaction
in the solar plexus
with temperature edging up
rhinoscopic examination
- oft repeated tales
of lava in the chest
beyond the reach
of the muscle bundle......

cd: goodness - you are having a heart transplant?
t: no, but this does feel like the end of the world
cd: what could be worse than heart transplant?
t: .............
cd: r u choking?
t: no
cd: sobbing, oh poor t
t: .............
cd: i have never seen you at a loss of words
t: told you am not crying...though tears are flowing
cd: you poets and your exaggerations
t: oofho why don't you understand
cd: tears in your eyes yet you are not crying
t: yes and nose blocked and congestion too
cd: and you are running a fever too
t: yes
cd: oofho, pehlay kyun nahin bataya you have a bad cold
t: i was about to....aashiq bannayaa
cd: am calling M, you men have such low threshold!
t: sigh
cd: why sigh?
t: you don't want to read the rest of it
cd: right! drink juices and rest...you will survive
t: hmmmm...threshold...bye

unending work of a monarch

stored in memory cobwebs
chasing scents, wind and nectar
pulsating chromatic waves

the one found in a jar
in the attic was happy, once
....................and alive

if butterflies dream
what happens to their dreams?

***

the social genus
perky, fresh, aflutter
an object of desire
for those with a disparate net
drifloating joy
oblivious
of life's unfinished work

the words in the folder
flaky dreams on frayed paper
frozen sighs, welled tears
unuttered affirmations
clogging memory cobwebs

midnight on the caribbean beach
when ocean comes alive
gone is the idyllic sun bathing
under the shade of the umbrella
with pina coladas and sun lotions
the waves now rise and fall
an unending percussion
slapping the resolve of the shore

timeless, inconclusive

the words, waves, the butterflies
never ending work and
the butterflies within
sans antennas
you, me, them
before and after
we metamorphose
we whirl

Know What Am Sayin'?

Be sincere; be brief; be seated - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Good things, when short, are twice as good - Gracian

A short saying often contains much wisdom - Sophocles

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence - Cicero

Brevity is the soul of lingerie - Dorothy Parker

The quotes above serve two purposes. It adds words to an article so that the kind editors would overlook the requirements for minimum verbiage here. And it also reflects on the writer's mind-set. Know what am sayin'

What is it with some people and their speech? Know what am sayin'?

As communicative beings we grow and use communicative skills to convey our hunger, anger, love. From the infant's first lungful cry to the animal grunts in the bedroom the distance is not all that arduous.

In a foreign land, not knowing the language we can still communicate hunger. In restaurants I have used primitive sign language to order food. In meetings, we use non verbal language.

But majority of the times we use words to communicate our thoughts - structured or broken - depending on the company. Both are okay with me, but what irritates me at times is when certain words or phrases are abused. Know what am sayin'?

As readers we come across words that send us scurrying to the padded room. The pharmaceutical companies that make drugs for ulcers and blood pressure must have invested in programs that enhance abuse of the written language.

As if that is not enough increasingly we hear these abuses in conversations and on radio and television. It is discomforting enough when teens tell their parents 'you don't know nothin' dad.' But when grown man interject after every second simple sentence 'know what am sayin' I feel like introducing the speaker and the greasy side of the wrought iron pan.

Everyday verbal communication includes colloquialisms, slang, jargon, and idiom. The time when hunter-gatherers made do with grins and grunts is past. Though I wonder sometimes.

The use of expletives in everyday usage alarms me too. I have written about it in Duck, Man Duck!

Would I prefer to be rained with 'know what am sayin' or with a plethora of expletives that tell me and others to go forth and make love? Neither. I'd rather be uncommunicative.

Or, perhaps at some chance encounter, I may garner courage to tell someone who wants to know if I understand what he is saying with 'I do, but do you?'

words for my other son: lazy musings on the importance of the right turn

they turn
round and round
pirouetting around
us and themselves

the door knob and
the wheels turn
but the eagle
circles for prey

the propeller
and the earth
both rotate
the top
gyrates though

but
the earth
like the sun
also revolves

lobbyists spin
ballerina swirls
as does
the swizzle stick
in the martini

and while the world
rotates around them
dervishes do not eddy
but whirl

and in whirling
rumiesquely
they touch gods

in the end

andrew morrison wrote "A Poem For All Travellers" quoted from a Michael Swan poem.

here is my response to him:

anjoosan

thanks for sharing this post and the poem...here is my response to you in swan-vein:)


in the end
it is not about
trust or trusting
if the sun would shine
the next day
or moon will play
hide and seek
through the clouds

the traffic rush
interminable waits
irritating folks in the line ahead
people ensconced in a chair
they occupy by default
hindenburg egos
covering pin-head sensibility

in the end
it is not about
trust or trusting
but about not letting
the child in us
get too far away

smiling differently

pound of flesh is passe
shylock today
is much more subtle
and the one in my veins
demands love
for love

dasamukha ravana
demands hate
with usurious interest
for deeds of the dead

we live
under the same roof
breathe in the same air
and smile differently