Rumour's Song

I fly far and wide on my outstretched wings
Helter and skelter perching on one and all
Like a raunchy wench I have many a fling
As I answer all summons of lovers who call

Benign is the whisper which begins the blames
I poison all targets which lie in my path
Soiling the solidity of established names
Baseless strength of my haphazard wrath

Willing to mutate as you want me to
To maim your opponent in your covert duel
Camouflaging the false with what is true
The harmless lie becomes deliciously cruel

Growing in scale with every tongue I touch
Tipping to unleash a tsunami of venom
Recoiling to fullest before packing a punch
To stagger the blissfully unaware victim

Am a weapon for whoever wants to use
I hunger for pain and sadistic joy
I have no scruples and no sides I choose
Morrow YOU could be trapped by my ploy

I thrive on your thirst for superstition
My vicious waters will have no end
Perpetrated by progenies with blind conviction
A rumour of yore becomes a legend

- Himanshu

Forced Metamorphosis

Born as a caterpillar.
Will I ever become a butterfly?
Am I too lowly for your love?
And too slimy for your eye?

Relentless your resolve
To change what I am.
You say it's for my best.
And I believe in your scam.

Struggling in my cell
My unworthy self I hide.
So that I become
Who you can truly pride.

If I had to die today
And Of me what you have seen.
Will you then have loved
So far what I have been?

Will you miss my yearning
To rid you of your grief?
Or will you rue the fact
Of things I didn't achieve?

Born as a caterpillar.
Will I ever become a butterfly?
Can you not see my beauty
If I crawl
...instead of fly?

- Himanshu

Comfort versus Happiness

Joint at the hip like a pair of twins
Take one and the other will come it seems
But like the lonely child of lovers asunder
I live with one without the other

Without asking myself what I really sought
I hammered away at my life that was fraught
With regrets and greeds of comforts I yearned
And while hunting my goal many things I spurned

Things that I thought were distractions in the way
The love and the happiness which though I craved
These things I thought would be there at my goal
Bundled with riches, or so I was told

But the joys that I thought were only there at the end
Were sprinkled in abundance on the path that I tread
The comforts I desired in a mindless quest
Made me blind to the pleasures that I possessed

The race that I run has no finish
Chasing the outcome I don't have to perish
I no longer seek happiness in the comforts that I want
My comfort pours instead from the happiness that I've got

- Himanshu

Melancholy of an Artist

The journey of thoughts that froth in the mind
That pour through the pen only to find
Words feel so inept to convey what I meant
The essence of thoughts left sinking behind

The journey of emotions with their unquenched thirst
That pour with the colors in a gory burst
But the drawls I drew, Incomplete and untrue
To depict the pain of the entrenched hurt

The journey of defeat that spreads its roots
That pours through the violins, pianos and flutes
But the music I played, floundered and failed
To give me the strength to cope with the truth

The journey of feelings that flow from the heart
My fears and failings they fail to depart
The expanding void, I can't fight or avoid
They gnaw and they gouge till they tear me apart

Surviving the times with pain so rife
I walk the path smeared with strife
Moving ahead, despite the blood that I shed
As I go along on my journey of life

- Himanshu

Contemplations of a Blind Mother

Your thoughts manifest themselves
In the blot of color that swells
On the curtain of my shut eyes
Your soothing tone that belies
The seething anger you store
Too civil to bring to the fore
I don’t see the smoldering scowl
For I see nothing at all
Though you take good care of me
I know the weight I can be
Perhaps it would be for the best
If I cease to be such a pest
Stop being the source of your strife
And not be a part of your life
Then maybe you would get back
Your colors lost in my black
The smiles that I drain away
In the shadowy pits where I stay
If only… If only…
The keys of death I could find
To free you from the ties that bind

- Himanshu

Universal Speed

Thoughts of time when time began
Celestial matter spread with a bang
Fusing under gravity and heat
The upshot of its nuclear feat
The stars and planets and their moons
Revolve in galaxial cocoons
Billions and billions of years
Over which these heavenly peers
Were born and grew and took their path
In their orbits as they were cast

Pacing along the passage of time
Gradually increased their shine
The stars, like our sun, then nurtured
Planets which in turn mothered
Life on them which itself evolves
And no, with time it doesn't crawl
It gathers speed and shoots ahead
Faster it goes faster it gets
Time that ends up getting squeezed
And Decades pass in just a week

The universe from which we all hail
So patiently creates the veil
Which covers all and nourishes
Environ in which life flourishes
Gaining perfection over time
But patience for us is such a crime
We get caught in the endless rush
When "how" is supplanted by "how much"
The time we have we spill and spend
And hurl towards the hurried end

- Himanshu

Bridal Hunt

Surrounded by unattractive people all around,
I hunt for beauty so rare and prized.
The women I admire, the famed and renowned,
Would be off limits, I woefully surmised.

The Movie Actresses, and the celebrity chicks;
So sensuous with their clothes so bare.
But too out of my league to try my tricks.
So I look out for opportunities else where.

My army spread over a thousand miles
To seek a girl that I will wed.
Astrologically filtered profiles
To pick and choose I duly get.

I further sift and sort through girls:
A shade too dark or inch too tall;
Or her hair too tangled with its curls;
Reasons plenty to reject them all.

A shortlist of dames I draw
To meet in person and examine.
To weed out any glaring flaw
New rounds of rejections begin.

The patient search paid out well.
The best was at the last it seems.
She was the girl who'd always dwelt
Incognito in my dreams.

The fantasies flickered to life,
Of romancing this maiden so coy.
Oh I had to have her as my wife.
(An obedient and a lifelong toy)

I did not notice her scornful glance
As I assumed she was all mine.
I woke up from my blissful trance...
"From this marriage I decline."

Her "regrets" conveyed loud and clear;
Now confused about what I had do.
Coupled with a tinge of fear
At being refused to be married to.

The reason she cited for refusal,
My hair line that was receding fast.
Shallowness now seemed so cruel,
When I met someone who matched my class.

- Himanshu

The Last Story

Boys and Girls today will be the last story I tell.
No. No. Now don't be so worked up. Do not cry and yell.
The story telling classes will continue to be.
A new teacher you will get just as good as me.
Now don't be so rowdy. You better make me proud.
And behave like good children with the new teacher around.
Yes Nathan,
You know my place. You can visit me whenever you want.
From the school, my home's just a tiny little jaunt.
Ohh-kay. I will tell you stories when you come to meet.
Yes... and you will all get cookies and cakes to eat.
There are no benches to sit at my home you know.
You will all have to bundle up and squat on the floor.
Oh children! I will always remember all your names.
Little Betty, Robert, Wilson and James.
And each of you, You have all been such brats!
(Do not giggle now)
And such a part of my life, to just forget like that.
No the new teacher is not a tyrant, you'll see.
She's very pretty and sweet, and younger than me.
I am going because I am too old to teach.
Oh how sweet Tanya!
Thanks for saying I look ripe as a peach.
But no, there are rules, and I have to go.
Yes, I wish the rules were made by you, Joe.
Then I could have told you stories forever and ever.
But then the new teacher so young and clever,
Would never get a chance to teach beautiful children like you.
And even though, I would love to continue
It wouldn't be fair to not give her a chance
And if times are not allowed to advance
We will all be always stuck in the past.
So. I will go now. Give me a hug class.
Oh. Don't rush like that. I can not breathe.
You stampeding herd. Now get back to your seat.
Children I am leaving the school and not you.
And while the school might forget me, I hope you won't too.
Bye! Love you all!
(Flying Kisses all around)

- Himanshu

Party of Escape

It breaks into waves in wares of silver
It flows down the gullet like a raging river
I take lustful whiffs; the aromas titillate
It parches the throat with its acidic taste
The fires it lights cause delirious delights
As all my senses mingle and mate

The reasons I concede to this pleasure
To escape the burden of my lost treasure
The past now a blur much like the present
The hurt disappearing like the flagging crescent
We revel for no reason in this mirthless season
Shedding the pain made so easy and pleasant

The manly me tries to make it a joke
But the liquors consumed emotions evoke
And I laugh and cry in the very same instant
I confide even though there is no one to listen
In the party each punk lying wasted and drunk
And unshackled spirits break open their prison

- Himanshu

Broken Trust

Broken trust...
The shards
Scattered on the ground

The doubts that were brushed away
Thought to be unfound
The doubts that never stood a chance
Against the towering trust I’d built
Not for a second did I ever pause
To let those doubts breed and grow
They eventually dealt a telling blow

The broken pieces of my trust
Sparkled with an eerie glow
Smeared with drops of my blood
I felt the memories gushing out
From the wrist that I had slit
As I watched the dark red stain
Like a blooming flower spreading out

Amidst the pain and doubts so strong
I meditated in silence for long
Brutally betrayed and alone
I held myself though I felt so torn
I prayed to God...
I had to pray
And trust for things to be right again
For the sake of someone who broke my trust
I can not let trust never grow again
I need to give trust another chance
Sometime, somewhere, for Someone else

- Himanshu

Instant Results

Miles of mirror adorn the wall.
Midgets and fatsoes and giants, all
Huff and hoe and grunt and pant
As stacks of weights they heave and haul.

In front of mirrors they exercise
And try to alter their shape-n-size.
Gain some muscle or lose some flab;
A super-bod the desired prize.

One set of crunches; a light bench press;
No sign of sweat to show the stress.
But implore the mirror to magnify
The cut and bulge of biceps they flex.

A sense of failure and dejection haunts
When ungranted go their stupid wants.
They fault the treadmill and the bars
As at the paunch the mirror taunts.

Slow and Steady that won the race:
A wasted point in this fast-food age.
Want the world, and want it NOW.
Instant results are the rage.

Six-pack you want without burning fat.
Salsa expert in fourteen days flat.
Getting laid on the first date with her.
A palatial house without savings squat.

Dash of patience and hard work combine
To bestow on you treasures you pine.
But if you want the quick way out
Liposuction works just as fine.

- Himanshu

Traffic Tangle

Lined up in a queue on wheels
Few more inches each vehicle steals
In this jigsaw on the road
That carries ten times the load
Of shanty trucks and luxury cars
Which honk together a numbing jazz.
Some more buses and the party swells
As I inhale suffocating smells
No room to budge in this traffic jam
And people they all try to cram
In every nook that they can fit
Vroom a little, move bit by bit
To escape the deadly traffic's tangle
All they do is tighten the strangle.

Who cares if someone else gets stuck
As long as you wriggle out of this muck.
So you get ahead while you can
And while you think it's a brilliant plan
The chaos that the individual builds
Causes a jam which smoothly kills
Hope of a solution to start the flow
Of vehicles stuck within this show.
Selfishness that does no good
Even for self as you thought it would.
Slowed down by unneeded haste
Others paths as you invade
But relenting so order may prevail
Against the animal instincts we hail.

When we gain some civility and some tact
And think of the big picture when we act
When we lose our pride to let other's past
When we choose "patience" over "fast"
Is when a better world we will create
And there won't be a jam when I have a date.

- Himanshu

Song of a Sadist

The sadist smiles that I ooze
At the torments in your life
Tears from your endless strife
Nourishment for my poison shoots.
I pray to devils to slash and maim
Trade my joys for your pain
You burn and char in your hell
You scream and wail... and I revel.
A twisted want for happiness
Adds on to my bitterness
The gloom I wish upon the world
Sucks my soul into its swirl
The reason why I live and breathe
Futile and empty... I concede.

- Himanshu

Advertise Yourself

Fattening and flowery
(It's good to be good)
But excessively buttery
The praises you pour
Stop... You should
You're just beginning to bore

A blushing boss
At flattery fake
Gathering moss
While the dud is duped
For promotions sake
How low you stooped!!

Lips tightly sealed
As I believe
My work to yield
My just rewards
And while you grieve
The crowd applauds

How naive was I
To think this true
Deeds deafened by
Your dishonest shout
Smiles you accrue
I am seen with doubt

My work unheard
Because I didn't talk
Known to the world
Your empty brags
Letdown, with shock
My shoulder sags

Hard work unseen
Despite the sweat
Lies they scream
Awards they get

Advertise aloud the things you did
The game's about publicity
If you're honest work a bit
And pep up your visibility
- Himanshu

Distances

Distances...
That I didn't even fathom
Have emerged from their lairs
Like unwelcome nightmares.
Every meter composed
Is a few meters deposed
Away from my home
From the ones that I care for
From the ones that I love.

Distances...
With all the cell phones and air planes
And internet and emails
Are still so real.

Distances…
Nostalgia so cruel
And memories so frail
To battle my ail
But memories are all
That I have of them
And they have of me.

Distances...
I am told
Will strengthen the hold
Of hearts asunder
But love gets plundered
When distances persist
For a time too long
After which you return
To the place you belong
Expecting a welcome
With hugs and kisses
And smiles and tears
But find instead
A bolted door
Shut for the stranger
Heard about
In a languishing lore.

Distances...
Don't take me so far
That tears of my heart
Go unheard
As they drip on my soul.

- Himanshu

I am no Robert Frost

Mr. Frost, a brave man was he
To take the road less traveled by.
Unread, however, his poetry
By the people who poke and pry
And push me on the roads I take
And desirous detours barricade.

Map of my life all charted out;
The journey made with a dotted line.
To remove even the slightest doubt
Or distractions of what I really pine,
Lest I indulge and incur a loss,
The major events marked by a cross.

The obedient kid that I was
Took the path that I was shown.
Pettifoggeries didn't want to cause
Just tumbled down where I was thrown.
Engineering followed by MBA;
Like thousands others I took this way.

The tiny spark seething within;
A chance I might just jump the fence.
Look at the world with a devilish grin,
"This is what I want, really, no offence".
What a delight that would be!
A chance to be what I want to be!

But oh the risks that hound my heart;
Now so much more I have to lose.
So scared I am to tear apart.
Is it now, too late to choose?
I don't have what it takes I guess
To take the road that's traveled less.

- Himanshu

Birth of Art

The voices within I strain to hark
An attempt to mend my hurting soul
But demons gathered in a shoal
Deafen me the way they bark
Their proclivity to keep it dark
Peace of mind my perceived goal
But hurt and pain those devils dole
In this misery there is no lark
The only gate out of my hell
The bleeding streams to try and thwart
Is what the monsters want as well
Born from blackest nooks of my heart
(My devils within glut and swell)
The child of my horror! My escape! My art!

- Himanshu

Dance of Life

Smooth like a wave she begins...
With breathless highs and lows.
In a twirling eddy she spins;
With the grace of a river she flows.

She careens like a feather
Cradled by the flowing breeze.
She dances untethered;
With winds nestled in her knees.

Scores of sparks together spawn
A burst of flare with a blinding glare.
Her flaming body dances on...
The enthralling sight, the seers stare.

Time itself ceases to be,
As she gyrates like the earth.
Celestial bodies stop by to see
Her fiery and unbridled mirth.

Dance itself her only goal;
She builds her own reality.
Glow of her heart illumes her soul.
She dances for the Gods to see.

Vexing worries no longer hound;
She dances all her ails away.
Like her dance her joy unbound,
As the music makes her sway.

Crashing from heavens above;
Jolted back to the cruel world.
Torn apart from her only love;
The music no longer to be heard.

Stolen of her movements deft,
As the music ceased to flow.
The dainty maiden felt bereft
When the present had to go.

The world was blinded to her strife,
As on the past she cast a glance.
She wished to dance a dance of life.
And while alive to live to dance.

- Himanshu

A Flight I took

As we mingle with a fluttering and a happy cloud;
What’s up with that kid? Why is he crying so loud?
The innards of this flight not luxurious enough?
‘Cause the exec up ahead sure is finding it tough;
He is fighting with the crew in his elite "first-class"
Seems the curve of the cushion doesn't suit his ass.
Or does the child share his problem with the guy next to me
Who has got his "Bombay Times" with a missing page-3?
Some guy who demands a more spacious loo.
And that lady thinks her sandwich is too cold to chew.
Or maybe the kid wants the same thing as me.
That curvaceous stewardess... oh the anatomy!

Problems aplenty that could pique the child.
But utterly clueless on what's got him so riled.
Oh-oh. His mum just figured it out.
A diaper change delayed due to flight take-off.
A dry bottom and the kid was at his goo-goo again.
But us grown-ups, we still weren't relieved of our pain.
Complaining is our right, though we have all we need
And no matter what they give, we refuse to be pleased!
The child has long been quiet, blowing bubbles with his spit.
Someone’s got a new complaint; the cabin isn't well lit...
(Hey, someone tell her, we are landing and the lights need to be
Turned off...)

- Himanshu

Pursuite of HappYness

Pursuit of happYness with a "Y".
Philosophy loaded in the replaced "I".
Because happiness that "I" pursue
Is not for me, but for "Y"ou.
You my son, my mother, my bride;
Your smiling lips are what I pride.
And it is for that I take on this chase.
And I shall hunt with fervent pace.
I care not how much I bleed;
How much I injure in what I seek.
Contentment in every sense,
Be bestowed on to you.
And I shall find my happiness,
Which is what you desire too?

- Himanshu

Choices Confuse

Two doors that open
Into different worlds.
No telling how
The future unfolds.
Not clear of what
You really want.
What door to choose
To start your jaunt??

Which dress to wear
In the upcoming bash.
For TV shows,
Siblings clash.
Imprisoned by
Freedom to choose.
The gains so little
For what we lose

All factors weighed
On a micro scale.
And statistical models
That never fail
Analyzed threadbare
To heart's content.
So come tomorrow
You don’t resent

Opinions from every
Passer-by;
Qualified or not;
They all try
To share their wisdom
And help you out.
All piling on
Your towering doubt

Logic loses
All control.
Varied responses
From audience poll.
A dash of superstition
To spice it up.
And your brain reduced
To paper pulp.

When the death bell sounds,
You make a choice.
Listening to
The booming voice
Of your guts
That point the way.
No rhyme, no reason,
You still obey.

You choose the life
That you blame
Rue and regret,
Crib and complain
Staying true
To the human core
You wish you'd gone
Through the second door...

- Himanshu

Death of a Child

I flip pages full of careful scribbles:
A school days memoir I treasure to date.
Images so vivid... Nostalgia tickles...
Changes so blatant since second grade.

Little delights that boundlessly thrilled;
Pleasures so trivial that aroused a smile.
Infinite desires now remain unfulfilled;
Smiles suppressed by problems that pile.

The heart didn't know of class and caste.
Impetuous ire never grew to revenge.
But all those things so far in the past,
When worldly values were not entrenched.

Harmless pranks on fellow mates;
Fickle fights that didn't last an hour.
Now flimsy politics for accolades.
A word can turn a friendship sour.

No problem too great for mom to solve;
The heart brimming with hope to battle all odds.
Minor setbacks now break my resolve;
Searching for strength in fraudulent Gods.

Trapped, ensnared, in the heart I tiled
Joys that lit the childhood days.
While growing up I killed the child
While futile wants I blindly chase.

- Himanshu