A Tragedy: When Life Lost Moves You

What use is an audit

When what should have been prevented

Already happens

How would auditing the conditions 

Help the twenty-two unfortunate souls

Already lost to your callousness

Why are you so reactive 

When you need to be proactive

What do you tell the families

Who’s loved ones left for the day

But never to return

Can all the money in the world

Buy back the lives lost

Heal does deep scars

How do you console a 9 month old babe

Who cries out for it’s mother

How do you console a father

Who happened to listen to his daughter

And walk a bit ahead of her 

Only to turn around and not find her there 

So many stories to weep

Of loss and sadness

Why oh why then 

Didn’t your heed to the cries

That warned you before

This was not a calling wolf 

But a ticking bomb waiting to burst

And with it did it consumed lives

Does renaming a station

Is more important than human life

What do you get by it

A vote bank to fall on?

What use is a bullet train

When a tragedy is 

A bullet to the heart

What use is an AC train

When the everyday commute

Feels like being packed up like sardines

A dangerous stunt 

That needs to be completed 

What use of looking to bring a future

When the present isn’t perfect

When there’s lack of proper infrastructure 

When there has been a call

For an urgent need to overhaul

Why did it fall on deaf ears?

Why the stepchild treatment?

We help pay a major of chunk of taxes

Giving to you what is due to you

And get nothing in return

Only to see your pet cities and states

Benefit from what should have been ours

We don’t need your tweets 

or your insincere condolences 

Till you feel the pain we feel, 

The anguish of loosing someone dear

The fear and the risk we take

On our daily commute

Your words are meaningless and hollow

So don’t tell us your saddened

Or tell us a strict enquiry 

will be conducted

And those responsible 

will be taken to task

When you could have prevented 

And choose to do nothing

Making it worse

For heaven sake

Do what is right

Before it is too late 

To Love a Man

There are so many songs that serenade a woman and how to love her and how to treat her and how to hold her. Yeah we get it, you’re beautiful, inside and outside, and your beauty is beyond compare, and there’s no one like you in this world. But how about a song on what it takes to love a man? We are not as simple as you take us to be, well not as complicated either. We may not want to be serenaded, but how about a song for us too (not like the ones from Game of Thrones)?

Well as the ladies are busy writing songs on how they have not been treated fair (which in all fairness is true), how life has been hard on them, and how they have been cheated on, so it is upto us men to shine light on what it is like to love a man. Now remember this just an opinion and may not represent all of mankind, so please don’t come at me with pitchforks and torches to hunt and burn me down.

So let’s start! Not all men are Male-Chauvinistic pigs, may be some presidents and ministers and a few men but not all men. Yes we have century old of hardwiring that has been soldered in our brains, so it’s going to take us a while to unlearn what has been drummed into our head. Trust us, we are trying, well at least a few us.

Chivalry ain’t dead, in fact it is alive and kicking. It all depends on your upbringing and what your parents thought they taught you. But then if you believe in equal rights then treat her the way you would like to be treated. Trust me, most women actually like these things, it shows them R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

We may (with the emphasis on “May”) have read, seen and even liked (shudder) the 50 Shades movies and books, but we don’t believe in dominant and submissive. What we do believe that when egos are kept in check, we can have a good and healthy relationship. Remember we are all humans and as humans we do mistake, so we can’t always be right.

We may seem to have an attention span of a goldfish and memory like Dory, but we will certainly make up for our forgetfulness (that’s if we are that forgetful). No matter how un romantic we may seem, we can be romantic and spontaneous when we are not pushed to it. Remember it took Chandler to complete Monica’s proposal.

It’s a common misconception that we keep thinking about sex every three minutes (or is it less?). Oh come on, we can’t be thinking of that much sex, we do think about food, cricket, football, and “Oh hell, what did we forget now?”

Our eyes may stray, but heart is always with the one we love the most. So though the eyes may follow the good looker it will always return to the one that holds the heart.

Just as there is Daddy’s little girl, we will have the mummas boy. But trust me this is the most uncomfortable thing to juggle, to satisfy two people at once.

We are bad at answering trick questions. We have left answering questions in college. Besides what’s the use of answering something for which you already know the answer.

We may seem forgetful, untidy, indisciplined, wild, but know that we will do what we can for love. Cause if it is meant to be we will do all we can.

We may believe that we are the breadwinner, the provider, the giver, but every help is more than welcome. It may seem that it would hurt our fragile egos, but the truth be told we believe in all hands on deck.

As much as we love caring and taking care, we love to be cared for and taken care. We may not always express it, but we love to be loved and showered with all the attention.

We may not show it but can be an emotional wreck. For all the machoism and bravado that we display, we are a softie on the inside. We may not show it public cause we don’t want to hurt our image or we need to keep up a strong exterior, but we too hurt, we too tear up, sometimes into ugly tears, but we do.

So there you have it, it may not be exhaustive, but here’s your guide to what it takes to love a man... according me. So it doesn’t matter your gender or preference, these are just a few aspects for it. And once again we have a right to our opinion and I respect yours as much as I have respect mines, so please don’t kill me for it.

Through Sliding Doors

Have you ever had that nagging thought of what would your life be if you had chosen Option A instead of B, gone with C instead of D? Oh come on, don’t be so naive! Don’t tell me these thoughts never crossed your mind! 

Not really regrets (or at least that what I tell myself), it’s just trying to imagine what life would be if you had chosen differently. Like jumping through the sliding doors of a train you’re trying to catch. What would have happened if you had made it, what would have changed if you missed it (yayayaya, I know you know, or assume you know, that this is a plot from the Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah movie).

What would have happened if like your college friends you chose to go to the same classes as them? Would you have scored better in your boards? Would that affect your overall percentage?

What if, like them, you chose to bell the CAT, and complete your MBA. Would your career have taken a different path from the one that you are currently on? Would you be settled with a good paying job and live a globe trotting life? Would you have made millions with no care for loans and expenses?

When you see those pictures of your ex, 

 do you wonder what would life if you have made it work. Would those smiling wedding pics be that of yours? Would those children be yours? Would you be well off or worse if you had matured and worked out the chinks?

Then there’s the gthought of single life and not being in a relationship. What would life be if you were not committed? What would your dating scene be like? Would you be cruising from one person to another?

The “What ifs” and “What nots” of life. We all have them, we all go through them. But remember, at the end of the day we have our Now. The past is gone, we can’t go back and change it. The present is here and what we have to make the most of it. 

We are the sum of the decisions we make. So for better or worse we have to live with it. But then don’t live in regret. It’s the decisions you’ve made and brought you to where you are now. If you have to improve, learn from it and move on, don’t let your thoughts of your past plague you.

Look at it this way, if you had stayed with your ex, you wouldn’t have met the love your life, you wouldn’t open your life to aspects of life you didn’t know where there.

The Now is what you have, make the most of it.

An Adventure in the Dark: Riding without Headlights

What do you do when you discover that your Activa’s headlight doesn’t come on, it’s past 9 and you have to make your way home through Aarey, a forest area (which our beloved government is disputing) that is not well lit, has loads of craters (read potholes), known for panther sightings and robbers.

Well firstly you take a deep breath. It’s not safe and against the rules to ride without headlights. But then what do you do when you discover the fuse and there’s no where to rectify it. You have another option but it can be painfully jammed and hard in your butt, not to forget your other parts.

So decide to risk it all, saying to yourself you can make through, just be bloody calm. The headlights that blinded you and left you fuming, is now a welcome cause thy light up the road, shinning on those pesky potholes. The air smells fresh, but then there’s a heavy feeling of fear in your heart to enjoy it.

And then comes a point where you need to take a diversion cause the bridge has weakened and traffic is being redirected. The road is not totally unfamiliar, but you just want company, to tailgate, to shine light on the way.  Few vehicles realise the situation, so there are just few taking it. 

So you have a bunch of kids riding triple seat who take a left when your instinct tells you that you need to take a right. Now you’re riding in the dark, all tensed and alert to any sound, trying to focus on the road ahead. You are familiar with the route, cause it’s your favourite running route. But then with this familiarity comes the awareness that this is the very area where panthers have been sighted.

So you have it, no headlights, in a dark forest, no much of street lights, not too good roads, inclines and declines, and panther area, total darkness, in short, balls in the mouth situation.

You try not to panic or go what the beep am I doing here, why the beep did I choose this route, why couldn’t I just come by train this morning. Today is just not your day but today is not the day I become dinner. 

Any sighting of headlights are a welcome sight, but any glowing eyes a sense of fear and dread. You keep wondering when would you see New Zealand Hostel. Familiarity of the area fills you with a sense of hyper panic. So you have to keep pep talking to yourself.

Finally when you come to New Zealand Hostel you breathe a sigh a relief, but then you realise now you have a decline to go through with very little. So once agin, breathe in and breathe out, drive slowly, you’ve got this, you’ve run on this road, so hey take it easy and you’ll make it through. 

So you go steadily down the slope, often letting gravity do it thing, trying not to panic or overshoot the road. You get that oh so familiar smell of the tabelas, which is so welcome.

Finally you make it to where there are other cars streaming from other diversions. It’s a sense of relief. You may have hated jams but not this time. You know you survived a silly risk you’ve taken. So finally you’ll be home for dinner and not as someone else’s dinner.

So there you have it, an adventure in the dark, a silly risk and panicky moments, but something you will remember for the rest of your riding life.

This Old Road

There’s this road that I know

That starts right outside my door

That takes me on an adventure 

To places unknown 

Through unfamiliar places

Past unfamiliar faces

Always leading me on

Through ups and downs

And twists and turns

Always urging me on

To keep moving forward

Never to give up and turn back

Cause this road only knows onwards

And never moving backward

Through the twists and turns

This roads keeps me guessing

Cause I never know

What awaits around the next bend

Sometimes it fills me with fear and dread 

And other times with childlike glee

And the excitement and anticipation 

Of what is to come

The road is never always the same

Sometimes you have steep inclines

Leading to steep declines

Sometime rolling hills

And at times gradual planes

But never the same

Always dynamic and always changing

That leaves me always guessing

Keeps me intrigued and interested 

Never ever letting me slip

Into a familiar rhythm 

But always giving me something 

To look forward to

Something to look towards to

Along the way 

there’s always a chance to meet

A fellow traveller just like you 

Who has chosen to undertake this journey

And for those few moments

You have a traveling companion with you

There’s stories to share

Notes to compare

And you know you’re never alone

And if luck should have it

They’ll stay with you through your journey

Cause theirs too is the same

But there may come a time

When you reach a fork

Where their journey continues 

Along on another way

Or their journey may come to an end

Then you need to bade them farewell 

And continue on, journey on

Travellers may come

Travellers may go

Some leaving their imprints

That remains long after they are gone

But then you continue to journey

With fond memories and 

You continue to journey on

Till at last your journey may end

And you find your way

Back to your home 

A place to rest your weary head

And put up your tired feet

Cause the miles that you’ve experienced 

And now it’s time lay down and sleep

The road of life goes on and on

Out from my doorsteps

Into the great beyond

But down this road, I’ll shall go

With a smile on my face 

And a song in my heart

To journey on and on

Daydream Believer

Always dare to dream

And while you’re at it 

Make it large

Make it seventy times seven of you

Be the day dreamer that you are

Cause your dreams 

Let’s you see the world

Not as it is but the way it is meant to be

Your dreams gives your life purpose

And no matter how impossible

They may seem

Go ahead and dream the impossible dream

Let nothing and no one hold you back

Or tell you that you can’t

Don’t ever limit yourself

Cause like your dreams your are unlimited 

People may laugh at you

Call you a daydreaming fool

But then what do they have to show for it

To call your dreams a fool

Don’t ever let your age hold you back

Cause you’re are never to old to dream

And age is just a number 

Whereas your dreams are forever

But don’t let your dreams be a dream

Wake up and chase them down

Just dreaming them

Would be a waste of a dream

So when you dream make it large

Dream that what seems impossible 

Then chase it and make it possible

To give your life meaning

So here’s to the ones who dream

Foolish as it may seem

Here’s to the daydream believers 

And everything in between

And while you’re at it

Dream a little dream  for me

Once Upon a Little Boys

Once upon a time, a few decades gap, born a little boy as cute as you could know. He had cutest of faces and the rosiest of cheeks that made everyone to squeeze.

He grew into this cute little boy, the apple as well as envy of many eyes. With the chubbiest of cheeks and softest bums like buns, though not of steel. Much to the delight of the aunties and others, who wanted to pinch and squeeze (you see, there was not known as abuse then), much to annoyance and charging of he.

His grandmother and mum wanted to see him plump, so they kept feeding him with all that he could take. And trust me he didn’t mind this a bit and gobbled up the food with delight. In the afternoon if you were to hear a sound, like a mouse scurrying around, it was just him rummaging through the cupboards for something to eat.

As he grew older and he became a bolder, his aunt and father felt that he needed to be disciplined, so off to the boarding he went. Now the food in the boarding was no good, and lil guy was in no mood, to eat the rice and the dal prepared in the day. So he stopped eating his noon meal and so the weight began to peel. So by the time he was out of the boarding, he looked a poor boy starving.

So once he was back home, his mom tried to make up for the time gone, trying to get to be fat again. College life brought out the eating of junk and all the fast food could. That meant putting on the little pound here and a little pound there. Not exactly making him fat, just healthy as he would love to say.

Now the little boy grew up into a not quite a strapping lad, and a model he wanted to be. So he tried to Gym, on a whim, but couldn’t sustain the enthusiasm. And with it went his weight. But obese was not he wanted to be, so he tried to apply himself more practically, whether at the Gym or what he ate.

Seeing all the hunks And well toned bodies all around, made this lil boy want to be the next model. So he strove to get into shape and even get his portfolio clicked. Sadly for him, the struggle of a model he couldn’t take. So he once more gave up on the dream. Looking at those pics now makes him cringe, because he was not the model that he thought he could be. But from this all came a something good he became health conscious and ate good food.

So the years went by and the lil boy grew older, he found and lost love and then love found him again, and that love made want to look good again. He got hooked on running as he was into gymming. Diets he followed, to some success and then he unfollowed. Health magazine he read and used apps to keep his workout in check. But his control over food wavered cause he always loved what he savoured, leading to weight gains and then the struggle to loose it again.

And now he’s trying to stay lean and from the results he has seen, inspires him to push onwards to try new things and new way to help him get lean and stronger. Weights was not just what he used, he tried crossfit and functional training and even a mix of both. The results he began to see made look triumphantly, cause although he knew he was cute, but now he was lean and hot to boot (or at least that he felt). So this lil boy promised himself, to continue to take care of his health and always strive to look good.

So this a story of a lil boy that I once knew. It could be me, or it could be you.

You Matter to Me: An Ode to Love

I can see my whole world in your eyes

But I really don’t want to see

Where my future lies

Right by your side is where I want to be

Cause that’s what is Home to me

You matter to me

I may not always show it to you

But know that i do

What I say true

You matter to me

I don’t know what I do

If I didn’t know you

You have been with me all the time

Through the good and the bad 

And the downright silly time

You borne with silly insecurities 

Being the support that I need

Cause you matter to me

I feel so lonely and blue

When I am not near you

You matter to me

Please believe it’s true

And I hope you feel the same way too

You stood by me through the good and the bad time

My pillar of strength, a one of a kind

Even though others would have gone insane

With me and my foolish ways

You made see the fool I’ve been

But always being there caring for me

You matter to me

Life without you

Is something I don’t want to imagine to

You matter to me

Cause I am incomplete without you

That’s not a life I want to

You knew about the pain I felt

How it broke me and left me spent

But then you lifted my spirit and gave me strength

For which I am forever indebted and grateful to you

Cause you matter to me

It’s simple and plain

But I find it difficult to explain

Cause you matter to me

I promise I do

What I say is true

Not being able to tell you every single day 

What I feel for you drives me insane

Though you may feel that it needn’t be said every time 

But it’s something I know I need to do

You matter to me

To see you Happy is my wish for you

And is what I want too

Cause you matter to me

To say those three words to you

Is all I want to do

You matter to me 

My whole life indebted to you

I am grateful to have known you

Cause you matter to me 

I mean it too

And I promise I do

Cause you matter to me