Diwali- a destitute of vision

A few haiku penned during the occasion of the festival of lights :)

Haiku #1             Through the dent in the poor man's hut,

                         enters the Diwali moon-

                         the diya of the destitute.

Haiku #2             Towards darkness!

                         Development without the poor.

                         Diwali without the diyas!

Haiku #3             How so sad!

                         The poor man's house-

                         diyas everynight; darkness or light?

Haiku #4             How beautiful should darkness be

                         the presence of light is felt!

                         Happy Diwali!

Haiku #5             Ignorance isn't bliss!

                         Celebrate no lights when not in use!

                         Save power; switch off the lights!

Haiku #6             They torched people.

                         asked me to celebrate light

                          I embraced the diya of darkness!

                                                                                                      Saravanan

Beauty left behind!

Beauty is the rose in the garden, they say; how immature!

Don’t they understand? Without thorns, roses are incomplete.

Like the moon in the murky sky, they admire: I pity them.

In the dark canopy,the Moon is mesmerizing while the sky is sacrificing.

Wow, The Painting on the canvas? How so spectacular! Err, wait though,

That dazzling piece of work, still fictional on the canvas of reality!

What a great lack of sense and taste!  that they assume,

Notes carry the allure of Music; as if words bear the poet’s message!

For once, have they lent their ears to the lullaby of silence?

To the untold stories of the heart! How I wish Mankind listens!

In all your delicious dinners, did you know? The garlic you rejected had a role.

The flavor it rendered favored your taste buds? - Be assured!

Beauty is not in the fragments rather an experience,holistic; hence behold!

Go for a morning walk; relish in the warmth of the sunshine as much-

As you rejoice in the gentle breeze that passes by- Forget not!

To catch a view at the petals as you stretch a smile at the flowers.

Beauty is not scattered here and there; yet so spread, all over!

Available only to those who make themselves available – Remember!

The not-so-fairy tale of the thorns? The forgotten story of the canvas sky?

Discern from deep within: a goldmine of beauty,awaiting!

Saravanan

The Bonfire of Love!

On a winter season when gentle breeze softened our senses,

My girlfriend and I went out for a walk; It’s kind of,

                  When you can’t go on a long ride, take her for a lazy stroll! :)

                   After all, isn’t that one of your promises when you’re in love?

                   Like, ‘I will be with you all walks of your life!’ :P

Striding a few steps with silenced lips,

She took my hand and treaded close.

            It is one of those times when you feel,

         God isn’t that stingy. Just frugal, after all! :P

         That he fills your life with tiny pleasures to preserve.

‘So what do you do these days?’ She enquired.

‘I write poems’ I responded.

        ‘Does it pay you well?’ she wanted to know.

         It is one of those questions that make you feel low.

                        ‘Yes, it pays me well’  I answered  ‘with joy and contentment!’

‘What a frosty evening it is!’ she exclaimed.

I know she is hinting at my Jacket; I extended. :P

                   While her pretty smile is only a provocation away, I tempted:

                  ‘Wouldn’t the moon look cuter when it smiles?’ She giggled. :)
      It is one of those moments when her happiness becomes your life’s mission.

As her sterling ear rings oscillated,

I tucked her hair on the edges of her ears.

                    It is one of those points in time when you feel,

                    your heart is as frozen as the frosty evening is,

                    That it rejoices in the warmth of the bonfire called love.

                                                                                                                                                                                  Saravanan.

The Cage and the Bird!

When my mind wants to stretch as high as the sky

and  my soul would move in as deep as an ocean,

When my voice needs to reverberate earth's every nook and corner;

and  my body longs for a space to breathe my life out,

Oh Mankind! Why did you imprison me?

into that clusters of tradition I didn't choose for,

into those chains of men I didn't opt for,

into the god-forbidden civilization I didn't ask for

and into the clutches of death I didn't seek for.

amidst domesticated minds is Me, the caged bird

waiting for the vault to open and the closet to collapse for I know,

Strangulated souls will be liberated by death! -

the death of narrow-mindedness!


Saravanan.

THE LONELY BATTLE !

Every sleepless night is a lonely battle for a restless soul. The past memories do over weigh the dreams of the future and in the process consume the present possibilities. The challenge for an amateur soul is to tie them all. For every question that comes from within, neither do we have a convincing answer nor a promising solution! 

Nevertheless, every night hides within it the adventures of a strange tomorrow. The beauty of life is perhaps to unravel this mystery and unwrap them one by one with an open mind. For such a soul will invite a river of life to flow into itself. The unanswered questions have the potential fuel supply for a prosperous future. Successful or not, when one day we become a tower of strength will we also be the light of wisdom for every ship-wrecked soul that tread our way.

Remember! This night will flow into a day; Contradiction now might turn into complementary tomorrow. For when the moon falls, the sun rises! Only for another night of unfulfilled soul to stare at you.

Saravanan  

Immortal Souls!

A year has elapsed; a dozen months have passed by.

Days disappeared and hours have expired into minutes.

Only to see seconds vanish and give time,

-a certain sense of nothingness!

Once people die, do they matter anymore? I wonder - Yet,

 They linger in our hearts like an evening song! - did they matter any less?

Some souls transcend time; their memories so engraved

To give human life, a certain sense of permanence!

A year has elapsed: a dozen months have passed by. – I know

I made the episodes leading to the consequential ‘me’.

 When events flow into each other; eventuality is inescapable.

Doesn’t that give life a certain sense of fluidity?

A timeless soul like you and me know,

Life and death carry each other in them.

Immortal souls don’t take them seriously. 
Oh dying me and the living you!

Heavenly Dad, the rest-  let’s discuss it there!

Saravanan Velusamy.

Dear Nirbhaya,

This is a letter from a lamenting soul! It is really unfortunate that I realized something significant only after you departed from this hell of a place called earth, Nirbhaya. That I’m living amidst some human beings who say women must be subjugated and kept locked up at houses and Men can walk around freely and do whatever they please. One says women are flowers and Men are thorns. So, we are this and we are that. ‘Are we not human beings at the end of the day?’ I wanted to ask him.

I’m afraid Nirbhaya, I’m living amongst some individuals who have devised some ways of living for themselves (they call it ‘culture’!) only to enforce them down into our throats. Any culture I believed, was to serve the needs of the human beings. From when did we start serving its needs blindly? One could rape and kill women brutally and call it a culture? I bet, vultures have a better culture.  Is getting choked by the closed-mindedness of the people in the name of culture, the fate of every free individual like you and me?

 I feel guilty and shameful to live in a society where a criminal who claims himself to be a man is not guilty despite committing a beastly act. Neither are his friends; nor are his parents. How can I peacefully reside here? I’m suspicious of some teachers who repeatedly tell to their girl students, ‘Behave like a girl!’ I am utterly disappointed of the mothers who fail and have failed to teach their boys how to treat a girl! It is totally ironic to me that both danger and safety come from the same society we live in. It is unworthy to live in a place where fellow human beings- the women who are the co-partners in the human life are treated as sub-humans.

I cannot live in a place where somebody somewhere is waiting to rape one of my sisters and one of my daughters simply because women are considered inferior to men in the so-called culture I belong to. Oh Nirbhaya, this is not the place for me. It is too suffocating to reside here. Please do liberate me from this place as you liberated yourself; for I know death is a better alternative than 'cruelty' in the name of culture; for I know, in a sick society the dead souls stay and the divine souls depart!

With You,

Another Lamenting Soul.