Happy birthday to my fabulous mom !

Celebrating 50 years of a dramatic phenomenon!

THE STATION-BENCH

Hunchbacked by a giant bag-pack

I trodded over the cobblestones.

Invited by a lonely bench at a corner,

I sat to rest my tired bones.

Before me lay the serpents of iron

Extending beyond where the eye could see.

Yes I was perched upon a platform

While the railway tracks stretched to infinity.

Water fountains, book stores, canteens and tea stalls-

I had everything I could possibly need.

Even if for a short while, I felt like a guest

Who was very well catered to by the host indeed.

And there were hundreds more like me,

Trudging with their baggages over the pathway,

Waiting patiently to embark on a journey-

for work, pleasure, education or just a getaway.

The newly-wed bride bound for her new home,

Or the suited-up corporate heading for a deal;

From the curious kid to the sleepy grandma,

Diverse emotions simmered within these pillars of steel

Trains came by, whistling and rumbling,

With yet more travelers, peeping from the ledge.

Some got down, elated to be home;

Some got on, anxious about their new voyage.

In a world where everyone is always on the go,

Would it hurt to halt and take a minute off ?

A static moment in a dynamic life,

To just sit on a lonely bench before the next take-off.

A humble shelter, sometimes decked up,

To caress you a little until its time to depart;

A joint where myriad travelers' paths cross

A railway station sure does much more than you thought!

Appeared on 'MetroPlus', The Hindu, Bangalore edition on 18-jan-2011

The Tech Slave

Welcome to my world! It has My iPod playing My music. My laptop with My Wifi with My YouTube channel, My Blog, My yahoo, My Flickr, My Twitter and of course My Facebook with My friends (do i have to even mention that! Its such a given!). And not to forget My phone-oops did I say phone?I meant My SMART phone(lest it should get offended!). Oh! and it has me too. And My mom and My dad too once in a while.

I was living happily in My Awesome fairy-tech-tale World, when disaster struck that fateful day and My World shattered into bits and bytes (or was it 'bits and pieces'?). My shimmering LED-lit world crashed when the power suddenly went off! YouTube stopped buffering. Facebook stopped posting. I hurried to google and typed :”what to do in a power-cut” but my network itself shut down( of course it works on electricity!). Then I tried watching a movie on my laptop.10 minutes later it announced: “please plug the adapter!” I frantically tried resuscitating my baby but it finally slipped into a coma!

My next resort was my iPod but i was fed up of the songs and games it had (since i had heard/played them a million times already!). So it was My smart phone to the rescue! Oops it was in need of rescue! No balance for net surfing (totally forgot to top up). No charge for gaming-did'nt have a free socket (there's lots of competition for that). Thought I'd just call up a friend to pester. Surprise-my cordless also works on electricity!

Welcome to My world- dark, quiet and absolutely blank! I realized I was an addict-with withdrawal symptoms worse than an alcoholic! I was a slave of technology. I always thought I was much more evolved than the average old man on the streets-aloof of all the wonders squeezed into a little chip. But here I was, feeling more primitive than apes, sitting helplessly while he was roasting his corn on the fire listening to the radio, cracking jokes with his mates, having fun and feeling an ecstasy that my wired tech-savvy world can never decode.

That moment of self realization snapped me back into reality. But bang went the generator, back came the lights, and the fantasy world of technology sizzled to seduce me again. “Nah! I'd rather read a book!” I said indignantly. “But....only after I've tweeted this to everyone!”

By-

Neethi Narayanan

Get A Life !

Buried under a majestic blanket

clutching it tight to hide myself

crumpled, compact, embraced in my own arms

feeling like a tiny Lilliputian elf.

As my tears turn the sheets soggy-wet,

I'm drowning deeper into a sea of disappointments

vulnerable and hurting like a new born child

I lost track of reality, was dazed by my sentiments

But when the night phased out, and the linen was all soaked

I ran out of tears, and my heart lost the strife

against my head that said "get out of bed right now.

Cuz today is the day that we get a life!"

Off slipped the blanket , In shone the sunlight

Out blew the curtains revealing a brighter world

And I found some strength to stand up on my feet

and wipe off my tears as a new day unfurled.

I got rid of my attire of a mourning wife

and sorted out the best clothes I was saving for later

got all dressed up and decked up with a shot of bling

I killed the old Me, Cuz the new Me's bolder, stronger, better!

All dressed up and nowhere to go?

a tragic melodramatic climax, with violins and fife?

No thanks, now that won't be my story again anymore!

Cuz I'm all set, ready and unstoppable to get a life!

No Man's Land

{The strip of land between the borders of adjacent countries is often called No Man's Land. Ironically many victims of war between neighbouring nations end up being disowned by both sides-like the Bengal and Indo-Pak partitions. But beyond the immediate dilemma of wars is a more broader conflict of the purpose of humankind which again remains unclassified just like the strip of No Man's Land}

Serpents of wires all around

with thorns that could pierce you through.

Gates and walls of fortress

armouring the world from his view.

All alone, on his own

thinking how life could be so unfair;

Did he come from his left , or is his home to the right?

helplessly stuck in the middle of nowhere.

He looked up at the heavens with indignant eyes,

for no philosophy could make him understand-

why he was lost somewhere between the sky and the earth,

why he was living in No Man's Land.

Every time in history that this happens again,

families are at stake as a nation breaks.

Forced to choose between two homes, as if between their two eyes,

humankind is suddenly a deal of gives and takes!

But what about those less fortunate souls

whose hearts don't understand the politics of some heads?

Cant give up on one,cant do without the other;

they end up somewhere with no behinds nor aheads.

If past is where they came from and future is where they cannot go,

with no open doors, no guiding stars nor a helping hand,

are they at fault or is it a more divine plan

that they are stranded in No Man's Land?

Do oceans have gates? Or the land walls?

Does nature have any borders to intervene?

For in one's end is another's beginning

Where then is the place for the in-between?

When every figment of man's imagination

can surpass beyond the infinite,

why then is he crouching into his cocoon?

Why not the threads of love does he knit?

Blindfolded by his greed for power

Is An illusionary 'kingdom' his only wish, only demand?

Stuck between his wants and needs,

Man himself is grounded to No Man's Land.

I haven't seen war , I haven't seen the pain

of losing a home and being denied another

but some how i feel something deep within

as if im near where i belong....and yet much farther

I stretch my arms and i can touch my dream

but try as i may, till them i still cant reach.

How many unseen walls and unwritten rules

for this should i break, bend or breach?

Do I really have a purpose? a dream of my own?

or within a string of dead-ends is my destiny spanned?

lost somewhere between my beginning and my end

am i not then another prisoner in No Man's Land?

Love and hate, War and peace

life is a crossword of synonyms and antonyms.

Drawn into this puzzle with an urge to make sense

we have got ourselves stringed to suit The Puppeteer's whims.

No one owns the land, waters or skies,

And yet none of these can we disown!

All that is truly owned is this moment here, now,

one more moment to be lived before its flown!

Why then this conquest? why then this race?

Is this crystal clear truth that difficult to understand?

That Caught somewhere between birth and death,

We all travel together in this journey through No Man's Land.

By

Neethi Narayanan

WAR...where does it end

Everybody was scared. There was darkness all around, and there was not a sound to be heard except-the heavy heart-beats of the terror stricken people. There it lay. The valley. The beautiful valley. The most serene in all of Kashmir. There it lay in total darkness. The trees were quiet. the waters of the lake were still. The birds did not sing as they always did. Still was every thing except- the minds of the people, who had never seen life beyond this valley of theirs that they called home. This was new. Such fear, such uncertainty, such trauma-had never shown its face here, in the valley of paradise. But now three tiny little letters seem to have ripped their lives apart -WAR. This is their story. The story of the people of the valley of Ladakh. The story lived by these innocent lives every single day of their existence, which will one day cease in the plot of this very story. As this scenario was observed by the eastern slopes of the valley, there was another situation on the west. The Border Security force of India had its eyes and ears open for the enemy. the enemy that in no way was differnt from the defendent. The enemy that once was their own brother. It was almost midnight. A hundred and forty soldiers were posted at different hiding places.All these men clad in khaki uniforms with leaves and paint all over their faces were armed with the most dangerous guns. Each one of them was determined to kill his 'enemy', to sacrifice their lives for their 'country'. The two countries or even the whole world had its fingers crossed- not knowing whatwould happen next. Millions of people went to bed that night awaiting a new dawn, with prayers in their hearts, hoping to see a dove flying high in the sky. The minds of the soldiers,-' jawans' as they were known making youth the epitome of bravery, which seemed in itself to be a sarcasm for was'nt war just a frivulous act born out of unthought aggression like the blind passions of youth?-the minds of these jawans were no less restless. they shivered in the cold...but in their hearts burnt a fire of anger. For what and who....they no not. All they know is that the nation needs them to shed blood. And they would do it for the nation. If only they had a broader definition of 'nation'.....

From Dowry to Dowjones.........by Neethi Narayanan

{This essay on the evils of dowry was written in 2003, and was selected as the final entries for the teen of the year contest.} Is this the new era- where grooms arelike commodities on sale, the in-laws bargainers, and the woman-the master and yet only the slave? Dowry-an expression of love and blessings in the form of gifts for their beloved daughter, about to start her new life with her soulmate, has today been metamorphosed into a tyrinnical demand. Every parent wishes to give his daughter all the happiness in life and marital bliss but unfortunately it now comes at a spine-breaking price! Several men look for in their 'perfect other half' another easy means of revenue! The groom's family insists this is culture. The bride's kin feel this is their duty.The nation calls this "dowry". But for humanity , this is sheer cruelty. Every corner of the road, every page of the newspapers today talk of some innocent girl or the other succumbing to her miserable fate in the hands of her in-laws just because she could not pay the entire price for being their son's wife. She is tortured, blackmailed, threatened, beaten, locked up, sometimes starved, and more often than not-killed. All this just because she could not pay her tenants- her tenants who gave her a family and relations for money!!! This age-old practice, believed to be part of the Indian value-system, has now degraded those exact values. Our devilish society- that has squeezed out of every woman the dreams of living a happy married life, and flushed out of the country its well reputed image-urgently needs a make-over. And if anyone can do that- its the woman herself. Why should she pay to be tortured, infamed and insulted, becoming slaves of society?So what is it in that groom that is so expensive? What has he got except-greed for which he demands a bribe for being a husband!!! If he is worth nothing, why pay with your savings, freedom, and dignity to marry a worthless man???? Well, there is hope. Hope for a make-over of values, priorities, and the definition of marriage itself. Lets not weigh a beautiful life-long bond of unlimting, unconditional love and companionship in the scales of cash and kind. Well....we are still waiting for the time when homes and families stop comparing themselves to the stock exchange.

Crime, Politics and the Sea.......Neethi Narayanan

Deep within the oceans,

You may often encounter

A relationship of unparalleled love,

That'll make one sit and wonder.

The sight of a frizzy haired creature,

Would be what you would have found,

With colourful tentacles swirling above

Sitting pretty on a plump little mound.

The pretty haired lady is the sea-anemone

With her colours concealing her sting.

And at her feet is none other than the hermit crab

Like an elegant throne with its magnificent king.

The sea-anemone may seem attractive

but its sting keeps off the crab's foes.,

W the safe and secure hermit crab

Chariots the anemone o'er the Benthic meadows.

Oh! what an absolutely lovely symbiosis God has made,

Of the lady and her hermit!

One gives shelter, the other support,

And no harm to each other will they permit.

Well, if this was surprising, then what would you opine

Of a symbiosis even more profound?

The bond between one on the 'chair'

And another hidden under the ground!

The tentacles here are a Gandhi-topi

Placed over a bright and 'honest' face,

That attracts people with its colours

But its sting is blanketed by its grace.

And yes! the hermit crab in this case

is a 'hermit' indeed!

That lives in a world under our world

And is loyal to his duty and (mis)deed.

Together they romp about every where-

the 'protected' and the 'protector'-

Where one goes ravaging life and land

While the other promises to make the world prosper!

And the thoroughly confused, utterly puzzled,

Are the innocent 'We the people'

Who see it but can't see through it-

See the truth -no matter how short and simple.

So to those who are sorrowfully unaware

Of the hermit crab and the sea-anemone's fling

The analogous symbiosis of crime and politics

Is already out to devour you with its sting!