Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Gulmohar


There are times when we just see something or someone around us and our imaginations go wild. It maybe ordinary and natural or it may be something artificial. It may have been a mundane article or something which arouses our sixth deadly sin.

Something of the former was what I experience when I stayed overnight at a friend’s place to watch the late night soccer match. Yea Germany had won and I got up pretty late. My friend knowing my passion for bed-tea had got me a mug.  Sipping the delicious beverage my sight wondered out of the window.  And before me was dense foliage of a Gulmohar tree.

 The night earlier was quite wet and Bangalore had witnessed one of its heavier showers of the season. The earlier evening the tree was in full glow of the crimson blooms and today morning nothing but the bowed dark greens.

The beauty of nature
Does not lie only in the beautiful and bountiful
But matters so the thorns and dark clouds
As with flowers and sky so blue.

The ground below was blood red. Those handfuls who have never observed a Gulmohar flower should know that this particular flower usually grows in India during the summers. But the flowers don’t have a fragrance at all. Though the color riot they display in a sight in itself.
As I stood observing each branch and each leaf I tried to view it in one sight. And I was stunned at the effect.  
               
On his knees with his heard lowered
Not broken but certainly bowed
Bloodied ground lay below as a Persian spread  
Beaten but not lost nor afraid.


 Yes, I could relate the tree to an army general. Fighting against the torrents of enemies. Spears piercing through his shield and swords cutting through his amour. But fighting back even though he knows all is lost. And the ground below him all bloodied with flowers of his sacrifice.

This topic may be so out of the blue for a blog. But I am sure every one of you must have such imaginations. As children we have often tried to imagine ourselves as hero and ridden a fallen branch like a horse with a twig in our hand as sword. Or we might have lay on our backs and gazed into the blue sky trying to relate the fluffy clouds to some known shapes.

                Laying on my back and gazing into the blues
                I wondered the shapes and hues
                How the tides change or winds blow
                How fast oh… does time flow

And in the age where we see more of concrete jungles, the kids are glued to the artificial world of video games, the trees and the greens are like a fallen general, bowed but not broken.... yet.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Bestest Friend…

The Bestest Friend…

Nope, that’s not a grammar blunder.

And I am sure that there is Hel’0ve written material on this. So what is special that I am writing this again?

It is this word, the relation and the meaning, being so special…


I asked a centenarian

Is it fewer or long and tough?

He said he is tired of being awake

But of Love and Trust he can never have enough.


And from there is the epicenter of the whole universe.

And why I am writing this? Of all days now? Yesterday I was speaking to my friend. She is having a fight with her best friend for no fault of hers. I can’t bear to see her all tensed for that. So I was advising her not to worry and care so much, when apparently he gives a horses shit about her.

She listened to all I have to say and then tells me… “He may consider me whatever but I will always consider him my bestest friend and will always care about him”.


And touched was I so

In times when only reciprocation lives

I felt the crisp winter breeze

Blowing away the stagnant leaves.


And I asked myself; what does it take for one to be a bestest friend;

And I dint find anything I could talk on. It is something only to be felt. The Love and Trust.

We may have best friends of childhood. Or ones we have met just last week. Its only takes a frequency match to enjoy each others companionship.

I could term a best friend as one who would come running to my home in the middle of the night just because I gave him a missed call.

Or I could call a best friend as he with whom I am not in contact for ages but when I meet him its like we were always together.


We may fight

We may hold hands

We make our world a whole

We are best friends…


And it may not come from both sides. I may consider one as my best friend and he may not consider me same. Its same funda as Love. I may love one and she may not love me back. But should my feeling be based on her feelings? I wouldn’t say so. I love her because I feel it, irrespective of her feelings for me.

It is the same here…

I know of his goods and all his bads.

And still I accept him.

I know of his mood swings and his angers.

And still I forgive him.

I know of his sadness and his concerns.

And still I am happy with him.

I know his frustrations and I know his hate…

And still I love him.


That’s bestest friendship. That would be my bestest friend. And I would always side him and protect him. Cause after all he is my soul mate.