Crowd

In the crowd
The one is many
The many are one
The faces
Have no faces 
The feet hurry
They have something to catch
The minds are faster
Have arrived many times
The one
Who has stepped out
Has nothing to lose
Can watch till he is hungry
The feet go by
The feet go by
The feet go by.

Road song

With Ilaiyaraja's song
Playing in the ear
The ride home is not long
What's far looks near
Out of the mist
The past rises
What is missed
Hardly surprises
There were then, four of us
Taking tea with dawn and dew
Talking of this and that, more or less
Savouring the shop's first brew
When it silenced us
This ditty to a fresh, new day,
That never made it to the screen
So remained unsullied till date
The words never losing their sheen
Of the four, there's one less now
To go down that road with love.

Very near

Why do these gods
Speak an unknown language
That only the priest knows
Seem so fond of rituals
Full of fire and smoke
Ringing of bell
Circling of flame
Rapid-fire instructions
In one tongue
Chants in the other
Intervening for the dead soul
Now gone for three years
But still missed, cried over ---
Smiling from the photo
Decked with home-strung flowers
Offered his favourite dish
Father still seems very near

Holy

Where we want we want still
The feet have beaten a track
Across the steep hill
To a shrine in a shack
Where a deity once was
No one can pray to emptiness
Someone said, whatever the cause
The mind cannot hold formlessness
To worship air is to worship what is not
What we cannot see, we cannot be
Let there be no image brought
The old man said, to trap a sea
When we mark something sacred,
The hierarchy of holiness is born
The priest pits love against hatred
Man against god, flower against thorn
What we worship cannot set us free
If we are not moved by tears or agony
Where we want we want still
What we cannot own, we still kill.

Baby talk

The child's laughter
Celebrates what is
And what is not
As it tries to speak
The grown-ups
Turn into children
Glad to be able
To step back
Hear a language
Before it is language
When it hovers
Between sound and word
And not yet speech.

City blues

This is a city that seems to take
Forever to build, as it rises skyward
The cranes overlook the towers
Like monsters who are out to devour
All the ageing, the decrepit and the infirm
Who keep wondering where the places
They have known all these years are
The mall looks like a temple of desire
Where window shoppers outnumber
Those who come to splurge
The youth who come to gawk
Do not know the pain
Of changes they are not part of
Over which they have no say
They do not know how many
Pop and mom stores have been lost
For this monstrosity of extravagance
Guzzling power, water and air
As if it is in the first world
When all around is third world.

Sunset

In the hills
Though it is past seven
And it is expected to set by then
The sun lingers
On the horizon
Like an old friend
Tarrying at the door
To reminisce some more
Knowing there may not be
Another time like this
To remember together
Days that exist only
In the two minds
Before it is all snatched away
By the darkness
Never far away. 

Wisdom

What providence is this
That takes away your eyes
With the promise of the third eye
Fills your sleep with such sweet dreams
That you do not want to be awake
Wants you to suffer incarceration
Before it will even think
Of setting  you free
Makes you write ethereal bars
That you cannot hear
Gives you such hunger
When there is no food
Fills the table with such rich fare
Now that you are not allowed to eat
Makes it easier to hate than to love
Teaches the vanity of desires
After a lifetime has been lost
Chasing them like a lunatic
Why must wisdom come at the end
When the sun sets and there is no way
To begin all over again 

Mythology

Mythology comes in many avatars
The gods of yesteryear
Are action heroes now
Offer darshan in movie halls
Slay evildoers in every film
Perform superhuman deeds
Fly from building to building
Sometimes land on a moving train
That looks like miles away
Dodge bullets like cricket bouncers
Leap, hover, defy gravity, disbelief
To take on the demons single-handedly
Pack punches with one-liners
Deadlier than the blows they land
Declare that deliverance
Is at hand, sooner than later
When they appear off-screen
To carry out their impossible mission.