Been missing

Sound the alarm bells!

Close all the doors!

 

Summon a search party!

Look in every nook and corner!

 

You need to find it!

Without it I am nothing!

 

I have lost my peace of mind!!

 

* Originally written on Nov 05, 2001

** Loose translation of a Devarakonda Balagangadhara Tilak's Telugu poem

 

Nifty Fifty

Everybody assures me

That Fifty is a great state to be

The twenty thirty somethings say

It's good to age in a graceful way

 

May be they are just being nice

And will follow their own advice

 

When they are in my place

And keep a smile on their face

 

People say this is a mile-stone

And a proper time to atone

 

But I respectfully beg to disagree

My approach to this is rather carefree

 

I look at life like a cricket game

And this is what I honestly proclaim

 

The past has already flown

The future is definitely unknown

 

You watch as the invisible bowler pitches it

And then decide to play according to its merit

 

The rest of my life wont' be any different

I will always seek to live in the present

 

With kith and kin in tow

The joy will only grow

The past has been pretty thrilling

The future can only be fulfilling

A man in a hurry

(This is neither an epitaph nor an obituary 

The time for that is long past)

If only you had slowed down my dear friend

If only you did things in a different way

If only you reduced your workload maybe or

If only you kept the journey in perspective too

If only you didn't love our motherland so much.

Then, I wouldn't be needing to write this today 

One year after you have been gone

Here, I always thought 

You would be around long enough 

To read all our eulogies before you took off

Never imagined you would disappear without a trace

But then, I should not be really surprised

You were always a man in a hurry

Always a step ahead of the rest of us

Always seeking new challenges

Always impatient with any sort of slowing down

I am glad for all the time you spent with me

I am grateful to you for showing me the right path

But, I refuse to believe we are done yet

There are a lot of unfinished trains of thought we need to complete

There will be plenty of new stories to exchange when we next meet

If not in this world, then maybe in the other...

(Remembering Narain who passed away last year today)