Confusion

There is rain,
There is pain,
And a confusion.
To dance with the rain,
Or cry for my pain.

There was rain,
There was pain,
To not let go the moment in vain,
Crying for the pain,
I danced with the rain.

-Jatri

Through

People come, people go.
People come, people stay.
Many have stood and gone.
I been through to them.

One came, penetrated
And went away.
I sat waiting,
She never been back.

One day, I stood
And came out.
Now I see, I had stood, at
My through to this present.

I thought she was in me,
But in her I stood.
When I came out, she was there.
And she is my through.

-Jatri

The Unabandoned Wounds

Once I fell for you.
The more I tried to heal,
Deeper these wounds grew.
More I ignored,
More I became concerned.
And more I cared,
They started expanding.

Caught between heart and mind,
A kind of obsession grew.
Prone were my thoughts,
Victim was my freedom.
With my wrecked will,
I was deeply tangled within. And
To revert back, I decided to be still.

About them I didn't care,
Didn't ignore nor tried to heal.
And one morning I was back,
With no obsessions.
Healed were the wounds,
But the scars persist.
Those I could never abandon.

-Jatri

The Dry Tree

Amidst hub of green trees,
By the side wall,
A dry tree stood.
All the leaves of hope lost,
Stretching it's withered limbs,
Against the taunt of other
Green blooming trees,
It stood firm and sturdy.

Though withering, it's desperate.
Lone but resolute,
Battered but still resilient.
Amidst hate, patiently,
It was raising above hate.
This evening it held me,
May be because,
While I was finding myself in it,
I was learning something, from
This dry tree, that is hiding its roar
And standing docile.

-Jatri

A Forgotten Friend

A friend I had.
Together we roamed,
Laughed, danced.
Tied with the goals,
To assume some roles,
We diverged in two roads,
Kept diverging.
Distance grew, too long,
Our voices started fading.

Our memories, the ego did scatter,
For both it little did matter.
Neither he took a shortcut,
Nor I raised my voice and then
There was silence.
The silence grew, too deep, that
He became deaf for me and
I been dumb for him.
Been dumb and deaf for eachother.

~Jatri

(My friend Wasim was responsible for this poem. The poem is squeeze of what all went through me during a cold war between me and him.)

Where Silence Speaks

There is a place.
Away from this roar and race.
Upon the hill, across the lake.
Where the green grass has
Smoothened the scaly land.
Where the birds come to rest
To to slake their thirst.
Where the gentle wind rustle the leaves,
To chorus the birds that sing.

To there my dear. An evening.
Let's go, to rattle around.
Forgetting all preconceived thoughts,
Let's sit quietly at an end.
To watch the birds that take flight,
To fly across the horizon,
While the mellow sun starts fading,
Let our silence speak.

~Jatri

I'm a Tamed Bird

I was a free bird,
Souring and exploring heights.
I was tamed.
Thoughts captived,
Wings held tightly,
With the obligations and
Unuttered promises.

I was a bird, born free.
Tamed to unlearn flying,
Trained to sit aloof and
Watch the other birds that took flight.
Nodding to tone of birds that sang,
Wondering about those flew high,
I forgot myself ,forgot to be courageous.

~Jatri

"Flying Together"

Giving someone a hug,
When you yourself need it,
Can be a most courageous moment of your life.

Being the reason for a smile on someone's face,
When your own smile is lost,
Can be a greatest ethic you posses.

Comforting someone,
When you yourself are frustrated,
Can be a greatest venture you can ever do.

And sharing your time with someone,
Even when you're too busy to look back,
Can be a biggest favour you can do to someone.

Because, Life is not a competition,
Neither we're competitors.
It's a journey and we're Pilgrims.

(Thanks to my junior. A SMS sent by her is impetus for this poem.)

ಮೌನ

ಮನದಾಳದ ಮಾತೊಂದು ಹೊರಬರುವಾಗ,
ನಿನ್ನ ಹೃದಯಕ್ಕೆಡವಿ ಗಂಟಲಲ್ಲೇ ಇಂಗಿಹೋಗಿದೆ.

ಕಣ್ಗಳಿಂದ ಹೊರಹೊಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ಭಾವೋದ್ವೇಗದ ನೋಟವೊಂದು
ನಿನ್ನ ನೋಟಕ್ಕೆ ತಾಗಿ, ಕಣ್ಣ ರೆಪ್ಪೆಗಳಲಿ ಮುದುಡಿಹೋಗಿದೆ.

ಏಕಾಂತದಲ್ಲಿ ಮೂಡಿದ ಎಷ್ಟೋ ಭಾವನೆಗಳು, ನಿನ್ನನ್ನೆದುರಿಸದೆ,
ಬೇರಾವೋ ಮಾತುಗಳ ಕಂಬಳಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಸುಕು ಹಾಕಿವೆ.

ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾಪಿಸಬೇಕೆಂದು ಎನ್ನ ಹೃದಯ ಪುಟಿದೆಬ್ಬಿಸಿದ ಭಾವ,
ನಿನ್ನ ಸ್ನೇಹ ಕಳೆದುಕೊಂಡೀತೆಂದು ಬೆಂದು ಮೂಲೆಯಲ್ಲಡಗಿದೆ.

ಮನದಾಳದ ಆ ಮಾತು ಎಡವಿ ಹೊರಬರುವಾಗ,
ಕಳವಳದ ತೀರದಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ಎನಗೆ
ಕೈಬೀಸಿ, ಬದುಕಿನ ತಿರುವಿನಲಿ ನೀ ಮರೆಯಾದೆ.

ಜಾತ್ರಿ

"I'm a Theist within"

God is not just a statue,
He's a virtue within.
He's not a concept,
A belief within.
Neither he's prophet nor religion.
He's a religiousness,
Meant to make you  humane.

He's not a master,
Nor you're his puppet,
To follow his orders.
He's but a friend to be understood.

For some god may be love,
And for some truth.
Compassion for one,
And honesty for other.
Some see him in others,
And some within.

You can call me atheist,
But I'm a thiest.
Since my god can never be your god.

Being Positive

When you're down,
When dark clouds of bad luck take over you,
When all your plans remain only as plans,
Try to smile.
Not to show that you dont have problems.
But, to show, you have confidence to crush them.

When a man seems argumentative,
When his words seem assaultive,
When you're irritated by that.
Before it turns into a fight, you give it up.
Not to admit your weakness.
But, to show you're more civilised.

When you're bored with your routine,
When you feel like celebrating,
Dance in rain even though you're bad at it,
Sing out loudly even if that irritates other.
Don't give up because others laugh at you,
But, do that to miss not such ecstatic moments.

When you're near the peak you destined,
When all  your crew is exhausted completely,
When even you can't pace further,
Get up and give a call to your boys.
Not to show your superiority.
But, to fill courage, to rejoice at such heights.

When you're hit by a worst cancer,
When death is at your door step,
When you're about to die,
Long to live desperately.
Not to show your desire to celebrate your centenary.
But, to inspire others, to not give up even at worst times.

Routine..

When the day is done complaining,
Battered by classes, abused by teachers,
Baked by the sun and fed up by the rest.
I come home exhausted in the evening.
After tight dinner, before sleep engulfs me,
I pace along  the field in the mild moon light,
With the cool breeze.
The moon and night breeze are that companions.
Who erase my daily worries and please.

Inclination

Whenever our eyes met,
Whenever you passed by me,
When I started to expect a smile from you And longed to give you back one.
I often asked myself,
why it happens to me?

Whenever we talked for hours,
Chatted over night.
When you shared everything with me and
I enjoyed to do the same.
I asked myself,
In what way you're related to me?

But, when you took over my loneliness,
When I started smiling over your thoughts foolishly,
When I felt like staring at you as long as I can and
Escaped your sight before you noticed my eyes.
I asked myself again,
What's it?
Then my heart replied,
May be this is love.

Still I wait...

Late in the  evening,
when the sun is at horizon,
when everyone starts to move,
I sit on the bund and wait for you...

The birds are almost on their way home,
while some boys call me to join them for walk,
I take excuses to sit there again
And sat there waiting.

I unlock and  lock my cell repeatedly,
look around and keep throwing stones.
Uproot the grass sometimes and wait.
But yet, no signs your appearance.

After an hour, when it's almost dark,
Someone in pale tops and dark skirt appeared,
But, it took no longer to learn that she was my junior.
She sighs and goes. Still I wait..

Very late in the evening,
when it was getting darker.
My cell rang. You told, you'll not be coming.
In a deep silence, I stood for a moment and went away...

Vivid Memories Still Blossom

How can I forget those days in your
bosom,
The vivid memories still blossom.

P.T sir stood with a gun,
To tell us importance of morning run;
Behind every effort shun
that, we had greate fun.

Even after our every grudge,
House Masters used to urge;
We thought they were greatest pest,
But now I realise, they were the best.

One day,
I was late to class, after a noon nap,
which I took at short gap;
I remember that Principal's slap;
which had sounded like clap.

There is no substitute for Navodaya's
Bisi Bele Baat taste,
and surely everyone is missing the
tradition of sharing paste.

Those memories can never perish,
Recalling those I still relish;
Those who have forgotten are foolish,
And those who remember will cherish
.
So beautiful were those days,
to embrace them again, I pray;
Why those seven years didn't
remained as such,
The memories haunt me so much.

Spread Laughter by Laughing...

The wind blows,
To gather the fleeting clouds.
All together they laugh.
Rain is their laughter.

It rains and seeds sprout,
a plant grows,
in spring the flowers bloom.
Plants laugh as flowers.

On a blossoming tree,
birds come to rest,
enjoying that beauty they sing.
The laughter comes out as a song.

Again,
The song dissolves in wind.
A cool breeze blows,
rest lives enjoy the breeze.
And the wind laughs by spreading laughter.

My Wish

I WISH,

To walk down the road,
beneath the boughs,
against the cool breeze.
Looking around and recalling memories.

To travel all along,
amidst the deep woods.
Watching full stand of trees
and listening to birds that chirp.

To stand in rain.
Hands stretched aside,
head held towards sky.
As if waiting for a hug from someone.

To be part of my group.
Marauding all together
towards the places unknown
and to laugh all at once.

To dissolve in that heaven,
where laughter engulf me.
And I shall enjoy only the present,
with no worries and confusion.

And I WISH,
To die peacefully,
with the flow of much satisfied memories.
Having my death as another memory,
in the eternity.