The blind singer of bhajans
The blind singer of bhajans.When all I see is love for the divineEach moment here in this world is fineI sing his praise and he takes care of meAnd life adopts the high notes of wine.. . . . . .Arvind PasseyWritten on 18 March 2020Penned for this selfless singer sitting in front of a...
Take care of your world, not mine
Take care of your world, not mine.That wail zipping through neuronsActivating synapses that giveThoughts their words and giveWords their sounds.You know, sounds of fury, anger, despair,That they imagine fills the worldAnd prepares to get things doneOr at least make change possible.It doesn’t.It doesn’t because that wailAnd whatever it does will failTo reach out beyond their...
The unfair advantage
The unfair advantage The heart desires, the mind wantsBut time sometimes sits back, taunts.I don’t need riches nor everlasting ageI just want ‘the unfair advantage’. . . . . . . Arvind PasseyWritten on 08 March 2020
Sanchi Stupa – a mesmerizing dance of Buddhist art and literature
If you reach Sanchi without knowing what our jataka tales are and without having at least one Rs 200 currency note in your wallet, you’re going to miss out on the two big experiences you can have there. Not knowing the jataka tales will mean you will remain amazed by all the well-preserved stone carvings...
Riot
Have a riot and please your heartOr read the riot act to ease the uneaseGive your hair a riot of colors to startA new era if there’s an expired lease. Imagination runs riot to createA new world riotously entertainingAnd only a riot of emotions satiateNerves that have been over-straining. A riot that’s an outburst with...
A poem can be a saviour
“Take sides! Blame one or the other!Let your words spread the flameOne way or the other or don’t botherBecause this is the way we play our game.”Game? I ask and wonderIf a poem that promotes harmony is a blunder. .. Together cannot mean to get her or himHarmony hugs harm to transform itTo misspell peace...
I’ll tell you why we are burning
Loudspeakers are now a weaponSocial media updates push an agendaRoad blocks are the messengersWhatsApp claims to tell the truthNews anchors debate half-baked viewsHeadlines scream without knowing whyAnd being divisive is praised. All around are people stunned and dazedDreams have gone up in smokeBlood is no longer sustaining lifeSmiles tag beliefs that are irrelevantWords nervously look...
The drama never ends
Memoirs can be superbly entertaining and, many times, be full of quaint incidents or snippets that inform as well. They aren’t all going around in some formulaic way because ‘Becoming’ by Michele Obama, ‘Kitchen Confidential’ by Anthony Bourdain, ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ by Mitch Albom, and even ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’...
Life finds a way… it always does
This book tells me that even when ‘every inconvenient truth, every wrinkle has been smothered’, life can twist and turn in ways that can transmute a delicate Murano wine glass into an aluminum bowl in a jail cell… just as it has transformed Kamini Pratap Singh, a ‘girl from the dingy gullies of Varanasi’ to‘learn...
Orchha on river Betwa
Water connects people, architecture, religion, mythology, and society to each other in many ways… and this happens not just in India but the world over. Water carries with it hundreds of stories of existence, survival, traditions, rituals, and explanations for that which remains unexplained so far just as easily as it brings to the border...
Making today better than yesterday
I’m unsure if Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow are brothers but they certainly hang out together in the pub where only time cocktails are served. This may sound rather mundane, boring, and repetitive but it is not. The three, I believe, are just data collectors who neither create nor act on anything, smartly stay away from...
First you see and then you hit
Those who teach in colleges and universities will probably wonder what seeing and hitting has to do with teaching. A lot, let me add here, because good education is all about first learning to see what others cannot even see and then learning to hit what no one else can hit. You may also club...
