Carry on

Dream not if thee fear the nightmare
Venture not lest you embrace failure
Dare not leave the harbor for the sea
If you care not to know if you are free.

Love may hurt you, give you a scorn --
Can you feel a rose and not its thorn?
Flights of despair erupt into a joyful song,
darkness of anxiety gives in to new dawn

Dark clouds may hover over thy story
Be in the light, in virtue there's glory!
Withstand you must this immense pressure
Only then you will find your true measure.

India Rising

I dream of a free India for all Indians
not just for a privileged few.
I dream of a free India, absolutely free.
free not only from foreign rule,
but free of injustice and oppression,
free from shackles of corruption.

Can you not hear the mass rising?

The tsunami of human waves forcing sea change,
trying to eradicate plaguing malice in our system,
reminding us of our rights & responsibility,
awakening us to our 2nd independence.

I dream of a free India for all Indians.
A free India, finally, to realize its true potential.
Where citizens’ right to dream and freedom to chase,
freedom to chose and right to dignity is a given.

I dream of that free India
where each society is free –
from prejudice that divides them,
from poverty of matter and merit.

I dream of a free India, rich and strong,
to crush its enemy inside and out.

Note: On my recent trip to India, saw some strong momentum building up against corruption. I guess the only people who'll not be in support are the beneficiaries of a corrupt India. Yet, a huge section of the population is silent. don't know why. I wondered what this new India riding on the back of this anti-corruption movement may look like. Two days back, on my way to a re-union, recorded some of these thoughts on a voice recorder. But, the true impulse to see this through, against all my procrastination tendencies, came after listening to Joe's composition around anti-corruption that evening. Thanks Joe! You can find Joe's fine composition here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCaeA2PP89w. Worth listening and sharing.

These waves

It pains to see these
break incessantly
like our human dreams -
as if that's one true reality
in this world so uncertain,
to submit at the shore
of our timid desire
with no chance to fulfill.
Right here this moment
and gone the very next.

But then,
in this surf-chain
I see unending hopes
of human spirit --
right when one breaks,
a new wave begins
its march towards the shore
of human aspiration.

As if nothing happened,
it whispers at the impending bank;
in silent defiance,
declares its indomitable color --
"I won't give up,
I won't give up."

Miraflores, Lima, Peru
February 20, 2010