U for Umbrella

U for ...

Image Source Wikipedia

Umbrella

The umbrella shielded him from the sun,

But of what use was it in winter chills,none.

Though for him, it took beatings from the lashing rain,

Yet to carry it all along was a little pain.

She cared for him, cooked him nice food,

If she asked questions, he did'nt find it good.

Though she gave up her life for his sake,

Her advices, he found, not so easy to take.

One day he lost umbrella and she was gone too.
Scale of loss was felt deeply in an instant or two,

On exposure to this evil world and wicked weather.

Umbrella could be bought again, what about the mother?

T for Train Journey

T for ...

Train Journey

Anxious about her fate and choice,
With teary eyes and a broken voice,
With lots of wishes and some money,
She started on the long train journey.

Travelling through the racing backdrops,
Of fields, forests, towns, rivers, hilltops,
Like the scenes outside, her feelings inside,
Kept ebbing, surging as her tears dried.

With clear eyes she saw her co-travelers,
Who looked good, not bad bad anglers, 
Some of whom in the same state of mind,
And they all smiled, leaving tears behind.

And so started the real train journey,
With eager strangers for company,
Sharing juicy nuggets of their lives,
Like jokes from treasured archives.

There were people she met daily,
What she knew of them was scaly,
Hard to see through and external,
As if a facade, impermeable, formal.

In the train it was different to say,
Sharing space for an entire day,
To see them talk, sleep, eat, emote
So close by was hard not to note.

So she knew the travelers better,
Parting advices failed to hold her,
As she bonded with those people,
She sensed new excitements ripple.

Like the fast train that had her shifted,
Far and wide her thoughts had drifted,
De-boarding was not end of a journey,
But an FB status update, a new journey.

S for Silence

S for ...

Silence

Silence the most powerful expression,

It shows both approval and objection,

It may mean admiration or admonition,

It stands for consensus and dissension.

It cares, it hurts, it may even frustrate,

Into victory or loss, it may translate,

It may kill an argument or fuel a debate,

It may pump up ego or make it evaporate.

It is gust that blows away emotional pages

It is understood by cultures and languages,

Across nations by people of various ages,

Even before they learn to use their verbiages.

Speech is the gift, that makes us unique,

To chose not to use it is a power technique

On fabric of speech, silence is an applique,

Adorned beautifully to add to its mystique.

 

R for Roomie

R for ...

Photo Source Wikipedia

Roomie

Twelfth birthday came knocking at my door,
Brought me the teen years and a lot lot more,
In the form of my first real friend, a dear friend,
Who took me out of the simple land of books,
And made me worldly wise to traverse the maze,
Built of confusions and temptations of teenage.

I was a river tumbling down through the hills,
In the mood of destruction, always in spate,
You were the dam who held me down,
Changed my course and tapped my potential,
To nurture my thoughts with the restrained waters,
And brighten my soul with the generated power.

You were my audience, you were the critic,
Who complimented sincerely and censured honestly,
You were my microscope, you were the telescope,
To show me the perspectives beyond my limited sight,
You were my lighthouse, you were the ship,
To take me safely on the voyage of exciting discoveries.

Thanks to your tastes, I learnt to enjoy little luxuries,
Of music, poems, flowers, rains, swings, crushes, beaches,
Your conviction gave strong wings to my lofty dreams,
And when I woke up, two years were gone, we had to part,
But by then you, who showed me how a friend should be,
Were my roomie, sharing space forever in the room of my heart.

Q for Queues, Unusual Queue

Q for ...

Photo taken from Wikipedia and slightly altered.
The licensing terms remains same as for the original image on Wikipedia.

Queues, Unusual Queues

It takes people longer to shop,

Bill counter is the one last stop,

How can a queue form over there,

As customer why wait to pay,

Bet the system is wrong there.

We queue up to cast our vote,

To make the leader of a sugarcoat,

Why can't we just sit back at home,

And send the vote on mobile phone,

It's 'who cares for public' syndrome.

P for Pink Pastries

P for ...

Image taken from Wikipedia and altered

Pink Pastries

The trays filled with pink pastries,

And many more tempting savories,

Locked inside the lovely glass case,

Brought smile and tears to her face.

'How can I get the pink pastries

At least, if not other savories',

She was thinking day and night,

Yet a plan remained out of sight.

A treat not even seen as leftover,

Always made her heart sink lower,

Yet her craving was never killed,

  It only left her upset and thrilled.

Thus she grew up in want and dreams,

Held together by painful seams,

Where pink pastries became a symbol,

Of all that made her feel terrible.

O for Optical Illusion

O for ...

Image Source Wikipedia

Optical Illusion

On bended knee I proposed to her,
She smiled, then burst into laughter,
The jaundiced eye of my tired brain,
Took that for an approval in vain.

Someone cleared my optical illusion,
That laugh meant mockery, not affusion
Of a new relationship as I had seen it.

To avoid illusions, optical, audio, I admit,
Going fancy, proposing with a ring,
As they do in the films, is the best thing.

N for Namesake

N for ...
 












Namesake

Why was I named after a person famed,
For lacking virtues, why am I blamed?

I am tired of the constant comparison,
Bored of recognition without a reason,
Please look at me, not at my name,
Which has glam, but all the same,
I want a simple, subdued life,
Happy, free from unwanted strife,
Coming from constant public glare,
Forcing spectator to turn a player.

I didn't chose this name for me,
Please let me what I want to be.

M for Music, Melody, Magic

M for ...

Music, Melody, Magic

Sitting in a lazy corner, wishing to chat with special someone

Rings the doorbell or the phone, the caller is that same person,

The bell now sounds like music, soothing music for the soul kind,

Astonished you exclaim, 'Telepathy works, you read my mind!'

Well that's music, that's magic, music in eyes, magic in voice.

Discussing a controversy, raking brains for a catchy phrase,

To best express a golden opinion, to outwit others in the chase,

Two friends end up saying same things at the same time to strike

Chords of melody and merrily proclaim, 'Great minds think alike!'

Well that's melody, that's magic, melody in thoughts, magic in voice. 

L for The Last Leaf

This is my most humble attempt at putting the gist of O.Henry's masterpiece 'The Last Leaf' in verse. My sincere apologies to all those who might feel offended at my attempts to kill the soul of a brilliant piece of work, my skills are really limited.

L for ...


The Last Leaf



The Last Leaf

Once upon a time, inside a squatty studio,
Situated in the maze of Greenwich village,
With a death-white face, ready to bid adieu,
Johnsy laid counting, the ivy vine foliage.

Terrified with the doc's observations,
Panicky with Johnsy's last leaf fancy,
To Behrman, Sue disclosed her emotions,
To him going with the leaves looked infancy.

The rains beat the vine hard in the gushing wind,
Yet the stubborn leaf refused to fall,
And forced Johnsy's views to rescind,
To set her on a path of recovery, clearing pall.

Behrman was gone around the same time,
But the masterpiece he used to always tell,
Was left behind in all its glory, on the ivy vine,
Painted by him the night, the last leaf fell.

(Epilogue)
A masterpiece not valuable enough,
To be auctioned decades later as a lifeless art,
But one of its own kind of priceless stuff,
Blessed by Him for saving a dying heart.

K for K

K for...

Wield power remaining mute 

K

K is a unique character,

How to wield power, how to contribute,

Without being vocal and remaining mute,
We can learn through this letter.

(Without K )
A strong knot that tames elephants becomes a not,

A knight in shining armour is reduced to a night dark,

Knowledge loses its existence, knife loses its spark,

Yet have we heard of the K in them, no we have not!

J for Jingle to Song

J for...

Jingle to Song

My life was just another jingle, 

Scattered sounds lacking melody,

Living for a dumb purpose single,

To sell junk to any and everybody.

It was sans an individual existence,

Much like an hyperbole' assortment,

Which looked catchy but needed reference,

When she entered without announcement.

Lyrics changed, expressions improved,

To become, by adjusting notes all along,

A beautiful musical piece that all approved,

So she upgraded me from a jingle to song.

I for Ink, The Elixir for Thoughts

I for ...

She stepped back

Ink, The Elixir for Thoughts

After painting the hall walls in white and blue,

As she stepped back lovingly admiring her work,

Jumped off the ladder platform, the can of blue,

Splatter buried the wall pattern in a single jerk,

Instead of tears, started flowing old memories,

Memories of the early days of writing stories.

That one story seemed very close to her heart,

Characters seemed better than Agatha Christie,

The scene description looked like a canvas art,

More than Sherlock Holmes, her plot was twisty,

Conceited as she touched the papers on her table,

The ink bottle fell and made the letters invisible.

Oh how bad it hurt, the elixir to etch words forever,

Had erased those very words forever in one swipe,

She rushed to engrave them all over again on paper,

Her senses seemed sharpened by that ruthless snipe,

The words sounded forced, characters appeared lame,

The poor plot, instead of conceit, now evoked shame.

Wiser by the enlightenment, she had felt huge relief,

The trash got trampled before the world could see,

That's how begun her tryst with the ink and the grief

That was really brief, made her as strong as she could be,

To hone work till perfection, her lips made a smile small,

As she could now see the better fate awaiting her hall :)

H for Happy

H for...

Happy

Happy joined a new school after the fateful afternoon,
And became the favorite student of her teachers soon.

Her classmates wondered at her manners, true to her name Happy,
With an innocent deftness, she sidestepped their comments snappy.

Her genuine grace and contented smile were objects of envy,
All were eager to find where she lived, the place must be twee.

One afternoon they furtively followed her to where she went,
She entered an orphanage and they hid behind a signboard bent.

They peeped into the courtyard to find her surrounded by kids,
She was helping them with their studies, oh what noble deeds!

Then she played with the kids there and they waited curiously
For her to finish, when the matron found them hiding suspiciously.

'We following the wonder girl, but only to find where she lives, her grand mansion',
Said she, 'This has been her home since she lost her parents to the bomb explosion!'

More blasts followed, this time inside the callous skulls of her till now envious classmates,
In that sudden glare they saw, hitherto concealed behind the smiles and uniforms, fate's dictates.

G for Goof Up

G for

Goof Up

I was chatting happily with my friend,

Up popped a ping from the bully boss,

To bring my conversation, to a sad end,

At a juicy juncture and made me cross.

I typed just an apt message for my friend,

'Its death calling', read my sentence,

Without wasting any precious time, hit send,

And waited for a winking smiley in response.

Came back a roar typed in upper case,

'What do you mean, you better shut up', 

I almost died fumbling for a saving grace,

On learning what sent the bully in the goof up.

F for Fun with Friends

F for

Fun with Friends

Storing phone contacts by their

Nicknames they hate the most

And giggle every time they call

Only to be told to get lost,

Is fun, is fun, is fun with friends.

Making their most embarrassing

Secrets public and laugh out loud

As their embarrassment gets

Wrapped in an angry shroud,

Is fun, is fun, is fun with friends.

Playing a nasty trick on a stranger

Only to blame your buddies for it

And enjoy watching from a distance

Them being reprimanded for it,

Is fun, is fun, is fun with friends.

And yet when they don't dump you,

They are bunch of real friends :)

E for E

E for ...   

E embellishes exciting literary creations

With enigmatic expressions and emotions
And endows them with the enticing elixir

For which earnest ears are forever eager.

E echos ecstatic, exhilarated cries of encore
E effuses eternal elegance and some more

Ethereal entities like entertainment, electricity
With the exception of ego's eerie eccentricity.

 

D for Delightful Delhi Spring

D for

Delightful Delhi Spring

Like the lyrical notes of a beautiful song,

Rows of  marvelously adorned trees all along,

Welcome visitors to the mother nature's feast

For the eyes of the gauchest and the tweest.

Delhi spring is a lovely festival of vibrant colors,

Where all trees turn into dreamy flower pedlers,

The sweet scent laden air is mighty intoxicating

And the chance petal showers are rejuvenating.

Colors, Designs, Fragrances

Left to Right, Top to Bottom:

Flame of Forest/Butea (Palash), Golden Shower/Laburnum (Amaltash), BottleBrush (Cheel), Jasmine (Juhi), Flamboyant (Gulmohar), Jacranda (Neel Gulmohar), Sunflower/Yellow Daisy (Surajmukhi), Bougainvillea (Kagaz phool), Frangipani/Plumeria (Champa)

Note: This quick collage has been created by taking sharable photos from Wikipedia. I do not own any of these photos, I have merely reused them as per the Wikimedia Commons License Agreement.



Gulmohar



C for Cricket

C for Cricket

C stands for Cricket, Cricket the game, not the insect,
It is this cricket the Games Biologist is going to dissect.

A creature from the kingdom Games, class OutDoors,
Family TeamGame, species Cricket, races as per overs.

With limbs of bat, ball, stumps and a few more prosthetics,
It has power to bend, twist and kill all the laws of kinetics.

Endowed with the best survival tactics called suspense,
It always emerges winner as speculation remains intense.

Interaction with man results in very dangerous situations,
As the fans go crazy, both the losers and the champions.

Now is time for the very first match of the summer season,
And the Biologist tunes to it with an ostensibly valid reason.

B for Billu

B for Billu

Meow meow my dear Billu, where have you gone,
I am still calling you, sitting at the window all alone.

You used to instantly cheer me up after a day's work,
Your antics were no less than a high-priced artwork.

These days I see you in the shadows thrown by leaves,
And in those once hated scratches on my shirt sleeves.

P.S. I wrote it on 2nd but could not post.

A For April Fool

A For April Fool

The front page carried happy news of petrol price cut,
Some jumped with joy recalculating their daily budget,

Only to be punched in face by ugly, sad, bitter, truth later,
How hard the revelation hurt, it made one and all a hater.

Targetting a reader's Achilles' heel to make a fool,
Let us tell you stupid editors, can't be called cool!


P.S. I wrote it on 1st but could not post.