An ode to Heartbreak Hotel

Not to be confused with the famous Elvis Presley song. Had written this poem eons ago, as an ode to Presley, to Casablanca, to Chaplin, to Sinatra and all the other classics that still fascinate me. Another day, another time, nothing remains now but only a  foot-print in the sand!

Tucked in a far corner of Never-land

People find a way here,

when their dreams turn into sand

Dragged myself & rang a bell
The sign on the wall said ‘Heartbreak Hotel’

"Sir ;May I help you?" 

"One peg whiskey, no,make it two."

Fixing up drinks, lending a shoulder to cry
Staying up late ;cooking fish fry.
Drunken jokes to sadness quell;
Yes, its just another day at Heartbreak Hotel.

.
In a dark corner, sits a silent soul
Ice- cold water splashed on burning coal.

"My dear Sir ,would u like some beer?"
"Get me some rum, I wiIl dilute it with my tears"

In came another fellow-

"Oh my, Sir, you are dripping wet!""
"Walked here in the rain ,what do you expect?
"But why, Sir, walk in the pouring rain"
"So that no one notices me crying in pain."

Stories follow: of hopes raised ,dashed to the ground
Of shattered dreams,heaped in a mound;
Of love rejected or even brutally murdered
Of hearts maimed and cruelly tortured

“Sir,try your luck again ,I feel u can”
“Nay, my friend, her heart belongs to another man”
A song for sadness, a melancholic melody
For the young lovelorn, a moving threnody.

"Sir, should I play another song?"
"No! Play it again Sam, play it all night long."

Thus it goes on and on
Stories of heartbreaks from dusk to dawn.

A soak for sorrows, a sponge for tears
Comforting conversations and a couple of beers.

All is well that goes on well
Between the walls of heartbreak hotel.

Roller coaster of emotions

Drowned in silence

The moment shrieks

As I vacillate…

Between exuberance & despair

Between thoughts & action

Between certain & tentative

Between inertia & initiative

Between criticism & caring

Between ignorance & awakening

Between bondage & freedom

Between love & hate

Between us & me

Between you & my destiny

An Ode to Love

Was listening to this beautiful Punjabi song today. And remembered discussing it with my friend K in a taxi the other day. I have always loved this song (it holds some special memories for me); but then K also drew my attention to another facet of this song, its poignant lyrics. "Everybody loves me for my strengths, but besides you, there is nobody who will accept me with my demons" The purest form of love- Acceptance. A simple thing to say, but the hardest thing to do.

Reminds me of that ancient Persian ode to love:

Even after all this time

The sun never says to the earth, "You owe me."

Look what happens with a Love like that!

—It lights the whole Sky. (Hafiz)

Tere bin sanu soniya,

Koi hor naiya labhna

Jo dave ruh nu sakun

Chukke jo nakhra mera

Apart from you, my love

There is nobody else

Who gives peace to my soul

And bears my arrogance

Ve main sare ghumm ke vekhia

Amrika, Roos, Malaysia

Na kittey vi koi fark si,

Har kise di koi shart si

Koi mangda mera si shama

Koi hunda surat te fida

Koi mangda meri si wafa

Na koi mangda merian bala

Tere bin hor na kise, mangni merian bala

Tere bin hor na kise, karni dhup vich chhan

I have gone & seen it all

America, Russia, Malaysia

there wasn't any difference

as everybody had a condition

Some asked for my time;

Some were fascinated with my face

Some demanded my fidelity

But none who wanted my demons

You are the only one who accepts me with my demons

You are the only one who shades me from the sun

Milya si aaj menu tera ik patra

Likhya si jiste tu sher varey shah da

Parke si osnu hanju ek dulliya

Aankha vich band si, seh raaz ajj khulya

Ki tere bin eh mere hanju kise hor naiyo chumna

Ki tere bin eh mere hanju mitti wich rulhna.

I found today a note of yours

On which you had scribbled a *Varis Shah couplet

Upon reading which a teardrop fell from my eye

And a mystery locked in these eyes was unraveled

That nobody besides you will ever kiss these tears of mine

And if not for you these tears of mine will wither in the dust

Tere bin sanu soniya

Koi hor naiyo labhna ,

Jo dave ruh nu sakun

Chukke jo nakhra mera

(*Varis Shah- 18^th century Punjabi Sufi poet, best known for the seminal ‘Heer Raanjha’)

Running Away....

Yes, Run away.

Run away. Run from everything that claims you as your own

Dont stop the run, because the moment you do,

your heart tells you to return back to those who wait for you.

Run away. Run away from what you have or can have

with have-beens dwelling in your mind.

Run away with the past so entrenched in you

that you forget to see whats in the present

Run away. Run away with the citadel that you call your heart

which has stopped dreaming, stopped living.

Go, lose yourself in some nameless obscure world

where people dont know u, u dont know them.

Run away. Run away with the shadows that have gripped your eyes, 

making you blind to the people around you.

Run away from the destiny you had once chosen for yourself,

onto unchartered unknown paths.

Yes,  run away. Nobody will stop you.

And now that you are running away, pray tell me-

How can you run away from yourself?

To MK. Girl, you know why.

Follow Thy Dreams...

"I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.”

These words of William Butler Yeats always put me in a melancholic mood. When we are down and out; when we become extremely vulnerable with our dealings with the world, it is the dream of something to achieve, which keeps us alive; egging us to move ahead in life. Once we get over the initial fear of the unknown, we gradually become accustomed to follow the only course of action available to us: follow our dreams. Having courage to dreaming what we want in an extremely unenviable position, is the only way of showing our trust in God. Something which I believe in a lot : 'The magic of dreams'.

But then, these lines question us...When do we feel safe to capitulate these dreams to another? To give others a power of walking on them- knowing this can make or break our life. Is it really worth giving others the power to do so? Or should your own dreams be something kept to yourself- protected & nourished in the embers of your heart, lest they are invaded, ransacked and made to wilt? And if indeed it has to be given to others, how do we recognise the people who will nurture our dreams for us?

When do we confidently say, “I have spread my dreams under your feet” knowing that that “other” will tread softly upon them?

Serendipity

(picture from my private collection)

Stood on the shore yesterday staring afar
The sun settling down for the night,
The remnants of the disappearing pink sky
Casting its silhouette
on the endless queuing mile.

The gentle evening breeze,
Blew tendrils across my face.
Felt the calmness seep into me
Allaying my fears; the longed solace.

Borne from the greyed ripples
Traveling far & yore
The waves- sputtering, burgeoning, rising, falling,
Finally slipping into oblivion,
Beneath my tired sole.

As the dark encroached the horizon,
A thought approached my mind
Now nothing can keep apart
The sea & its beloved, the land.

And I stood there.
Watching the play of nature,
Trying to figure what it means.
And it came to me when I was turning back
The Maker’s greatest creation:
The Serendipity of Life.

In search of Peace

This is something I found today in my old diary. Some words penned down at a particular point of time. Can't call it a poem, neither a prose, not even a lyric. Just some random thoughts...

I often think..What exactly is peace??
Is it something which we find only in happiness
Or can we find it in sorrow too??
Where shall i seek peace? Or will it find me?

Is it necessary to go to a temple to find it
Or could it be found in the teardrop of somebody's contended eye
Is it necessary to donate money to others,
Or can it be found by fulfilling wants of people we call our own
Can peace be found by seeing others making their farms lushly abundant,
Or could it be found in the sweat of our own brow seeping in the mother earth.

Can peace be found in the appreciation of the peers,
Or can it be found in the blessings of your elders
Can it be found in the the great emptiness of the oceans
Or in the lilting echoes of the mountains.
Can it be found in the embrace of a lover
or could it be sought amongst a child's joyous peels

And I found a answer that I already knew
Peace can be anywhere & how
Yes, It is present when I close my eyes,
But most of all, it is present, when I open my heart.

The need to go forward

I cannot rest from travel:I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vest the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers;
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breath were life.
Life piled on life
Were all to little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought

An extract from the poem Ulysses by Lord Alfred Tennyson...One of my favourites.