Inspiration

I fumble, I pause, I halt
I get blamed for it being my fault
Couldn't it be a temporarily lapse
Or just a bad day, perhaps
But, such a day comes in our life
When for each action one needs to strive
The failure should inspire in you the will
'Cause of the confidence you should have in you still
That for this day you were given a call
That no matter what, the world can be yours.

Death

No appetite for the sea, an empty pale
The boat stops rocking, no wind in the sail
 Ravaged by the high seas, the captain wants to rest
 Like a brown leaf drop into the ground, it knows best
 So is the wish, the I want to be
 Forgotten from memory be the end I see

Pandal Hopping

The festivity was at its prime
With joy and pleasure in the clime
Swift business happened in all the shops
The idols, the lights and all the props

Sweetmeats and drinks and meats all galore
For all child's wants she got a little more
New saris and dhotis were fashioned around
The carnival full of din and palpable sound

I was in awe of the happiness in the air
A welcome change from my desk and chair
A loin clothed man then disturbed my scene
Of the jubilance that my eyes had seen

The ragpicker creeped to the nearest dump
His head deep down, searched for the occasional bump
Like a shaggy dog to get a morsel to eat
Ignorant to his surround which were so neat

I sit now at my chair and he is in my thought
Why he was at the fiesta, I wish it was not
To eat from garbage, did You write his destiny so?
Why then my brother had to fall so low?

The last two months

The following is not in chronological order. Some points that I would like to always remember.

1) Going inside a house, only to come out after 20 minutes to see a suicide due to poverty and alcohol a few houses away.

2) Dancing to drums for Didi's phenomenal win and welcoming an era of change by rubbing each other with green 'gulaal'.

3) Visiting 6*10 sq. ft. homes of daily wage earners with four family members.

4) The status of God being endowed to the children of the family.

5) How geography and history play a vital role in decisions of people.

6) Meeting a rickshaw-puller cum pimp in a hill station saying of only one thing when asked of places worth 'seeing'.

7) Finding the BOP being more hospitable even when constrained with extreme poverty compared to 'the people living in flats and kothis.'

8) Travelling in all modes of transport except for a bullock-cart or a horse back.

9) Speaking Bengali.

10) Working in the summer sun at 48*C, and still surviving it successfully.