MY POEM ASKS ME

When you put me into words,
Do you end up saying what you wanted to?
When you explain your state of mind through me,
Do you convey what you wanted to?
This is what my poem asked me.

When you paint the world dark through me,
Do you actually go through a lot of pain?
When you blame the world for all that pain,
What do you lose and what is it that you gain?
This is what my poem asked me.

When you show me around to all your friends,
What do they say? do they like me?
What happens to me if i dont come out well,
Do you get rid of me or do you hide me?
This is what my poem asked me.

After years go by and you read me again,
Do you laugh at me or do you cry?
After reading me again do you sit and wonder,
As to why i sounded sad and dry?
This is what my poem asked me.

V.V.Vikram

WHO KNOWS

Hmm.....donn dwell too much into why i wrote this one.....some wounds just take a wee bit too long to heal....and thts when you tend to question urself too much....so just read on....

so many things i remember,
so many things i just cannot forget,
all like a picture framed in my mind,
how do i let go off these memories,
how do i appease my heart?
who knows?

so many words unspoken still,
waiting to be heard by you,
will you ever hear them?
who knows?

there are questions unanswered,
i know it and so do you,
why the silence between us then?
who knows?

there is a sadness inside my heart,
a pretension of happiness everytime,
will it ever subside?
who knows?

i regretted every moment i hated you,
i still love you the way i did before,
do you feel the same?
who knows?

so many times i miss you,
so many times i cry,
everytime i try to live,
everytime i die,
will you ever come back?
who knows?


V.V.VIKRAM

When Regimes Change: Obama-Mania

Phew!!! the US elections finally got over and the verdict was well in a way preidctable...Obama won. Though he was slated to do so, many of us around the world still remember the all time closely fought Al Gore-Bush Jr. election way back in 2000 and noone really believed in speculation till the news was official.

Anyways, the triumph was more for all the minorities across the world and truly so as Obama has become the first afro-american President of the US of A . Nations across the world watched closely as his arrival would have different implications for them. We watched too, us Indians, who rarely bother to wait and watch the end results of our own elections. Obama in a way is different from Bush. Bush played a very different game. In fact I wonder at times whether he took all the press reports and media speculation too seriously way back in 2000 to prove a point. Bush was always expected to do more for his own country than for the world before he became president. He was an internal guy who dint know much about world affairs (he didnt know who our Prime minister was, when asked in a talk show days before he became president). Yet, today he is responsible for causing havoc in middle eastern countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. I mean who would expect a guy not reacting immediately when told about 9/11 in a pre-school poem recital to have reacted that way. He screwed it up really but then somehow managed to come back to power again.

Was McCain right for India? Well, technically speaking he was as he would have continued to implement policies laid down by the Bush regime and blame dubya for whatever, he did bring India in a big way in the global arena. Trade was never better and our relationship with USA today is all because of the Bush regime. Bush considered India as the only other real democracy after the USA. Yet, what Obama has given to the people of USA, Bush could never give and that was HOPE. Hope to live life better, hope to live life in a peaceful world, hope to live with closed ones forever and with others in harmony. Bush's rhetoric was always about the world outside when it was his own people that needed solace and comfort.

Will Obama live upto his vision, only time will tell but India is a little worried with Obama looking to cut outsourcing and looking to get back strongly on the all-forgotten CTBT. Yet, history has shown that the democrats have been always more calmer and charismatic.

Obama has come in at tough times. The Financial crisis is looking to shake the foundations of the strong economies across the world. Both Afghanistan and Iraq wars have backfired as both civilians and American soldiers have been victims of civil unrest. And of course, most countries have a problem with the superpower, big-nosy-daddy image of the USA. Experts, expect Obama to take some serious decisions which may have negative implications for many countries including India. But they also say that he will be the safest bet in the future run

Memoirs of the Past

This was not meant to be a poem really....because there are many things that have changed today and yet every time i go back home all grown up i miss these two things about my old house......

My house, how big it was once,
When i was a kid, I would hide and never be caught,
A new hiding place i would find everyday,
A new game everyday i would learn to play.

I would stare at the long coconut trees,
Watering them and imagine them grow an inch longer,
I would giggle as i felt dizzy watch the trees sway,
I would turn around in circles to fall down.

I would wait for the candyman at the gates everyday,
Keenly listening to his deliberately made up cacophony,
The sound of his cycle bell causing a tingle down my spine,
I would wait with my hands holding on the 'aath aana' tightly.

Today the house remains no more,
I live in a matchbox of an apartment,
I yearn to catch a breath of fresh air,
I give up to switch on the air conditioning.

The candyman comes still but is old and unable to shout,
He his become the boogeyman for all the kids around,
He looks up to my balcony recognising me,
And i see on his face a melancholy.

Every small thing felt mine before,
But now i feel otherwise,
In my own house i feel like a prisoner,
The journey of my life is not mine anymore.


V.V.Vikram

Think Beyond Present!!!!

What happens when you dont pursue your dreams? You feel like a loser....not once but many a times. Life sucks even more when u settle for the commonplace careers or those which everyone pursue or for that matter those which never interest you.

I dreamt of a life full of music, a life where i could entertain. Not that i have turned 65 and i cannot do that any longer but somehow everytime i look beyond i see a an obvious pattern my life will follow. A pattern that scares me. Fortunately or unfortunately, the so called 'second generation planning' that the old man talks about is an inherent quality inside individuals. In fact it comes too easy. I say this because the easiest thing for a human is to settle for alternatives. We conveniently percieve the environment to be changing so that we could happily change all the time.

I always wanted to be a DJ....now donn u laff....but its true. I still love mixing tracks and i am letting this out the first time. But i have mixed plenty....not that great but i have tried to in my own way and i do know that i wud hav made a good one....a DJ that is. It was really about me identifying my core competencies, and i know that i have a sense for music. Music turns me on. Listening and jiviing to good music is probably more orgasmic than an orgasm itself.

I still wish that probably 10 ears down the lane i am doiing some thing in the field of music. I dont want name or fame i just want to if possible gloss a piece of the dream with my colors of reality....and even a piece of it wud do.

MARKETING: WHATS WRONG WITH THE FEEL GOOD FACTOR

this happened yesterday....after days and days of pondering i finally coaxed myself....i went for a haircut. i went to this saloon opposite to somaiya. "kaise ho bhaiyya, aate hi nahi baal katvaane", said the guy who had cut my hair always at the shop. interestingly, as far as i remember...since i arrived at somaiya i had always gone to him for a haircut and yet somehow he always told me the same thing when he saw me....strange!!. anyways i offered him the head telling him indirectly.." dood its all urs....do whatever u want....but just to see it....that the gals are able to bare me when i am around them..". He smirked and went sik-sik-sak-sik-sak-sak. The best part about good saloons is that there is some good music that plays..and then came apna himesh bhaiyya singing away his nose for some promos of his new movie called karz. He definitely owes something to the whole indian public for singing so awful and extending his monotony of songs all thru....the funniest part of the promo tho was " be a part of the most successful album of the year by the most talented musician of india- Himesh Reshammiya- but cassestes and Cds on bony rmg audio"...what followed was an interesting comment by the guy cutting my hair(i donn like the word barber.....i think it degrades the profession)...he said " kya karte rehte hain yeh log..kuch bhi chicken masala dalke bol dete hain...aur dimaag ka bheja fry kar dete hain...asia kaise ho sakta hai ki is chachundar ka gaana itna hit ho jaaye jabki mujik niklake 20 din bhi nahi
hua".....this set me thinking....how far can a company go to sell its product.

competition really is so fierce today that marketers go any length to woo the customer. is marketing all about gimmicks and lies? can we use the word honest and marketing in the same sentence? if u ask my opinion i would really take a middle stand (thank god for inventing a word neutral...its the safest and easiest word to use). i believe that a marketer is selling happiness to the customer and not the products really. hes just trying to magnify the attributes in front of the eyes of the consumer by telling him/her that dood u will never feel sad with this product. whats wrong in that. donn we pray to god to feel better in bad times despite the fact that we are not sure abt his existence.similarly a marketing campaign is just like that...it creates a feel good factor....but at least it makes u feel good unlike so many things in life...

Laughter Shows: Tickling the funny bone or rubbing it in too hard????

Lets admit it...Indians by far are the most shy people on this planet....there is notning wrong in it...but the problem is that we euphemistically term the same condition as being humble and down to earth and sadly are proud of it. We rarely speak up for ourselves, we rarely take our decisions ourselves and we rarely are completely confident of what we are doing. I am sorry if i sound harsh....and oh!!....you must be wondering what all this serious stuff has to to with laughter
shows...well the same applies to our sense of humour. We never let ourselves loose, laugh our guts out....we dont laugh at ourselves fo that matter....

When the Laughter shows came in...the revolutionary great indian laughter challenge...it was like a sigh of relief from the ksob ksob...kboohooo serials (u know which ones i am talking about...kat kleast know) .....dads stressed from office work would laff their guts off....children for a while wonder if they had entered the right door when entering home. moms after heavy cooking sessions...smile instead of frown and crib....and of course the mood shows in the taste of the food as well...children wonder whether the food was ordered from a 5 star. Raju shrivastav becomes the hero along with sunil pal, instead of tulsi and parvati (they are the heroes of their serials....and gender doesnt matter). Gajodhar is your moms favourite actor on screen....and not apna paaji...dharmender.
Of course...who can forget Mr. Nav-joke Sidhu...he cud laff off his bowels on a PJ.
happy Happy story....Indians are back...so is their sense of humour...now Mr. Jignesh Bhai goes to his office and shares the jokes with his colleagues everyday....and Mrs. jamuna ben is the best joke cracker at her kitty parties. Ghar pe happy...TRPs are zappy...Channels wale bhi happy. Now what happens next....

Thanks to cable TV...we have about 100 channels today and thanks to technology we have a remote control. So what do we do...Switch..Switch....Switch.....Switch....Switch....next family member.....Switch..Switch....Switch.....Switch....Switch....this goes on. This is ok...manageable. Now the day the first season ended..laughter challenge ka....Bony TV comes up with its version....so does KEE tv...and then the list goes on and on. Now this is a serious point.....News channels have become junk and nothing else...and the Junk leader is Parso Tak...followed by Kee News and Tar news. Can one imagine news channels showing clips of comedy shows in their normal air time. Hum hain Naa. Now Mr. Jignesh watches s comedy show every half an hour....hes gettin bored....the joke cracked is the same that came 2 weeks back (he remembers the episode number too). Mrs. jamuna ben is no longer the best joke cracker...women now think she is a nut cracker. The children get normal food to eat.

Too much of a dose is harmful. Today channels capitalise on success by thinking short term. Short Idea Life Cycles kill a concept. The Indian consumer is wise and does not take shit anymore.