Traveler

His head bent down, in pensive thought
And a dirty backpack full of Memories
The Traveler going from one Moment to Other
On the dusty road of Dreams and Reveries

He has seen the snow clad silent mountains
And all the pomp of the Gods and Goddesses
Dipped his feet in ice cold waters
And written in his book of all those places
He has met psychics who talked about Death
And fallen in love with pretty women
Cried in vain and winced in Pain
Every time he got his heart broken
He sat by the campfire and sang songs
He relished rabbits, camels and goats
He taught little boys how to fly kites
And helped old women out of boats.
He saw the same Sun
Sometimes behind the Mountains
Sometimes inside the River
And the same Horizon across different Oceans
That always leads him to the Loyal Forever
He saw the same Moon
Sometimes Maddening and Sometimes Saddening
He saw the same River flow
That was called by different names
Until it went where it was to go.

He tried stopping for Wealth and Love
Or to leave something behind
But he knew that the open Skies
Would make it too hard to find
He moves on, He moves along
Rebuilt or Broken Apart
But he never takes the Hurt with him
And meets a New Place with an Empty Heart.

Going NowHere

There are places in our own minds where we have never gone before.
A little higher up, beyond the elevations that lead to our Egos.
Places that let us stay only for a while, but take us closer to God.

Maybe we were there as children, unknowingly
Or after those moments of extreme despair
When the heart starts beating again.
Or in those moments of helpless laughter
That brings tears to our eyes
Mercurial places, Filled with Joy and Nowhereness.

Like the gap between two thoughts
Like the headache that comes with the first bite of ice-cream
Like waking up in the middle of night
And finding the Moon staring at us.
Like a long long train journey
On an unreserved seat by the open window
Like using all the theatre in our blood
To get a few kids wide eyed during a ghost story

We always stumble upon them,
And then we want to stay
But then Anger and Ambition take over
And the I takes us away.

The Rain and The Sunshine

Earlier when it came,
Sometimes in Drizzles
Sometimes in Torrents..
The Blinding, Languishing Rain!
It poured outside the window
Choking every Grass blade
Filling the space between Heaven and Earth,
By an Ethereal Sorrow

Ceaseless Rain, Limitless Rain
Followed by an Awkward Sunshine
Like a Child laughing aloud
In the Abysmal Silence of a Mourning House

It still comes down just the same
But the torrents refuse to haunt
It flattens the humble Grass blades
But it fails to choke and daunt
Even the Self-Conscious Sunlight
Has gathered a Newfound Valor
For it gushes in with a Lucid Rainbow
Defying the Cloudy Pallor

They have grown accustomed these days
The Rain and the Sunshine to each other
Like the long married Day and Night
Sharing Dusks and Dawns together

From now on, the Rain and the Sun
As they please, may come and go
For the Joy has transcended Light
And beyond Rain rests the Woe.

--Saee
15th March 2007

Thank Heavens For Reality!

I have not used imagination while writing this. I am just reporting! =D
I don’t know what they call people who can remember Dreams vividly, but I happen to be one of them. I don’t just remember my dreams, but I also waste an awful amount of time analyzing them in the morning. This is a Dream, and by dream I mean the one that comes when you are fast asleep in the Rapid Eye Movement or whatever phase you call it!
Last night I dreamt, that I was on a train with two other people.
We were joking around and sitting in the doorway looking at the train as turned behind us. I was wearing a scarf that was tied behind my ears like those gypsy women (I know this is vanity but I am just reporting). I don’t remember if the other two were guys or girls but then there were three people.
Suddenly after a while, the three of us killed someone. :)
For a long time we were wondering if Murder is a punishable offence and if yes, what is it going to cost us!!
I remember coming home, and telling my mom about it. I asked her what she thinks will happen and even in my dream she was as business-like and matter-of-fact as she is in real life. She calmly told me in my dream, that my career was ruined now that I had managed to murder a living person. She also told me that she did not think that the Law had any concession for three people killing one person as against one person killing one person and you don’t get to share your punishment. Though this can be looked at with a sense of humor at 1 PM in the afternoon, it managed to freak me out at 1 AM. :)
She told me that my PhD was ruined now as if I try to go abroad I would be a fugitive and no one will grant me a Visa in the first place! And I saw her utter the word “fugitive” which I doubt she will ever use in reality because she is good at being harsh in Marathi than English. That was the only ray of hope I had to convince myself that I was dreaming.
She also asked me to look for a good lawyer so that I manage to make up a story before the cops get me. =|
I was seriously worried when I woke up and this is not a writer’s overstatement. I actually thought my life was ruined when I woke up because the Dream was being telecast the whole night. It had left me pensive and helpless. Even as I woke up, I was figuring out what to do about it till the time my feet touched the ground and I smelled tea!
I truly realized the worth of having a humble REALITY to wake up to today!

I am amazed at how articulately the whole story was constructed when I wasn’t even thinking of trains or murders yesterday!
It is also interesting to know that even in a Dream the brain takes into consideration the consequences of an action and also the candid portrayal of the people in your life. The presence of my mother and her comments made it so real that had I slept for an hour more, I would have died in my sleep from a cardiac arrest.
I am still confused why I could not get the identities of the other two people and also about the presence of the train in my dream. It gave an Agatha Cristiesh feel to the Dream!
Any Freuds around? :)