Freedom, my way & Illness

Narrow viewpoints in supposedly modern minds, ever ready to criticize or condemn,
Poets denied freedom of expression, held guilty of transgressing the accepted path of insipid & unwholesome literature.
Measured sentences, right not wrong, white not black, uttered in controlled voices
Dare we breathe, live, love? Dare we rebel, revolt, break the shackles binding us?
Let go of the tried, tested, safe path, it will do nothing for us.
Find your freedom in intellectual expression - it will take us there, sans fear, sans guilt
So fear not mankind, live on - brave and unrestricted
We have the music of the winds, of our land, our waters-that’s all the backing we need to take us to reach greater heights!

Illness...
A temporary stopover
In life's long journey
Ask me, I know
Give up?
Never!
Instead,
think healing thoughts,
calming thoughts
learn to meditate
Strengthen your spirit
& always keep that 
peace in your soul.

You are here
as you were meant to be
tomorrow brings with it
the promise of 
new experiences
new realisations
today,
dreary as it might seem
does bring with it
a promise
of a better tomorrow
for yourself
& the world around you!

Freedom as I know it

Freedom as I know it

I have a memory from my early childhood of what my father once told me; my father, a person whom I later acknowledged, as having played a very major role in my life, my opinions, my interpretations. He had made a simple and what might seem an irrelevant and disconnected reference. He said that my having been born on August 16th most definitely had to do with my independent nature, as it fell a day after India’s Independence! He actually feared for me, as I was the most outspoken and fiercely independent among his 3 daughter!
Yes. I am a woman who feels terribly restricted by the behavioral norms, controls and restrictions set by our ever forbidding society. India being the democratic country it is, we are entitled as our birthright, to the freedom to just be ourselves without being labeled audacious, obnoxious or even ostentatious!?! Freedom of expression is a basic requirement of a growing society, and freedom most definitely does not mean living without any of life’s principles! It merely means being less contrived or hypocritical, and more genuine.
I truly believe that no decisions must be reached without hearing what might seem the most trivial of viewpoints! We need the freedom to feel the music and melody in the winds, in the land we live in, in the water that flows through our great land. Likewise, we need the freedom to fathom, decipher and interpret our thoughts, however revolutionary they may seem, without fearing divine retribution or reprisal from loved ones. We need to be true to ourselves.
Poets have been condemned for having dared to bare their souls, for they did not utter measured sentences nor tread the accepted path. Let us therefore break the shackles binding us, as in this restriction lies our doom.


Illness...
A temporary stopover
In life's long journey
Ask me, I know
Give up?
Never!
Instead,
think healing thoughts,
calming thoughts
learn to meditate
Strengthen your spirit
& always keep the 
peace in your soul.

You are here
as you were meant to be
tomorrow brings with it
the promise of 
new experiences
new realisations
today,
dreary as it might seem
does bring with it
a promise
of a better tomorrow
for yourself
& the world around you!

The Mediterranean Blues

Blue sky's,  Bluer waters 

Spotless landscapes 

Simplified lives 

All needs met 

Recession hurts …just, mildly 

larger pleasures opt out for smaller ones 

They hear about 

But feel not the tribulations of the third world 

A world where 

Every effort is a struggle 

bringing with it despair & dejection 

Making every triumph a much worthier achievement!  

Nevertheless 

It is my familiar ground 

My world 

Where sorrows reap bounty harvests 

& existence becomes therefore 

More meaningful 

So I ask myself 

What am I doing here, In this foreign land

Roaming the Ruins

In a Mystical land
I find myself
roaming the ruins
Fifty years of wisdom
lying all bottled up
within me
Where do I go from here?!

Giving my best years…
travelling the beaten path
In my own inimitable style
Tending, caring, healing
Where do I go from here?!


I now lie low these days
discovering slowly
My children’s interpretation
of what their mother is
…praise or brickbats
My life will go on
The eternal question
stays
Where do I go from here?!

Clairessence

Memories…
Overpowering…
…of the fragrance…
Mystical
Stimulating my senses
to heights
unfathomable.

Carefully coercing
me to seek
the excitement quotient
which I attain
cautious…
lest it slip away.

Clairessence.
The gift of the senses
Powerful, yet passionate.
Making me elluring,
desirous, sensual!

Arousing every fragment
Of my being
For the ultimate
Sexual Serenade!

The Sabbatical

A break period.
A year…
Perhaps more…
To seek myself.
The person I am

Working late nights
to make ends meet
being ostracised,
typecast
but…I’ll survive

Typecast
by friends and foes
alike,
‘a mere survivor’
-like some lost,
distressed soul!

No.
I will learn.
Widen my horizons
Search my soul
…explore
learn camaraderie
humility
form new friendships
travel the world…

So what
if enroute
I fumble
Lose my way
…I’ll survive
So what
If en route
I turn waiter
At ‘La vent des Rose’
Just a temporary job
…in a tentative land.

The Sublime World of Fashion

I have always envied the world of fashion as it opened to me windows to a lofty yet mysterious, almost sinister world which appeared on the outside to be stunning, yet unattainable; almost unreachable, yet terribly tempting!

I realized what it was in reality when I lost a dear friend Rupa to this world. A world where she was sucked into whirlpool of vice, trapped in a labyrinth from which there was no return.

Rupa was my dear friend right through our college days. I often wondered whether I idolized her. People often compared us as both of us had dramatic features. She was however as quiet and intense as I was carefree and bold. Rupa lost her parents in the bombings of Bali where they ironically had gone for an idyllic holiday. She had never really got over the loss. She got into a shell from which only I could get her out of. I love life, I love freedom ! I wanted those I loved to enjoy life and freedom with me with the purity and wholesomeness that only I knew of.

Right after college Rupa was selected by “Lavista Fashion House” with its head office in Paris. Almost overnight, she was on the cover of Vogue and flying from New York to Milan. She had arrived and how !

I was one proud friend till I realized on my trip to Paris to meet her that she had fallen prey to the world of drugs, drug-dealers and lecherous men. Rupa died from an overdose of LSD on 18th November 2002. I had lost a dear friend and could do nothing about it.

- Nimo Menon