Vanity and Vain
The end is only a farce
The beginning is far away
There is only a vacuum
A hollow voidancy
Life is vain
A floating lily
hovering in futility
Seeking a transient haven
Settling my tomorrow today
_______________
Separated from her spouse who’s sojourning,
the heroine awaits with deep longing.
___________________
The warmth of a day nigh sunny
Nor silver of moon passing by
Gives me hope nor solace any more,
Freeze of darkness spreads to my deep core,
Separated, I feel utterly incomplete,
O cut your long sojourn short, beat a retreat
And come soon to end my loneliness,
O come to end my day-long stress.
Let morrow’s sun dawn with the news
That would end my life’s blues,
Let me await no more, come as warm breeze,
O come to rhyme my life’s verses.
_________________
Natya Shastra |07.02.2025| Rhyme,
Note: This is seventh of Ashta-Nayikas, eight heroine types, as classified in a Sanskrit treatise on performing arts in Bharata’s Natya-Shastra. The state (avastha) of the eight romantic heroines widely themed in Indian paintings, literature, sculpture, classical dance forms and music. Proa-bhatruka is the seventh of the eight such heroines depicted here in poetic form.
Let me tell you a tale
of a small boy,
who wanted a gale
and some flashy rain.
A small child, naughty he was,
Never wanted school,so
he sent the Gods and SOS
about some stormy rain.
The Gods red and red again,
They were always kindly
and didn't want to make him in vain,
So they sent some thunderous clouds
The boy was so in glee,
his mother didn't know why
She asked him why he didn't flee,
To the place where was rain
The little brat, happily,
Told her the message,
The mother was awed faintly,
By her son's love for Rain
Sailboat
sailor
hurled by wild winds
on the deep sea
in awe calls for relief
from men and the heaven,
but in vain.
Let he who is without vanity cast the first insult
Vain to me smacks of superficialities which
in the long run prove fragile and meaningless
You can be proud of your accomplishments
without worries of being vain
Lose your hair, lose your teeth, lose your looks,
lose your vanity
Fashion statements
Youth
Dress-up make-up
Forsooth
A little vanity never hurt anybody
Until it becomes the substance of your life
Uncouth
Raison d'être
It’s not necessarily a negative asset
conceit
conceded
vain
narcissism
self-love
self-admiration
self-regard
self-absorption...
...Is self-love really considered vanity?
Summer Hiku 24
warm summer s ~u ~n ~s ~h ~I ~n ~e
c -o -u -r -t -I -n -g lilies in v ~a ~i ~n~
heart aching with p ~a ~i ~n.
Misty paths darkened the way,
Better days, it seems are too far away.
Want to escape, want to run away.
But the ticking clock doesn't sway.
The mist doesn't fade away.
Running and running until my feet hurt
But can they see? My pain remains hiding in the dust
At one point after the pain, a question arises. Is running away a must?
Aren't there more lanes without the misty gust?
Want to go there but the people block the way. The very people whom I trust.
No way back.
My feet hurts, my mind is filled with cracks.
One thing I know;
For your love,
I do not stand here in vain
At your heart’s door:-
Rather, aware that the maker
Of that door has never failed me yet,
I stand here in faith’s divine hope—
Knowing that door will soon open inward,
Warmly and lovingly inviting me in:-
They do not seek to find a peace
They want to fight forever
Until the end of time will ease
Their hunger for whatever
They do consider just and right
For they can’t stand each other
Regardless of the wretched plight
Don’t dare to be my brother
They say, before they die in vain
That Cain and Abel story
Recovered over and again
No one will say a sorry
I am that no one, hope you take
My side in what I’ve said
But you will tell me I’m a fake
My narratives are bad
Yours are much better, you believe
In something you can’t get
So let the robots share your grief
Peace isn’t here yet.
LETTING LIFE BE NOT LIVED IN VAIN
Know that the righteous life you’ve been living,
Has not and could have never been lived in vain:
You’ve trekked shadowed valleys of ole death;
You’ve mastered many bridges of troubled waters;
You’ve conquered so many Sisyphus-like rocks;
And God has and never ever allowed you to fail:-
Thus, in the deemed storms ahead, fear no evils;
Just shift faith’s undying spirit of hope into high gear;
Turn on those ever splashing wipers—wiping out doubt.
And with divine wisdom and guidance, continue sojourning,
Continue in your humble labors of love you’ve been assigned;
And at journey’s end, be in thanksgiving grace for a vainless life:-
Is a chance either against fate or destiny,
It often looks like a planned movie that might end in everyone's favor,
The words are beginning to be buried in our heads,
The pledges ain't really made, they are just structures build on maybe,
What if the dreams had, falls on an unfertile soil,
What if all the efforts turns to waste,
What if all the pains endured becomes vain,
What if all the hard works ends up killing,
What if, she left at the edge of misery,
What if she becomes too classic to stay,
What if all her words are just cheap stones,
What if her love fades away,
What if the light refuses to regenerate,
What if the desires are unfulfilled,
What if the man in the future never becomes a reality,
What if the gold never comes,
What if, what if, what if,
The fears are not dying but growing,
The once red flaming faith dies gradually,
The ego of love turns an ego of anxiety and worries,
Oh, the soul seeks solace,
The silent heart, the trust it feels might soon be gone,
The strings in which hope hangs might soon be a nightmare,
Oh, what if all these happens.
I'm in a dream,
Peeing into a stream,
A snake peeped out,
Some on its snout.
A frog close nearby,
Came out to pry,
It got some too,
From me it withdrew.
I found it funny,
The way a bunny,
Growled near a tree,
Far from my pee.
Then I woke up,
I rushed to cleanup
Another bedwetting today again.
Dry night in vain.
Pain
Tears
Hope
And desperation
An emotional piece of rag
That's what I've become
Tears splash down on my books
I smear my neatly written
physics notes
Down on my table
I put my head slowly
I hear those little voices
"You can do better" they say
"But how do I get
myself out of this mess?" I ask
The voices don't answer back
Screaming inside
I let out a meek little sigh
Again,
trying to swim against
the rough sea of agony,
my voice seething in anger,
I call,
"Care to answer back?"
Then oh,
I see my carefree,
careless self
look at me in wonder.
She calls out teasingly
"Is this really you?
My girl's become serious"
Breaking the restraint,
my lips twitch
revealing that little smile
dancing on my lips.
You see,
I do love this life of mine;
a bittersweet delight
Dreams,
little rays of hope,
tear strained pages
of those
tiresome physics problems
call me
to make sure
all of it
was not in vain
Hard put as *****Sapiens to prove,
Far off left have we oh, home of love.
Lose virtue, watch in vain Sita’s woes,
Jatayu long dead, scarce can we move.
__________________________
Translation |05.09.2024| history, women, world
Poet’s note: This is second in the three-piece series on the theme. It depicts what happened in the epic Ramayana. When Sita was abducted by Ravana, Jatayu, the vulture king, challenged him and sacrificed his life. This epigram says we have lost Jatayu in us in this dark age. The original in Gujarati as transliterated (in PS-acceptable way) is as under:
Chalaayu chhej nahi, prem naa gharma javaayu chhej nahi,
Museebat ej chhe, dvaar thi paachhaa valayu chhej nahi,
Dharma ne khoyaa karo, door thi sita-haran joyaa karo,
Biju to thaaye shun, aapani andar Jatayu chhej nahi.
- Milind Gadhavee
Raising hands, hoarse do I cry,
No one hears, nor bothers to try,
Wealth and wants be had by virtue,
Why not then that’s what ye pursue?
__________________________
Translation |01.09.2024|
Poet’s note: At the end of the massive hundred thousand verses of Mahabharata, a historical epic in poetic medium, poet Vyasa in utter desperation comes to this verse on dharma. Now, dharma is the central theme of this epic and a lot is said on it. Yet, few seem to follow this virtuous path of dharma. The transliteration of the Sanskrit verse follows:
Urdhva baahu viraumi esha, na cha kashchit shrunoti me |
Dharmaat arthah cha kaamah cha, sah kim artham na sevyate ||
- Mahabharata, Bhaarat Saavitri ||
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