Introduction to Silent Soliloquy- From My Dateless Dairy

Mine is a kind of field trip into the realm of mind

To reopen the lines of transmission

Jammed over the years!

For many governments, currencies and countries

The decade of 1990s was a crucial crossing in life.

A series of currency crises went hand in hand

With feverish embrace of ‘Market’ elsewhere.

The rise of dollar, the fall of Asian tigers,

Birth bang of ‘Euro’ , the ailment of Europe,

Death of inflation, and demise of cycles in the U.S,

Japan sinking and sulking in perpetual Depression,

Are only a few samples of the nervous Nineties.

To me, and also to You and many elsewhere ,

It was like crossing a bridge

As sharp as a razor’s edge

Walking on it without being cut

Was really an art and science

I somehow managed it.

Travelling a vast stretch of time

Under muddled political water

Sweeping through academic corridors

I learnt the art of survival with self respect

Retaining my purity in the

Acadamic glass casket,

Practicing brutal honesty,

And still more brutal courage

And more and more savage violence

And love in teaching and writing.

The events of the past decade Just gone by

Are a mixture of both good and bad

But mostly, an incredibly a sad tale

The heightened jealousy over

My torrential academic output

Both in content and substance,

In Teaching and Writing,

The fear that it aroused,

The hatred that it kindled

All culminating into a series of wicked acts of

Conspiracy of silence, resulting in a crucial nexus

Of a few stupid Heads soaked in academic misery

And prolonged drought on publication side.

Yes, the text has been stained by tears and blood.

As Sun has the uniqness to destroy

Even as it regenerates life on Earth,

This text has a dual goal to usher in

A Creative destruction and bring

Sanity, peace and harmony

In the seats of Higher learning,

Inclusive of the corporate and I.T.Corridors

Trapped in Unhappy Silence?

Days pass dryly, monotonously

As they usually pass with a man in prison

Without any thrill, fun or adventure.

No emotional warmth or physical intimacy, for comfort.

Individuals with infinite zest, talent

Are at the receiving end, always.

For long, the air had worn

A decorous grief and remained Poisonous.

It seemed stale and contaminated.

Now smiling fresh and clean

Really more pleasant,

When it mixes and fuses with monsoon rain.

A refreshing air!

When will we have the mood and time

To wander in the woods,

Wade through the gentle streams

And listen to the cherry crackle of the wood

And hear the language of silence, the blissful experience of life.

With a queer sense of freedom

Will all of us experience that Bliss ?

But alas, Many of us are trapped in a

World of unhappy silence.

Life is not always free

And also not unencumbered.

And yet, we live on hopes, vague hopes.

We have no time to be Afraid

We have no time to be afraid,

Nor worry over trivial events before the master

Llet all of us go at the predestined time,

We shall rejoice over the work,

Appropriate all the simplest pleasures of life

Through decent means and acts,

Without debasing our core value,

And blunting our core competence.

And survival here by itself is a miracle,

No need to ask any further Biblical blessings,

Or career promotion or lift in society.

We have been blessed enough

More than enough in adequate measure

Burn all your personal worries

Deep into your heart and mind

And translate them into free verse and poetic prose,

That greatest asset,

Will be the pleasantest thing

Not only to cherish and savour,

But also leave behind a legacy, a tradition.

Worth emulating and contemplating

By honest workers adoring Earth

In the years to come. (From MY Dateless Dairy)

A time will come , the tide will change

I know you are an odd element in that set,

Alone and unhappy in your thoughts,

But kindly don’t abandon your hope

There is no need to get sucked

Into a deeper and darker hole.

There’ s still abundant light outside,

And more intellectual fire inside

Fire always burning very brightly,

Intimidating the shallow creatures,

Wallowing in evil deeds.

It’s true, we rediscover our strength

And reinvent our talents

To sail through a brighter terrain

With ease, interest and comfort.

The agonizing road block in our

Uphill academic journey,

Is the worst encounter, we have ever had .

Also , it’s frustrating and frightening

And also sapping our strength

But we need to move on

Like brave soldiers in a futile war campaign

With all our critical ability and self belief

To win the war.

A time will come , the tide will change

Already we are in a lime light

In our home theatre, our classrooms.

By switching off the light, and turning away,

He has only made himself small, an object of ridicule.

See how he puts up a brave front

With all his baggages of the past

Filled with criminality and venality.

Everyone gains by winning the game I have gained enormously by losing it

My positive and aggressive academic posture,

As revealed by Teaching, writing and articulating,

In my own inimitable style,

Has invited only ridicule at the coffee club

Do you know why?

You have never tasted the flavor and glory of Academics

In your entire academic life.

So, you feel very small and dwarfed.

In our presence ,

Elevated to an exalted position,

But only educated beyond your intelligence,

There has been always a savage violence

And sadistic streak in your molecules of brain

To molest academic integrity and efficiency.

I want to play a delightful academic game

But you always invoke and invent new rules,

To transform this game into a pure political sport.

Small wonder then you make me out,

Rather effortlessly when I excel in batting.

Everyone gains by winning the game

I have gained enormously by losing it

At your hand. Yes. Gentleman !

The fruitful fallout of your clownish game

Is birth of my poetry.

You can neither be happy

Nor feel well all the time,

Just because you are born rich

Or a fortune has smiled on you

The exalted position that you occupy here

Was not meant for doing mischief

And blunt the academic brilliance of

Your co-workers,

Who are good workers too.

By showering booms to those

Who had displayed a remarkable immediate loyalty

And stunning the career graph of

Those who all along practiced only work ethics

You’re indeed ushering in a paradigm shift here

“Don’t work, Praise my glory.

Write books for me, though shall not suffer

I will guarantee your career lift.”