Saturday, March 31, 2007

November of Life

Time is on our hands we think
As we wake up in the morning
Not knowing that everyday we sink
Another day just in the offing
Nothing makes us stop and wonder
How long do we have left?
Then the day grows colder
Our conscious has been our theft



A minute passes by and you are fifty
Your body is old and weak
You sit and cry on the days spent nifty
Those days were but your peak


Hope these words have found you early
Not late I hope to effect some change
But if they haven’t then I am most sorry
As I am sure there are tears at the end of this page

Chennakeshav Shenoy

Another Guy

Smelling like fresh flowers she walked in a trot
my head swelled up with racing thought
cracking a white grin she spoke in a tune
we set a date for next afternoon

The heart was beating many a mile
what i didn't know i was just another guy

Six months now, since we first met
i was a helpless butterfly caught in her net
in all that time we talked of this and that
in so many days i didn't smell the rat

Foolishly thinking that she was mine
sometime soon i was to realise
that i was just another guy

Sipping some coffee on the side of the street
i saw something no sight could beat
she stood there with that familiar smile
looking into the eyes of man dressed in style
the blood was like magma waiting to burst
no coffee could quench this thirst

All this while i couldn't fathom why?
i was just another guy

Pledged myself to erase all the lies
all that my heart had dreamed..why?
cursed the gods and the fluttering boy
and me being a fool who had jumped in joy

All my hopes lay dying lie
as i was just another guy

She picked up the phone and gave me a ring
i answered the call and felt the sweet sting
she tells me about the beach and the song
which she had heard all night long

A solitary tear moves across my face
the eyes staring into cold dark space
mouth tensed shaping into a pathetic smile
i am just another guy!

Chennakeshav Shenoy

Sunday, March 11, 2007

The F word

We throw it around…without a thought or judgement it’s a random blurt from our mouth, an instantaneous chemical reaction which prompts us to say the word, I positively abhor the it ….Friendship.

As a child I was a very introverted person and as a result a very lonely kid. Time moved on and I grew up I learnt that making friends was a natural thing. Slowly the making friends becomes a popularity contest and you seem to be in the midst of a tense political game which doesn’t seem to end ever again.

Man isn’t an island they say, and that he has to socialize and live with people and interact with them. Sometimes I wonder how much of this interaction is a bloody necessity and how much of it is because we want to. Is friendship a requisite for living in society or is it a tool that we use to further our lives.

In this time of such confusion we are looking for that person who understands us, who we can take our hardships to and is a ready crying shoulder. Someone we lend our hand to, in their dire time of need. The question is how thin is the line between the people we know and the people we love.

Friendship is a lot of things, sometimes it is that guy we know from our college who attends the same lectures we do and we sit together. Sometimes it’s the person we meet in the train everyday and we lend our paper to. The person who we cant go to sleep without calling or the girl that we know can never be ours and yet we want her around so we call her a friend. Sometimes it is the man we know who can get work done for us and we keep him around to split the bill with us.

Don’t you think that because there are so many definitions of the word, that the essence is being tarnished, The meaning is lost in translation from person to person. I like to call it the F word, because it has become dirtier than the word FUCK and its use has become as insulting if not more.

The harsh reality that we all keep fighting is that there is no such thing as a friend, a person who isn’t a blood relative, yet who is around for us. The fact is that we cannot invest in someone who we don’t consider our own, the word in a sense keeps the person away from us metaphorically and physically.

I know one thing that I have had my share of FRIENDS and I would rather not have anymore. What I want now are people whose relationship is thick as blood. Call me cynical but I don’t think I will meet any such people. Till then if I am an island I will make the most of it, I want to be JAMAICA