Thursday, 22 March 2012

EIGHT LITTLE CHILDREN

She only wishes that she can stop and smell the roses in her hand.
Speak up. Stop child labour. You can make a difference.
Eight little children carrying lamps that lit up a wedding
Are walking down the street, burden on their shoulders,
Smiling all the while, admiring the festivities, the dancing
Ignorant of the danger looming over their heads, the loose boulders.

Eight little children carrying lamps that lit up a wedding
Are walking down the street, burden on their shoulders,
Smiling all the while, shining their bright lights upon the dancers
Joy in their own lives the light they carry is never bringing.

Eight little children carrying lamps that lit up a wedding
Are walking down the street, burden on their shoulders;
A thought never crosses the dancers’ minds,towards these holders
Of the light that shines not in their's, but the lives of the people prancing.

Eight little children carrying lamps that lit up a wedding
Are walking down the street, burden on their shoulders –
And a humble poet follows, a defender of the law wondering
Why his mouth does not move in protest for these little lantern bearers?

Look my Good Lord, and thus like the lawyer are all the world’s men
Who are not humans, rather asses that bray and peacocks that boast but when
The time for action passes, we do nothing but perpetuate
The sorrow of darkness that these children are too ignorant to hate.

Fie upon the World for being an unjust being, and the actors for seeing
And yet perpetuating justice among every human being:
Justice that denies eight little childrenthe right to speak and say,
“Why do I carry this light upon my shoulder, tell me, I pray?”

The world is cold, wretched and cruel for these eight little children;
Their sorrow be ended, and slowly,gradually their burden
Be removed from their aching shoulders only by Death,
Who sitting upon his mighty black steed, withdraws the children’s breaths.
And yet Death be cruel as the rest of the world for he comes not soon;
He’s content in their sorrow, and unwilling to take them beyond the moon.
All the while the lawyer looks, for his look will alleviate the suffering;
But lo, the children continue to walk, the load of the lamps their shoulders bearing.

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

THE LETTER


This post is an article that I submitted as a former student of my school, CMR National Public School in Bangalore for the latest edition of their magazine.

________________________________________________________

Dear seventeen-year-old-me,
I am writing to you from my present, your future – I’m writing toyou from law school. Yes, I know for a fact that this was never the future youimagined for yourself. Believe me. I’ve been there, done that. When I was you,I’d imagined going to an engineering college along the coast of Karnataka or inGoa. You’re imagining passing out with flying colours and driving an Audi A8 –yes, a black Audi A8 with tinted windows and a spoiler – along the long,winding, mountainous autobahn in Germany. Seventeen-year-old-me, if you havethe same dreams that I did when I was you, let me advice to swallow them, orbetter yet, have a mental earthquake that rattles the foundations of yourdreams: let this earthquake cause the towering dreams of the autobahn and thatblack Audi to bite the dust. Trust me. It is good for you.
Now that we have established that you cannot even remotely thinkabout engineering colleges and black Audis and autobahns, let me tell you whatyou can think about. You can thinkabout law school, starting up your preparations for the grueling entrance exams(the smelly CLAT and the stinky AILET) and hear from the propreitors of thevarious coaching centres that you attend how these exams will change your life.Believe me, those exams will change your life.
The true life-changer at the end of the day, however, my dear me,will be CMR National Public School. This school will sense that you aredifferent and allow you to make the conscious effort that will prove that youare not just another brick in the wall. This school will never try to bend youto the social sanctions and norms, and instead will release you into the sky,giving you the wings which bore Dedalus out of his island prison. The schoolyou are in, my dear me, has one great asset and that is the faculty. All thegood that you will get in law school will ultimately have come from them, theirhard work and dedication. I would appreciate it, dear me, if you took thisopportunity to give the faculty of CMR NPS a hearty thanks.
I would like to give you a “Small Messagein Verse”, seventeen-year-old-me:
TheWorld is a cold, hard, cruel and wretched place
Wherethere is an eternal battle between the Devil and Divine Grace;
Youwill be pitted and be constantly claimed by one and then the other.
Attimes like these, look back upon your life and with humility find your mother,
Identifyyour father, embrace your brother and stand with folded hands before yourteacher
Foryour family gave you your life, and the teacher your knife
Withwhich you can cut and carve and make this World a much better place.
With those words I should like to conclude this rather long letterto you and acknowledge and appreciate from the future, my past that was myfamily and my school and my teachers. May God bless us all, and give us thestrength to surge on with life until the time is ripe for us to embark on thenext big adventure.

Lots of love
Balaji HarishIyer

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

THE BREW

I sit at the coffee shop, staring at you, observing you
From my seat by the window, open to let the breeze in.
I look into you wondering and dreaming a few
Dreams of indulging, for the love of God Merciful, in sin.

I look at you and wonder why I sit with you
In front of me and my heart opens out with joy,
And I dream dreams of sins that I have no clue why
Bring a smile upon my face, distant, far away, maybe coy.

As I place my lips on you, your odour awakens
My senses, rushes to my head, and lightens
My spirit. For a few minutes, my worries are lifted
And my soul has away from my body has drifted.

Your taste leaves my lips moist and body tingling;
Energised and calm I feel the world around me mingling
And merging into oneness and coming to a halt
For a moment I am free, I have no fault.

The bitterness in you is soothing, your black colour
Defines your beauty, your simplicity, your odour -
They awaken my senses and lighten my day,
And oh I wish I could be with you, I could stay!

However my dear, all good things come to an end,
Just as the river must join the sea around the last bend:
That is the way of the world, it has been a trend
And alas, my dear, even to us it must extend!

I must once more take your leave but never fear
My dear, for I am not gone forever -
I must venture and say this: good cup of coffee
You and I, we are friends forever together.

Saturday, 17 March 2012

A SMALL MESSAGE IN VERSE


TheWorld is a cold, hard, cruel and wretched place
Wherethere is an eternal battle between the Devil and Divine Grace;
Youwill be pitted and be constantly claimed by one and then the other.
Attimes like these, look back upon your life and with humility find your mother,
Identifyyour father, embrace your brother and stand with folded hands before yourteacher
Foryour family gave you your life, and the teacher your knife
With which you can cut and carve and make this World a much better place.