K

Kaleidoscope

I endeavor to live in the moment. In the meantime, here is a sum total of all yesterdays and tomorrows - Chandra S.

Credentials

Inspired by: The memory of and longing to be home, the true home that we have forgotten in our quest for extrinsic glitter. There are times we get glimpses of this home all of a sudden and we briefly realize that while the outer world needs us to prove our credentials to acquire its ephemeral objects, there are no such requirements to return to our sources, our true home. ...and then there are these flowers: flush with fragility and coloring. What if I could be them... utterly mortal, yet d...
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The Remainder

Inspired by: Flashback I used to walk back homefrom this roada long time agoand usuallyyou would be standingin the balcony;waitingin the twilightof the evening.On other fiery, orange eveningsyou would be laughingas I would break in a runto save the ice creamsfrom melting in the sun.Even today,the ice-cream vendor is therebut does not rememberhis old-time customer.The balcony is there toobut you;as you were,do not belong there.And so,this roadcan no longertake me anywhere.The remainderis onl...
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The Anonymity of Maturity

Refreshing cool wind swept past me as I stood on the balcony of the apartment in which I have rented a room for the next few months. I perused my view of urban Chennai with a lazy eye. Chennai would probably be a contemporary of California had it been fortunate enough to be a part of a first world country with its stellar beaches and coconut trees of all shapes and sizes on all roadsides at all angles to the ground, laden with fruit. It is this famous tropical fruit which drew my attention,...
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Reflections

From: The Antique Anthology Inspired by: Reflections on the extinct Writing credit: The Nightingale The things that I have done in my loneliness… …singing, poeming, suffering, snap-seeing, dreaming, waiting, touching… …wherever you touched… are significant and sad because; you are all that I have and have ever had. It is difficult to comprehend that one cannot spend the nights dreaming of dreams coming true. So again, I sigh in reflection of nights when dreams used to smile caring to come...
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My Daughter's Mother

Inspired by: The ties that bind There have been smiles and there have been tears and over the capacious years I have been aware of her ever shrinking laughter which, though shriveled by time's sorrowful shower still rings with the same zing as before, and the definitive tone of her masterly speech has carried the same effervescent peal... to continue sanguinely forever and more. I have watched her thaw in the snug warmth of my love and have seen her frost in the ice-age that followed. For...
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The Avalanche

Inspired by: The certitude of ageing Unlike before a young lady ignored my presence. My heart broke ...once more!!! Nineteen times out of twenty this would not have happened to me. But this time, it did and I slid into a peculiar sadness. At a later hour I looked at the mirror and a plump little man with partly grey hair glumly returned the stare. The young man of yesterday had been demolished simply by the way time moves ahead ...quietly ...surely and the youth is buried inevitably a...
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Laces and Knots

For the first 1/3 of my life, I could not do shoelaces and tie-knots. It was awkward...debilitating. For the next 2/3, I raised the bar and went beyond. Life got tied up and knotted at n number of places, attached and intertwined with a whole lot of people and events. It was impairing. With the last 1/3, I now sit quietly...looking at laces and knots,  unlearning…undoing…disarming…empowering. ...
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Belief

Inspired by: The subconscious mind which secretly prefers prayer over logic. Many times, You have said vociferously; ......for all success and in all failure, faith is the key. And many times, I have tried to reason against the equation of ritual and religion. But, in the fashion world of materialist-spiritualism, where majority conforms to modern tradition, I have often found it convenient to ignore the dictates of reason and still more convenient to believe in the corollary; .........
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Only For You...

Inspired by: Fear of loss Every now and then... I roll out of a rude dream and find myself in some unknown stretch of the night; gaping blankly ...almost obtusely at the false ceiling. It is at a time like this... when the preceding dusk is left behind... a long way and I have no idea, if the first blush is near or still faraway; that the mind conjures the cine-effects like an elaborate multiplex and a myriad portraits of you and your groom begin to flicker. * ...There is that veteran we...
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Orbit

From: The Antique Anthology Inspired by: Constraints Writing credits: The Nightingale Acknowledgement: Nicku They loved each other; sincerely. And were masters in lavish analogies Once, he casually remarked, You are the Earth, I am the Sun She replied, You are right, I must revolve around you. The day this geography changes; the heavens will be shaken. I throb in the pain of your searing flames. And though I know my misery cannot equal yours in intensity, I honestly kiss your parche...
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No-Body is Powerful

Now and then, my weekends are spent in silence. I observe the rise and fall of my stomach as I breathe. Emotions wax and wane as the mind buzzes about. I see that I am the host, just like the branch of a tree. Thoughts fly towards and away like birds of various kinds. Mostly, they perch and chirp and sing their songs. Then they flutter and take off. Thoughts are guests. To be in flux is their natue. It is a simple fact that neither needs to, nor presents a possibility of change. Fighting ...
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The Next Catastrophe

Inspired by: This day and age where freedom is often misconstrued as freedom from obligation and a license to be reckless, indulgent, casual, uncommitted. Liberty is the highest decree. Independence and opportunity - the finest, paramount glee. Certainly indeed! But are we really moving towards being free? Or is it brazen entitlement that we blatantly feed? * You ask of the next catastrophe. Mass irresponsibility: that is sadly what it will be. ...smh That is sadly what it will be. ...
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A Hope-less Poem

Inspired by: Writer's Block Occasionally, there are spells when, you have to compel the homeless mind to somehow find a reasonable rhyme in which you could fit; the unarranged disfigured and discoloured bunch of thoughts. But, the mental friction does not sanction the end of this sluggish trend and eventually, some patchy amends are all that you can provide to a hopelessly disorganised and crumpled piece of poetry. © Chandra S. ...
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As we go by...

He wrote: Another day has gone by. It started a bit cloudy and there were some showers. Then the Sun broke through and I walked across the field that looks jaded bronze with all the grass fried crisp by the sizzling tropical Sun. At work, I tried to focus on writing the fifth document but could not pick up much speed. It is a challenge to write something which is simple to understand and yet does not compromise the quality and completeness of material. I wrote one page and then struggled with...
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Equanimity

Inspired by: A dream and its rememberance. You were a tree. Not too tall but not very short either. The foliage wasn't thick but not thin enough to make the tree look bare and deciduous. Ample light passed through the leaves. The temperature was neither hot, nor cold. It was neither dark, nor bright. There was a breeze. I stood there, knowing that it is you and the flowers kept falling on and around me. © Chandra S. ...
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The Timeless Bond

Inspired by: Loneliness, sickness, contemplation, nostalgia, longing and a Philips radio set. The radio set was purchased by my father when I was a year old. It was a 3-band radio and came with a leather case that had a shoulder string. My parents would take a walk after supper and I would be perched on one of their arms while the radio would be slung on the other shoulder. I grew up with it. It kept me company for as long as it lasted and remained a true companion in my varyingly solitary m...
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A Hole in the Heart

Inspired by: Nostalgia and helplessness narrated by a long-lost colleague. I have forgotten names. Only the essence remains. She was a beautiful girl with intense eyes and long black hair. We would sit on the windy cliff till the Sun went over the hill, and she would sing to me and talk to me about life; that promised to be ours. Then, the evening would take deeper, softer shades and we would go our own separate ways waiting...... for the next day's meeting. Today, as I write about those...
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