When poems are finally finished
Complete
Joined and mended
With glue and tape and everything else that is at hand

When old dreams grow
And fit better
Grow more snug

When you smile
Because you want to.
With no pretense
No masks
No lies

When you realise
You are more
Than you thought
Or even imagined
You were

When you know
That you can go on
And even when life knocks you down
You will get up

When your castles in the air crumble
But you still have the courage
And the hope
To build them back up again

When guilt is a permanent part
Of your very being
Part of the air you breathe
The fabric of your life
And you can make your peace with it
Accept it, instead of forgetting

You know.
You. Just. Know.

I think more people should smile more. Enough people have said it enough times in enough ways. But what I mean is that more people should make it a habit to smile at a stranger. We are so full of suspicion and skepticism nowadays that we never make an effort to just smile and all it takes is a second.

I tried it today while I was riding to work. I smiled at a random person while I was stuck at an intersection waiting for the signal to change. And this person smiled back at me. It was so simple, so pure. And it left me feeling happy for the rest of that day. I know it wouldn't work all the time and that most people would probably react with puzzlement or indifference. But hey, it's a nice thing to do. And who knows you might just make someone else's day.

And I think this would work best in the mornings, when everyone is unhappy about having to go to work or angry about traffic or just generally pissed off.

Give it a shot. It doesn't hurt.

I'm a night person. I love the dark. It's scary yes, but there's also something comforting about it.

The night makes everything look different. Shadows play around under streetlights. Owls perch on broken branches, feasting, awake. The water grows still and quiet. The world goes to sleep and it's like everything is holding a collective breath. The night opens up a whole new world.

Its silence is when you cannot escape the thoughts in your head, drown them out with work and traffic, push them away for more important things. The night is when the moon comes out, a reflection of the Sun's brightness yet so much more beautiful. The stars come out and on those rare nights you can see them you realise how tiny and insignificant you are in the giant scheme of things. The night is quiet and loud at the same time, peaceful outside with tornadoes within.

The night is made for conversations. For silences awkward and comfortable. It is made for intimacy, for togetherness, for peace in another's arms. The night brings lovers together as only darkness can, wholly and completely.

The night can be beautiful and eerie. Cold yet amazing.

Another reason the night is my favourite time of the day? It begins with a sunset and ends with a sunrise.

In the absolute quiet
Thoughts speak the loudest
When only the crickets awake
The doubts creep in
Under cloudy starless skies
Confusion abounds within
When the darkness beckons
What can the mind do but give in?

We learn from experience. Make mistakes and learn never to repeat them. Hindsight.

But sometimes people find themselves in unusual situations. Things which are out of the ordinary. And when people find themselves in unusual situations they fall back on experience and try dealing with the unusualness in a usual way. Because by their very definition, unusual situations are things which don't usually happen, which means that there isn't anything to really fall back on.

The smart thing to do would be to learn to deal with unusual situations the way they should be dealt with - unusually. And in the process learn, grow and evolve. To find a new way to deal with a new thing.

If only we were smarter.

When you flip a coin to decide between two things you really want, it doesn't really matter what the coin finally says. The real way to know what you truly want is that millisecond while the coin is in the air, spinning and falling. In that moment you know what you WISH the coin would be and that right there is your answer.

It's something I remember seeing in a movie and I don't even remember which one. But it makes way too much sense to be forgotten. And it works, I've tried it.

Life is like an orange. It has these segments, these parts, separate but part of a whole. And every segment is made up of moments, countless small moments which give it character and flavour.

You might think that it's easy to separate each of these segments, and enjoy it in isolation, but it doesn't work like that.

Because everything is interconnected. The segments, the pulp, the white skin which is so hard to swallow, all of it together encased in this thing called the universe. And unless you enjoy it all together, there is no real happiness. Unless you squeeze every bit of juice out of all of it, there is no real fulfilment.

It is said that the only way you can truly love someone else is if you love yourself first. Easy to say, isn't it?

What about when the very fact that you love someone makes you then hate yourself? How are you supposed to love yourself when you have done something reprehensible and then you realise that you don't care that you have? How does it even work when you look into a mirror every morning and see everything you hate about yourself? Embrace your flaws they say. Hah!

How do you face yourself in the mirror every day when whatever you see isn't good enough? How are you supposed to reconcile yourself to the fact that you have turned into one thing you hate - a hypocrite? How do you ever give yourself a chance when all that ever does is cause the most important people in your life pain? We are supposed to learn from our mistakes, but what if the very mistake we made was to give ourselves a chance? What then?

Self-love isn't easy. And most of the time it doesn't even work. Hmph.

Quotable quote and all that

Life is all about getting used to doing things you do not want to do. - Yours truly

Magic

I never believed in magic. I'm the logical type, you see. Magic is for the children, for fairy tales and poems, for the weak who console themselves with lies.

But how wrong am I. I could not have been farther from the truth.

Magic exists. All it takes is a moment, and it's there, staring you in the face.

I experienced magic this weekend at NH7 Weekender in Pune. I saw it envelop me, caress me, carry me away. For one weekend, I went on a vacation I will never forget. Back to a place that was my home away from home for three years but now is just a place I can visit once in a while. I met old friends, people who grew with me, around me. I made new friends, in the most unexpected way, people who have changed me for good. I walked down the corridors I trudged along for three years. Met those people who structured my life, gave it direction. And I attended India's happiest music festival. They don't call it that for nothing.

I stood mesmerised as musicians spun magic with their words, their tunes, their instruments. I danced along as they carried me away on clouds of joy. I ran from The Dewarists stage to the Other stage, pushing and jostling for the best view. I screamed myself hoarse and head-banged till my neck hurt. I didn't sleep. I was happy. And that's all that mattered. From Kailasa to the Raghu Dixit Project, from Shrilektric to the Karsh Kale Collectiv, from Trilok Gurtu to Seun Kuti, from Agam to Thermal and a Quarter, from Alien Chutney to the Bombay Bicycle Club, from the Manganiyar Seduction by Roysten Abel to Swanand and Shantanu; every single one of them together wove a collective spell that made me leave the world behind and disappear into a land of happiness and magic.

Leaving that festival behind and saying goodbye to old friends and new was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Experiencing such magic and then having to leave it all behind was insanely difficult.

The dream had to end, the spell had to break. But unlike a dream which you barely remember when you wake up, this magic is something I will always carry in my mind. Moments which I will flick through at will to find that magic again. Because those moments were real, they happened and they will always, always be a part of me.

November 2, 3 and 4, 2012, thank you for making me believe in magic again.