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When We Meet Again
Friends, lovers, relatives. People we know intimately. Who do we become when apart? Our bodies replace 330 billion cells every day. Every 15 years or so each one of the cells get fully replaced. We do not remain the same person physically, then what about the metaphysicality, the psychology, the soul, the belief systems of us? How much of us is built by the new people we meet? What is chipped away from the experiences we stumble into? Did an unshared sunset injure us? Did a random hurt hurled in the streets prove to be a last straw even we were not aware of? Did a birthday alone hurt us irredeemably? Did we pass through a crisis with no one to hold our hand? What do we become when unobserved and unheld by the one we dearly love? Like flowing water glides unhampered into every decline it finds, our beings slip every slope when there is no hand holding us through. And then when we meet, everything familiar about us draws us in, the memory of what we have been, for and with each other, is the bridge and the magnet. We settle in quickly. But slowly the stranger emerges; different reactions, differing views, till the person in front of us is not the one which we knew. And our skin prickles, we sink into a growing dismay, and we realize we are holding a stranger in our arms. Our decision to build a relationship anew with, essentially, a stranger is a matter for our heart and circumstances to decide. But nothing is simple. Because, like in all relationships, we are prisoners, freedom fighters, compatriots and counsellors, all at the same time. Who prevails finally is anybody's guess. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on arrivals and departures - En route (how I encountered war) Here we are in the years Aaschi Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected] The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Andromeda by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Andromeda Licence: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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En route (how I encountered war)
I was in Emirates business class, on the way to Dubai, en route to a holiday. I was happy with myself, my life. A full meal, two rom-coms, one to go, and the relief of my kids tethered, as they slept after all kinds of indulgences. There was a peaceful sea which awaited me, massages, and sunset walks. This is life, I deserve it. I sighed into my smile. Then there was static, peculiar to a plane, the one which precedes an announcement. Unusual, as it was dark in the cabin, and it was sleep-time. "Ladies & gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. I know I am disturbing you, as a lot of you might be sleeping. And I debated with myself before coming on. But I thought it would be fair to tell you this. You know about the war between Iran and Israel. If you would care to slide up your window cover and look down, you would see several streaks of light. They are beautiful. Those are missiles. From the direction you would know which country fired them and where they are headed. Don't worry. We are safe. We are several thousand feet above them. Don't worry. All I would like to say is - whoever you support, at the end of these missiles is death and destruction. Not awe. Not celebration. Hold a prayer for those who these missiles find. Because we are all humans. And we all die, when someone else does. Sorry for this intervention. But I thought a collective prayer might help. Good night." I looked out and down into the clear space. And saw how calmly those beautiful streaks travelled with us. If they were humans, we would have waved at each other. I looked on for long minutes, till the missiles veered and found a new direction. And we stayed onto our course. I am glad the children slept on. Else they would have wondered why their mother held on to the seat handles till her knuckles went white, they would have wondered why she had her eyes closed through the rest of the journey, they would have wondered why she was crying so inconsolably. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on wars of all kinds - Politics on the Dining Table No Revolution is Complete Without a Ruined Soul For Anyone Who Bleeds Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected] The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Cinema Blockbuster Trailer 10 by Sascha Ende Begegnung Romeos Erbe by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Cinema Blockbuster Trailer 10 Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Begegnung Romeos Erbe Licence: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Survivors
I have always wondered about people who go through tragedy, and then fall into profound grief. Such that their lives change, trajectories bend, and a state of being moribund sets in. In much of our existences, we are all living half-lives in our own way, pur-blind, half-dissatisfied, fully-disgruntled. The world refuses to work according to our diktats or wishes. And we are being continually rebuffed or embarrassed. Till we take it as normal. And then what do most of us do? Chin up. Take the blow. Move on. Things invariably add up somewhere. And find some sort of an equilibrium. Because the future is a consummate stitcher of 'rafoo', a darner of torn existences. But then there are those whose lives don't find their equilibrium, those who stay mired, however impractically we might think, in the turbid morbidity of past tragedies. For so many people, lives stop when their love dies, or heartbreak breaks a bond with life which they assumed was irrefutable, or a financial muscle breaks and their whole existence collapses. They lose the will to find light, the flex to transition into an alternate reality, the humility to seek redemption, the ability to let go of happenstances and embrace realities, to learn, absorb, embrace and then become the light. They never understand the value of taking life seriously but never so much that it becomes both a vice and a vise. Because that's when they find themselves as castaways in their own stories, forgoing their ability to find a log, and the wind, to set sail again, this time with a fearlessness bordering on ferocity. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the dramas of life - Sometimes Life Leaves You Alone Waiting for my flight to Chennai at the Kolkata airport Why I Disagree With the Moon Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected] The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Blockbuster Atmosphere 9 Sadness by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/blockbuster-atmosphere-9-sadness Licence: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Tell Me, Tell Me, How a Tear Was Born
There are so many microscopic things which happen which tend to change our lives - not in cataclysmic ways, but in infinitesimal ways making us the persons we become. A word said in passing, a kindness shown when not expected, a smile out of the blue, a touch when unexpected. And when a person opens up to you with all her vulnerabilities, bare to her soul, regardless of consequences, regardless of the delicate position which she places herself in, is the time when something inside us shifts. We learn of the preciousness of trust, how simple keepsakes can be life-changing, how devastating and life-affirming can a peek into someone else's truths can be. Paradoxically, our complex journey through our lives is made richer when our choices become simpler. To pause to see, to stop to listen, to go silent to let the noise subside, to acknowledge presence, to reach out, to reach in. Each person we meet is actually a cornucopia of dreams, actualities, hopes and compulsions. To breath with them is to travel with clear eyes and a pellucid heart. To know that to know a truth of another is just another way to find our own truths. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on life and its infinite mysteries - Elegante Solitude I Come With Mud Assisted Suicide Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected] The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Gracias by Sascha Ende Kathrin by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Gracias Link: https://filmmusic.io.en/song/Kathrin Licence: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Here We Are In The Years
"My love, of a thousand reaffirmations, we know we will never find ourselves in adequacies. Beyond the blemishes you absorbed, the ones I ignored, it was enough for us to have found the places where we fitted." Who are we if not a pack of confusions and misdirections? Because we are so inadequate in our understanding of what we are, and what is truly important in our lives, we ever so often miss the very opportunity passing by us with a shy smile. Until, through a strange alchemy of circumstances, we don't. And we find something, we find someone. And everything changes. There are a million reasons why something shouldn't work, a relationship should collapse, why an idea should die an immediate death, but something holds us up, gives us the courage of our convictions, a boldness which says "whatever be the consequence". And things happen, in their own messy ways, such that through the chaos emerges a new kind of light. Soft at times, harsh mostly, often accompanied with music, often blinding - but light it is. And through the clutter we see ourselves and our lives with clarity, and we finally recognize what is important to us. And beyond the love we have for another, things, seasons, art, beyond all the lives we find - our love for ourselves. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on fractured relationships finding peace: When Did You Say Living Inside a Wound I Come With Mud Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected] The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Blockbuster Atmosphere 10 Relaxation by Sascha Ende Blockbuster Atmosphere 9 Sadness by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Blockbuster Atmosphere 10 Relaxation Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Blockbuster Atmosphere 9 Sadness Licence: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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