Democracy and Me quin
Thanks a lot.....glad u liked this

Mosquito Music Thanks Nikhat. Glad my poem brought back pleasant memories

Targeted Taxi Drivers Thanks quin....glad u r back and have taken your comments sincerely, just as u have given them. Pl write again for us all....I like yr work.
All the best

Inside you Thanks, neembu.
A good lesson to all us aspiring poets that less can sometimes be more....

Manufacturing a Fig Leaf of Democracy in Pakistan And now Zardari is threatening that civil war will take over if the elections are rigged.....where will all this end?

Sunset at Uluwatu Bali...a place I have always wanted to visit and will do so one day.
I too, like you,soaked up tales from the epics as a child with unquestioning interest till reason took over and made a skeptic of me, deriding the mythological films where rays of granted wishes streamed down from obliging Gods in garish costumes and make-up.
But reason does settle down and a thirst for out-of-this world knowledge comes back like a returning tide and one rediscovers many things and understands a lot more, even if one cannot accept usual perceptions....
so happy discovering to you and Anjali!!

Targeted Taxi Drivers You have brought out the different aspects, chittagong. But the clincher is:

"Hence, some of Raj Thackeray’s concerns are right, but he has voiced them wrongly."
If he really wanted to do something it would not just be at the level of beating up a few poor people.

Targeted Taxi Drivers Re: # 1
Absolutely chittagong.
I am a nonmaharashtrian living in Maharashtra and have found them to be very sincere friends, very up front and decent.No false insincere friendly noises and hatred behind a veil. I would love to learn the language and am about to start conversation classes to learn to speak Marathi properly, which I can understand very well.Most Mumbaikers are down to earth and suffer and curse just as much when any trouble is stirred up.

I Thought I Heard You Laughing Kiran
Lovely musings...next time don't run away!! every glance of this kind does not lead to romance. Sometimes, great friendships are formed; every man-woman thing is not necessarily a one way groove going only to one kind of relationship, whatever cynics may say....

Bean Bag What a marvellous lead-up...you had me wondering all along as I read downwards through your lines as to where the humble bean bag in your title came into the emotinal life-picture you were painting verbally....well done.

A Life Created Raghav,
Nice...such few words and so much said......hope always exists in even the bleakest moments.

Ashes in the River Re: # 1
Yes, Ejazharoon.
Water is such an important and powerful element, basic to us all and rivers are such wonderful symbols of life-giving water and death-dealing floods.So many great civilizations lived and died and lived again on river banks, too.
Cheers.

Ashes in the River Re: # 2
Thank you for the appreciation. The non-brahmin was mentioned specifically because I had expected one and was quite amazed that he was not.......merely an observation, like all the other things I noticed even while focusing on the rituals. As you can see I, have not carried it further or made an issue of it.

Hope of Despair Beautiful poem, drenched in sadness and the desperation of despair.
Thanks Mutaal, and keep 'em coming!!

Courage in a Time of Chaos BENAZIR BRUTALLY ASSASSINATED, screaming headlines, babbling reporters, various "close friends" opinionating in interviews, public shock, rage, grief, confusion, chaos, burning buildings and smashed cars....same scenario repeating itself when an entrenched leader goes down. One has to acknowledge her raw courage in returning for the elections in the face of sure threats and danger, whatever the reasons behind that.
Or did she have the mind set of a soldier in a war who has to keep going forward by telling himself "it won't happen to me, the bullets will get those around me but not me," till the final moment when the bull/shell/whatever with his name on it takes him down???
After the emotions, good, bad, indifferent, have poured out she will be a part of history and will be judged for what she did when she lead, rather than by the tragic nature of her death.That will be the epitaph for Benazir, just as it is for anybody who lead any country's people.

The Missing Pakistanis Dear Kashkin,
Like the way in which beautiful(?) actresses are asked,
"Madam, Apke Khubsoorathi ka raaz kya hai?", I am curious to know what is the secret of so many of your poems being published one after the other (3 right now on the home page itself) in rapid succession?
Lucky you!!