Ordinary Man

Can you dig it.
My meat is real.
My hands - how they move
balanced like lithe demons
My hair - so twined & writhing
The skin of my face - pinch the cheeks
My flaming sword tongue
spraying verbal fire-flys
I'm real.
I'm human
But I'm not an ordinary man
No No No

The Politics of ecstasy are real
Can't you feel them working
thru you
Turning night into day
Mixing sun with the sea.

Welcoming Requiem

Come
for all the world lies
hushed & fallen
green ships dangle
on the surface of
Ocean, & sky-birds
glide smugly among
the planes
Gaunt crippled houses
Strangle the cliffs
In the East, in the cities
a hum of life
begins, now come

Counter To That(ode to the south)

I am troubled
Immeasurably
By your eyes

I am struck
By the feather
of your soft
Reply

The sound of glass
Speaks quick
Disdain

And conceals
What your eyes fight
To explain

Power

I can make the earth stop in
it's tracks. I made the
blue cars go away.

I can make myself invisible or small.
I can become gigantic & reach the
farthest things. I can change
the course of nature.
I can place myself anywhere in
space or time.
I can summon the dead.
I can perceive events on other worlds,
in my deepest inner mind,
& in the minds of others.

I can

I am

I am a guide to the Labyrinth

Monarch of the protean towers
on this cool stone patio
above the iron mist
sunk in its own waste
breathing its own breath

Singing,Running,Knowing

Shrill demented sparrows bard

The sun into being. They rule

dawn's Kingdom. The cars -

a rising chorus - Then

workmen's songs & hammers

The children of the schoolyard,

a hundred high voices,

complete the orchestration

An appearance of the devil

on a Venice canal.

Running, I saw a Satan

or Satyr, moving beside me

a fleshy shadow

of my secret mind. Running,

Knowing.

Seraph-Like Death

He sat there like a space vehicle,waiting for the countdown to cease and then to blast off from where it had been stationed.His eyes were fixed on the book titled "Micro Economics".This book was where his mind sought refuge from the tritest of subjects and in direst of times-the stupor after a long twenty minutes of "numerical bombardment" on itself-he wished the self-imposed,cilice like torture flushed out all his sins from his soul-but there it was,literally,right under his nose,repelling its beneficiary like a whore.The subject,the book was as pretty as ever,it turned him on this time like ever,but the fact that it had been used by him far too often to satisfy his lustful desire to do something interesting,forced him to force it out of his head.He said to himself 'practice makes the act boring' and brought a crooked smile to his light brown eyes,merely by concoction-not because it was a fake smile,because he felt too lazy to stress few 100 muscles on his face in the process.This smile never failed to embezzle the love of the prettiest girls in school,the kind of smile that was used to turn them all down after a period which he liked to call "probational experimentation",the kind of smile which abetted dextrous escape from his teachers' wrath.a simple,subversive,sophisticated smile.His bored eyes craved electrocution and the unsavoury rejuvenation which lunatics tasted after a 'shock treatment'.He liked paradoxes and wanted to reach this momentary Nirvana the simplest way,which he learned he could succeed in by allowing his eyes a vision which is placid yet powerful,plain but profound,senseless but sensible,rock but POP.He opened his windows to the darkness of his orchard and learned why night is a universal solvent.A blend of life and death hit his tympanum,and later stimulated his brain.The frogs sang like a bunch of wannabe vocalists and the crickets clearly seemed to dislike the wannabes.The roar of a chainsaw hitting some lumber,whinged and worked as an anticlimax to each of the frogs' verses.For the first time,he knew what death sounded like,like the sound of an estranged timber hitting the earth,like the ripping sound of the chainsaw.As the moist breeze kissed his cheeks,he contemplated the darkness and the ecology dissolved in it.Was that the darkness of ignorance?-The cacophonous symphony of life and death sounded more like a farrago and not a homogeneous blend.He felt that the blackness of the orchard and the apparent nothingness forced him to ignore the speechless fauna and the silent flora-was that darkness a shield?-the darkness did,to certain extend,make the common preys invulnerable to the hunters-was that the darkness of death-contrary to that previous thought,there was some food-cycle-related ingestion dynamics going on out there.The last thought eliminated his qualms about this contemplation as it threw light on HIM.was that the darkness of life?the nothingness and meaninglessness of life?the futility in ruminating unpalatable and defecated subjects? he fixed earphones that extended from his mp3 player and heard "OMERTA" playing through his mind,body,heart and soul.DEATH metal.he thought.

JOGA BONITO

"football does not build character,it eliminates the weak"

Some call it soccer,some call it fussball,he(Edson Arantes Do Nacimento) called it JOGA BONITO.To few it is bunkum,a mere game.To few others its RELIGION,LOVe and all those good things crammed in a beautiful sport concept-"FOOTBALL/SOCCER".The roots of the concept,the place of origin is unknown,though modern Association football was codified in the year 1863 in England.Now,the 'phenomenon',the 'Love' is worldwide and it is 'general knowledge' that it befits the phrase "the world's favourite game".The effect it can have on the players is magical.To them,the field is a ballroom,the ball,the "belle of the ball",the most sought after and the most beautiful girl.The strikers,the midfielders,the defenders,the goalkeepers,invariably lose themselves in the high that it gets them for a regulation time of 90minutes.Intoxicated,inebriated,thier feet dance with the 'belle' and to the tune of their crave for victory.The only thing that could get Diego Maradonna high (apart from Marijuana) was this,The only sport which has the high-est potential to unite people is this(soccer cuts across class,religion and knows no boundaries).To the players-there's a goal,there's a ball and its success when the ball hits the back of the net of the goal.

'Moshing' is a term synonymous to rock concerts.Audience at Live Concerts aggressively push or slam into each other in an area in front of the stage called a 'mosh-pit'.A soccer match is very much like a Rock concert in this sense,only in its case players are the band members,their soccer it's music and the gallery,the 'mosh-pit'.The sheer popularity of soccer around the world and hooliganism are to be blamed for the major disaster that can befall soccer matches.Soccer attracts people like moth to flame.The moths(read people) get intoxicated by it and indulge in verbal warfare,which is only a prologue to brutal 'physics' that follow.The 1984 Heysel Stadium disaster is an epitome of this malaise.The tragedy goes hence-Liverpool won the cup against Roma on penalties.After the game,Roma fans assaulted Liverpool fans.It was so bad that Liverpool fans going back to their hotels required police protection.Such intensity and problems such as these arising out of the same are not foreign to football,but these are inevitable in a sport like football,where the fans dont just watch it for leisure but worship the game!.

It is a shame that a country like ours,which is very much in the silk route of modern Globalised world,has insulated itself from the world's most popular sport.The Denizens of India 'suffer' from an "axiomatic assumption" that Cricket is a better game(some think it's the best),and is unwilling to accept that soccer is, in fact,a much shorter,sweeter,simpler and beautiful sport.Ironically,these 'chauvinists' have rarely,even watched a game of soccer!.It is hence,no surprise that the robust,developing and the 'most promising' country in the world is still a haven for prejudices such as patriarchy,casteism,communalism et al.The football cognoscenti finds it surprising that a diverse country like India,with a large population and plural ethnicity finds it hard to form a professional team which can break into the top 100 in the FIFA world ranking.Probably,they would not be so astounded if they come to know about the REAL India,an India where people are ardent cricket fans,an India where very little has been done to spread awareness/beauty of the game and therefore finds it impossible to tap the latent talent,the Indian mind which is prejudiced to the brim and is blinkering.All India Football Federation has a trophy case with a 'silverware' tally of zero.Bhaichung Bhutia,Sunil Chettri,Pappachan Pradeep,Climax Lawrence are less known people in India (members of the Indian Football team)whereas Sachin Tendulkar,Dhoni,Dravid are demi-gods.The reasons for this ineptitude and less-familiarity of the team are simple,comprehendable-when the cricket officials spend whopping amounts for the maintenance and building of stadiums(BCCI spent around$120 million on a new stadium in Rajasthan),their football counterparts are reluctant to spend even on very basic football infrastructure,skewed Indian minds (cricket-only people) and inability to recognise and tap latent 'footy' talent.Compare all this to the western scenario where coaches vist the remotest areas in search of Football talent(Latin America),where the government takes initiative to set up soccer schools (England).One could argue that the AIFF lacks funds,but hey! traveling to remote areas in search of talent requires only job-sincerity and commitment to the job,not much money.Once,talent has been efficiently tapped and atleast one soccer-training facitlity,set-up,the team tastes victory,funds grow,players improve.This will inturn encourage people to aspire for a place in the team and thereby sow the seeds for the growth of soccer in INDIA.when I lament that soccer has failed to find a place in the hearts of Indian sport-aficianados and would find it difficult to do the same in future,it is not maudlin,its real.

There is no greater game than soccer that exemplifies team spirit,along with skill,stamina,persistence and endurance.This could be a reason to soccer's improving popularity in India.More people have started playing soccer in India.Soccer teams have started becoming more popular amongst the young polulation.Cricket indeed has earned his position in the hearts of the Indian people,but for the 'tree of soccer' to grow in India and spread its branches,it is a sine qua non that Indians give it a status atleast equivalent to it.Every sport is a discipline and to relegate its status by any means is crime.Cricket is a discipline and so is soccer.

Paradoxically,Soccer's 'arch-adversary' in India, finds itself powerless,enervated in front of the sport-colossus,almost like Superman exposed to KRYPTONITE.Soccer is undisputedly one of the richest sports in the world and comprise the richest sports teams in the world(Manchester United,Real Madrid etc.).There are hundreds of International teams,thousands of professional players and miliions of rookies who play soccer.It is also impossible that a sport like cricket,(less followed,less loved worldwide) will purloin this status from 'Futbol'.I belong to that exiguous population of soccer-lovers in India.Soccer,therefore is one of those raison detre's' to me.There is a lacuna in brand "global India",this can be filled only by the inception of soccer in India.It is encouraging,though,to see a 'bullish' trend in the numbers of soccer-lovers in India and wise defectors (cricket to soccer) among the Indian Population.AFC challengers cup trophy 2008 found it's place in the hitherto-null trophy case of AIFF.This has provided a fillip to the mission of spreading 'SOccer LovE'.Some business giants have also joined the AIFF in funding district and state level tournaments,which is a decentralisation strategy for the familiarising of soccer.I stand as a pars pro toto of the soccer cognoscenti,soccer loving population and wish that some force would bring the popularity of the game up in future so that we wouldnt have to shamefully hang our heads in pique when someone says "hey!the Indian national soccer team are a bunch of rookies".i wish that someday we can hold our heads high and boldly shout "India's is the best soccer team!".I believe "YES WE CAN!".