Pandemic -2020

In the time of Pandemic

We discovered the world within our walls

We looked into the mirror and said hello

To the stranger within…

Good relationships became the currency

For purchase of all things invaluable

Our fingers and thumbs had no voice

To compete with the comforting sound

Of a hello on the phone…

Husbands whose fingers flew over the keyboard

Hung laundry on the washing line

While getting to know the child

They last saw as a baby in the crib…

Cooking became a pastime of instant gratification

As wives sampled delicious recipes

Dredged from their mother’s and grandma’s cookbooks…

Sons long silent and indifferent daughters

Re-discovered parents relegated by the lure of social media….

Social distancing repaired the fissures

Deeply embed in the family fabric

And brought us closer while renewing bonds…

The earth healed and birdsong sounded louder

In the deafening silence of crippled industries…

The oxygen in the air outside increased

As the disease kept us prisoners in a world

We had forgotten existed

Within the four walls of our home…

Nimmou Nilakantan

CORONA KUCH

Zindagi mein kuch na kuch mushkil hona
Ab aa gaya yeh bhigadna Corona
Yeh samay heh bilkul na rona
Par zaroor hath ko teek se dhona!

Aur bacchon, buddai ma baap ko telephona
Chod do ab Facebook ka anjaana
Yeh heh mausam ek dum suhaana
Ghar mein bet kar khana pakhana!

Suno radio peh achhe gaana
T.V mein dekho nachna manana
Pustak pado aur jo bhi lana
Bahar intezar heh kumbhakth Corona!

Bhaghwan se hath jod kar na poochna
Kyon bheja yeh rog ka samna karna
Uttar aayega unse “Beta samajna,
Hum sab ek hain, dikhaya yeh Corona….”

Nimmou Nilakantan

OUR CHILDREN

OUR CHILDREN

Our children are not our future. They are our past and present but not our future. A wonderful loving past and a present of happiness, fun and sharing but a bygone era is a bygone era – let it go…

 If you are looking for love in your old age then grandchildren seem like the second chance. Unfortunately, with all of us living to an overripe old age that love too has finite possibilities – with each passing year the grandparent has less relevance. And with a rival as omnipotent and omnipresent as technology- there is no competition to claim their attention or time. Your grandchild would any day choose the latest I-Phone over his grandparent. And granddaughters, though more expressive and empathetic – one phone call from her bestie and you are as good as ashes scattered like memories.

So, which love holds true and steadfast till the end of our life? Spousal love, if you are blessed to be in a true union of souls, is a good prize but it is the consolation prize and subject to both of you living the same duration of time. Also, your spouse comes with his/her own baggage and as you grow older you can barely lift your own! Sharing is all very well but like a three legged race you are best balanced when you are on your own two feet.

The ultimate prize is- “Self-Love”. For centuries our philosophers, poets, visionaries and Saints have gone blue in the face trying to din this fact into our numb skulls. From Buddha to Gibran, Rumi to Vivekananda – the essential message is the same – all love comes from within. Love yourself and the world is a better place. But like the magpie that covets another’s nest our happiness is based on pursuit – usually of the unattainable or in today’s world – the unavailable!

Just as mountain climbers feel that Everest exists to be climbed and conquered, we have made it our life’s mission to be loved and cherished by others. The day we stop looking for that elusive feeling of being affirmed and accept that contentment and love resides within us that is the day our flame shines brightest till our last breath blows it out…

Nimmou Nilakantan  

THE BAROMETER OF HAPPINESS

THE BAROMETER OF HAPPINESS

It has to be set within ourselves – it cannot record happiness based on the conditions outside. Setting our happiness based on an objective like ‘World Peace’ works only as beauty pageant rhetoric. That is why so many of us flounder in misery. Our happiness is conditional and the condition is an impossible or improbable criteria. 

“If only my husband were more communicative”, “My children more obedient”, “My waist thinner”, “My family more supportive”, “The oceans plastic free”, “The Amazon would stop burning” – you see how this list for our happiness grows? Like a virulent bacteria it multiplies our unhappiness and like the Ebola virus it mutates into the incurable. From being unhappy with your spouse to the plastic in the ocean is just one small leap for that mutant gene of dissatisfaction…

Chuck out that external barometer that has unreasonable parameters to record contentment – a slimmer waist, a fatter bank balance, a communicative partner, plenty of non-Whatsapp friends, lustrous hair… Record nothing. Everything turns to dust (now that would be a household mantra to escape that chore) so why bother about anything but this moment?

Right here, right now, this is a good day. Just live it. And that thing called happiness? It cannot be measured – it is a variable. And, like all variables it is based on one constant – your happiness lies within you.

Now go find your bliss….

Nimmou Nilakantan  

beware

BEWARE…

The Lonely Person

Who intrudes into your life

And taints every moment of happiness

With an undercurrent of guilt…

Whose words paint a picture

That smudges your canvas

Of colour

With dark edges of black

And shadows that cast a pall….

Those words that have an undercurrent

Whose tow drags you deeper

Into the ocean of despair

And your spirit loses sight of the shore

And you are cast adrift…

Beware…

Of being held hostage

Of words that bind you deeper

The snare that imprisons the bird

Whose wings once are clipped

Can never fly again….

Beware…

Of sharing dreams and hope

With a life that is set in stone

Unchanging, unmoving, unbroken

But sits heavy on your heart

Which beats trapped in another realm

Not in your consciousness…

Fly free, untethered

Your soul cannot be captured

The mirror can hold only one reflection

Of the truth which governs your life

And yours alone….

Nimmou Nilakantan

July 28^th 2019

EMOTI-CONS!

We humans get labels right – sometimes! Emoticons – now that just nails it for an emotion which is a con. Regardless of what you really think or feel you can choose an emotion with a press of a button. The smiley face is the biggest con in our digital communication. Go back to the natural world -have you ever seen a snarling, growling dog with a wagging tail?

 This is what these emojis/emoticons have done to communication. It is so easy to overlay the nasty with a smiling emoji. “Don’t like what you did pal”, (smiley face) “Your attitude sucks”, (smiley face )and somehow no offence is taken though it is given! 

Confusion has overlaid communication. In Hindi it is called ‘Meethi Churri’ (Sweet knife) You stick it in with a sweet smile. Nice and nasty have amalgamated or rather emoji’d into the smiley face at the end of a statement. 

The biggest fraud is when a person’s texts are full of emoji’s and thumbs up and other inane positive affirmations. The reality you meet is a sourpuss who never smiles in face to face conversations and is full of negativity. Virtual reality? True Lies? Choose your fantasy….

Nimmou Nilakantan