Jagriti Rumi

Beyond The Definitions

Rainbow in my eyes is black and white for another, the dancing fog and a cool breeze for me is like a shapeless wraith for the other, what I see is my reality, to them it is an illusion, then what is the truth?
Glorious joyous memories imbued deep within, a place, a depth from where also rise our poignant ideas and reveal what a suffering life is. Is it explicable to be such a medley of emotions?
If we are This and we abhor That, to such an extent that we swear to reject That and worship This forever and ever, being like a book culled from various intransigent ideas and generally clueless, merging and confusing This That to such a severity that This That becomes one and we altogether start abhorring Them, then where are we heading to?
It can’t be a joke of an ulterior nature because jokes aren’t secretive and it can’t be an earnest tragedy because the ending is not sad, but is blissful, then what is this dramatic life about?
When nothing is certain except change, when change begins it and concludes it and when we too are bound to change, then does it make the definitions fallacious? What do they explain and how can they when everything changes?
All forms will become formless; absolute existence, absolute consciousness, absolute bliss. Like it was and it will be.

There’s a Zebra Who Calls Me Kevin

Literary Nonsense
Hello Kevin!
 
You refuse to follow the crowd and you avowedly disregard the art of punditry, the rancour and anger veiled, disappears when you see it with your inner eye, the contradictions choose not an easy hyperbolic, but a converging simple route and the paradoxes recognise their nature whenever you sit in absolute bliss, and renunciation takes you from the known to unknown, inexplicable, irrefragable, immutable.
 
 
Kevin, I think you can, but you will not act directly. Otherwise, what is the point of my journey?
 
Farewell Kevin. I’ll memorise what you said to me that day, ‘it is a world of mutual help and struggle’. And in my world, I am to engage myself totally.
 
 
The Zebra who calls me Kevin looks just like this one.
Image by Erich Röthlisberger from Pixabay

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Deconstruct What Is Repeated

Introspective Prose

Phenomena Endless Quest 1992 by Paul Jenkins
acrylic on canvas 66 x 74 inches   167.6 x 188 cm
Private collection, Taipei. [Source – pauljenkins.net]

And I almost always forget. Sigh! Not that whether I am going forward or backward, is it the oblate spheroid earth or vertical me, the flowing time or the following life, the dream within dream or the dreamy me… but the funny fact that I have gone through all this before, in different measures, small degrees, little proportions and reflected on quite often.

Still, I simply, pleasingly forget.

Then things repeat, without my knowledge. Lucid ideas shine through and bring sense back to this life. Life! Surely very confident of itself, life is. Just look at the way it is happening.

Living an usherette’s life, I watch my story playing in every other story. A happy wallflower, that’s how confident I am. Dashingly, entering the stage in my mind, I take over.  The glee moment, ideas collected elegantly.

Reality is not a plain horror story, it depends… just like senility is not only for aged, but it depends.

Oh! I mean, let us pick five memories and analyze all very humbly. Then watch a classic black and white movie and read a ‘must-read-before-you-die’ book, all very scrupulously.

Also, travel to a place never been before, pick it directly from your bucket list. Great!

After doing all this, surely vicariously for now, a tremendous clarity falls on the point I have been trying to make.

Life and the happenings, routine feelings and memories, hard hitting failures and mild successes, dreaming-trying-acting-dreaming and in the end, facing the underlying theme vibrant in every direction, almost deafening once observed, right?

No! What! No? Fine, am sorry, then forget it.

But, please, at least, try to deconstruct what is repeated in your life. That is all.

Good luck!


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Illusion is the First of All Pleasures – Voltaire

Ocean eyes, an illusion or a reality…
[Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay]

All that you see, all that is in your mind, all that you have experienced, all that which breathes within you, exists only because you are.

The inevitable change assures gently that illusion is reality and the rest a seeming.

The carousel of life goes on; from the darkest night to the brightest morning, from black and white to the rich spectrum, you pass by. Humming a single note, you pass by.  

The end, the beginning. Remember?  

You created the rainbow as you saw it, you replied to the mountain when you echoed, you walked ahead to make it happen, you looked behind to say goodbye, you stopped to realise and what was beyond came to you with an epiphany.  

Illusion is a friend. Fathomable, it is the reality.


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My Shimpu

Playing hide and seek, living-loving-laughing, collecting stones and moments, she picked a golden one. It flew away but left her hand glowing.
                                                  *                                                                         
Lovely golden-brown hair, a tinge of black and kohl-eyed (you beautiful one), he had a unique habit of watching the birds, following them as far as he could with his eyes (do you know this bird, hmm).
 
She thought he was a dog who wanted to become a bird. Happy by nature, he came rushing madly whenever she whistled (my gugglu-pugglu come here you); he knew it was evening walk time.
 
He loved the walks, the joy in his eyes, running fast like a deer, jumping cutely like a rabbit proved so every single day (run-run-run-yeah).
 
She found him notorious and innocent, funny and silly, crazy and cute, all (you are a clown, yes you are).
 
She can never forget how he once gazed at the moon; mesmerized by the round shape in the sky, wondering, maybe, when and how does it fly… he just kept looking.
 
Caressing him one evening, after the walk, she didn’t know what was to befall (you biscuit lover, don’t go now).
 
If only she had the faintest idea, a frivolous hunch, she would have never let him go outside the house.
 
That night he didn’t return, even when she whistled; she went in the dark, calling out his name, but no sign of him.
 
Early next morning, walking and whistling, asking any and everyone in the village, she wished to see him, see him come rushing towards her from somewhere so that she could hold him tight in her arms and never let him go.
 
Two months have passed and she still wishes the same. Her eyes quietly wait to see him.
 
She watches the birds more closely now. She wishes to fly.
 
My Shimpu (23rd Oct 2014 – 8th Jan 2016)
 

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Meredith and the Green Lake

Beauty of green lake and lotus. Image by Prawny from Pixabay

It was not the depth of the green lake that stopped Meredith, but the quietness.

She threw a stone, sending ripples in the lake, which emphatically made the quietness more evident. This silence scared her, for she could hear her mind talk ceaselessly.

Sitting under a tree, Meredith gazed at the path she came through and saw a tiny bird, green and yellow in colour, happily hopping near it.

Her childhood wish to become a bird made her smile. She took out her diary and wrote –

Like a bird I’ll fly

One day

When the chains will rot

At 7:45 dot

And if the spirit remembers

Out of deep slumber

That I can –

Searching for a word, Meredith happened to glance at the tiny bird that was now hopping near the tree. She then observed that the path through which she came had vanished.

She got up and looked around as if the path would walk back and settle where it was laid before.

Confused, she took a few steps in the hope to find the path. Was the path just in her mind, she thought.

The tiny bird hopped towards her and then flew away. Meredith noticed, to her amazement, that there lay a fresh track – the steps that she took, formed a new path.

Meredith felt her heartbeat increase; she then walked towards the lake. Ponderously she turned and found the fresh path stretched to the point where she was standing.

Amused, she walked ahead, giggled and hopped, only to stop and write in her diary –

That I can choose to either

Follow or make a new path

Meredith picked up a stone, threw it in the lake, and beamed.

It was not only the lotus flowers in the lake but the music it played that left her mesmerized.


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Weighing Up

Locked in a room without a door, I am divided into two. Now red, the walls resent me for something I am unaware about. But the other side of me knows nothing of it. Lost in dancing, this part of me can see a ray of light. A strange light that brightens up whenever I dance.

The red walls and the part sitting rigidly next to it can also see the strange light and me, dancing. Ecstasy shared a blissful piece with me. When did this happen?

When a part of me almost left the room, a part of me refused to move.

I know nothing about the strange light and this nothingness has brought me closer to freedom. But the flustered part of me is stuck and is waiting for an invisible veneer of conflict to accept defeat. And the truth awaits.

Pip’s Umbrella and Hope

Literary Nonsense
Pip with his umbrella.
Image from Pixabay.

Lucille: Nice umbrella!    

Mo: It is Pip’s. (BEAT) Have you been drinking a lot of coffee?

Lucille: I have been advised to.  

Mo: That doctor friend of yours is a nut case.

A pause.  

Lucille: I can’t believe it? Are we living in… this is ridiculous?  

Mo: What is?  

Lucille: Haven’t you read today’s newspaper?  

Mo: Ah! I don’t read newspapers anymore.  

Lucille: Why?  

Mo: For peace, darling.  

Lucille: Peace… yeah, right.  

Mo: Wanna piece of it?  

Lucille: Piece of peace? What are you…  

Mo: The carrot cake… what’s wrong with ya Lucille?  

Lucille: O! Yeah, sure. (EATING THE CAKE) Whatever is happening, it hits everyone… directly or indirectly I mean… it hits everyone.  

Mo: Hmm! This place has the best cakes in the world.  

Lucille: I love it here! (BEAT) Is there any hope?  

Mo: Hope? Hmm… there is always some hope… that’s what is dragging us, you know, ya.  

Lucille: Dragging us you say…  

Mo: Of course! I mean come on, where is “hope” leaving for? It’s not in any rush like us, I… I hope. Gosh! (BEAT) I feel a bit eerie today, I don’t know why.  

Lucille: No really? No, it’s lovely today.


The grey weather outside changes into black and the wild dancing winds start to pour heavy rain, the clouds roar loudly declaring that they too have read the sad newspaper. Lightning hits a tree and its huge branch breaks and falls.


Mo: Storm’s here. Is it still lovely for you? Lucille!  

Lucille: What? Hm? Yeah! But listen, where did you park the car?  

Mo: Why? Under the tree. But why?  

Lucille: Now it is literally under the tree, crushed I suppose.  

Mo: What! (GETS UP) O, no!  

Lucille: Wait, try some strong coffee, you’ll feel better and hopeful.  

Mo: Wa… Lucille, you’re crazy!

Mo leaves hurriedly.  

Lucille: Mo! Pip’s umbrella!! (PAUSE) I think I hit a nerve there… but black coffee works wonders… I can’t do without it… especially after reading the newspaper.


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Forgotten Memory

I live in a forgotten memory state most of the times, walking along the sun and the moon, day and night. Only rarely I stop to relish Time as I understand it, as I feel it and as it is. The permanence once broken, gazing at Time, I am left utterly surprised. Astonished, I either laugh or cry. Occasionally I question it, avoiding the immediate answer.
Everything’s a repeat with a mild treasure of experience here and pieces of happy love there. But what is with the definite tad of magic in each poor-mediocre-rich life? I say this magic is responsible for breaking the humdrum existence. Routine, shallow journey suddenly becomes grandiose, miraculous and whatnot.
Apart from the universe-wide-famous constant change, there is another true power – to forget or not to forget. And I choose not to forget, but I’ll need to remind myself to remember it. Meanwhile, I have the sun and the moon and I am walking along, day and night.
Down To The Cove In Moonlight by Phil Whiting

Forgotten Memory

I live in a forgotten memory state most of the times, walking along the sun and the moon, day and night. Only rarely I stop to relish Time as I understand it, as I feel it and as it is. The permanence once broken, gazing at Time, I am left utterly surprised. Astonished, I either laugh or cry. Occasionally I question it, avoiding the immediate answer.
Everything’s a repeat with a mild treasure of experience here and pieces of happy love there. But what is with the definite tad of magic in each poor-mediocre-rich life? I say this magic is responsible for breaking the humdrum existence. Routine, shallow journey suddenly becomes grandiose, miraculous and whatnot.
Apart from the universe-wide-famous constant change, there is another true power – to forget or not to forget. And I choose not to forget, but I’ll need to remind myself to remember it. Meanwhile, I have the sun and the moon and I am walking along, day and night.
Down To The Cove In Moonlight by Phil Whiting