Intolerance to differences

AMU professor suspended for being homosexual, reads a headline in Times of India's Feb 18, 2009 paper. It's shocking. But what's more shocking is the manner in which S.R Siras's sexual preferences were 'exposed'.
The professor, who was due for retirement, was reportedly caught on camera having consensual sex with a rickshaw puller in his house on the campus. And this whole feat was achieved by his students, in collusion with a local television channel. At least, the report in one parts says the students engineered the thing and another part says a local channel was involved.
What is it that makes us so narrow-minded and intolerant? Students, who are supposed to be enlightened by education and open to ideas, go to the length of entering somebody's private space and disrobing him in public.
How does it matter what somebody does behind closed doors as long as it not something that hurts another? Are we trying to play moral cop for all the wrong things? It's understandable if he was harassing any of his students for sexual favours or indulging in 'gross misconduct (the ground on which he was suspended) in the college.
But this! Is shocking to say the least.

The winter just doesn't seem to be keen on leaving Delhi this time. Which is well. It allows me the freedom to wake up late and still go for a walk without huffing and puffing and roasting in the sun. Had a lovely morning walk today, felt close to nature and to myself. So is nature my second nature? Watever!

Valentine's Day

Memories come back to the canvas of the mind
A red rose here,
A kiss there,
A forgotten fort
A promise long broken
Stored away
To be revived by tears of helplessness and loss
In some distant summer in some distant future

Some photographs that will never yellow with age
But will be corrupted by unnamed viruses
Some letters that inked thoughts of a tomorrow together
That made way for swifter emails that will never compensate
Some cards that still lie in recesses left untouched
Awaiting their resurrection in some future shared with another

A phone call
Songs recorded with an earnestness long gone
A shared lunch
Holding hands, exploring life, ideas and more
Dark stormy nights
Stormier days
Wind in the air
Tears down the cheeks
An open sky
Arrows of hurt
A broken mast
A rudderless ship
A jab in the heart
A love lost.

Another Day
A breezy night
A moonless sky
A hungry hug
A peck on the cheek
Warm sunshine
Fresh blades of grass
A jog in the park
A friendly lick
Budding hope
Everlasting faith
A love heals.

Happy Valentine's Day

A gift

I feel the sunshine caress my face
I know he belongs to the human race
But this ray that plays with my eyes
Teases me, flirts with me and rejuvenates me
Is mine alone.

To warm me when my heart is cold
To dry the tears my heart can't hold
To lift me when my spirit falls
To give me hope when world seems false
He's mine alone.

And try as I might, logic fails.
A sense of ownership prevails.
A part of the sun is mine alone
And I can't part with this comfort zone
No matter how much I try.

Withering away like the leaves in winter
The dry air brushes across
Taking strands of memories,
Spring waits to see how long will winter continue
Something snaps.
A twig beneath my foot,
Decayed, let not yet ready to die
It registers its protest
A stray leaf falls off a branch
Like a stray thought that wandered into my mind
Or a purposeless game in the journey of life

There was a mad beggar on the road that day. He sat thinking that his left hand was trying to gain precedence over his right hand. To prevent it from becoming stronger, he rolled his left hand into a fist and hit the brick wall he was leaning against. Not only did his comfort get disturbed, his left hand was also broken. Then he kept punching the wall, so that the left hand did not heal and did not become stronger than the right. He did not pause to think that he should just let it heal while the right hand became stronger without challenge. He did not pause to think if a balance could be achieved between the two hands or not. He just went on punching, allowing the blood to stain the wall, and scar it for life.

Love. It seems to be an emotion that brims over when everything is going my way, or is going drastically wrong. But what happens midway?

I've always thought that everything in life, including love, is about give and take. Everything is a simple mathematical equation. You give me attention, comfort and caring, I respond with love. I thought it works that way, at least it made sense that way rationally.

But sometimes, love overwhelms, even when you want it to lie low, when rationally it should be exiled from your heart. It comes and soothes you when people you love fail to understand you, when you fail to explain yourself to them.

It's not conditional. It's not bound by something I get in return. How else do so many people who I have failed in many ways continue to love me despite my shortcomings? How else do I continue to love so many people I fail to communicate with in one way or the other?

Ya, I guess, I was wrong. Love is more than a mathematical equation. It's more than chemistry. Whatever it is, I'm glad it's there and glad it keeps the world going when faith falls short.