Raag Megh-Malhaar

A sudden torrential innerburst, mind numbing

And tearful in extent. What is it? Where in 

Natures bountiful mysteries does this figure?

Overflowing inner joy but by no means peaceful,

Like a matrimony of Ghalib's pain with the joys

Of the rain!

A welcome yet unsure change between hazy days of

Self yielding grey. What mist, what silence, what

Rhythm brings about this cataclysm of overwhelming

Heaviness in the throat, skipped beats in the heart

And a rush of ecstacy in my blood? A sense of such

Seductive anticipation..

A timeless time on the clocks that remains unseen

Just so the soul can enjoy these fleeting yet strong

Lapses of unhindered selfless freedom. Inward collages

Of crashing waterfalls, stubborn rivers, golden fields

Of wheat and green valleys of flowers. The focus of a

Tiger and the suspense of a deer. Oh what is it?

This resonanting tune of the flute, the naughty string

Games of a sitar, the push of the tabla beats and the

Binding sorrow of the piano- the outburst in the inner!

Then, when I open my eyes, harness my senses ready to 

Plunge in the senseless mediocrity does my mind answer-

It's the raag Megh-Malhaar!

© Malyaban Lahiri

A Malady

The proverbial all pervading calm and inner peace,

Stability is what we choose to call it- to earn greens,

To eat them, to share it or to control it. So escapable

Yet, always avoided. The veil of contentment ever

So fallible.

Moving from thatched roofs to brick and mortar,

Crawling from unleavened bread to croissant and

From the hard cold ground to the fluffy bed of roses-

We cry, we try, we fall and we die, but then there's 

This small moment of rise.

Unseen, often unfelt, unknown and yet mildly present.

The only pure drop of human essence that is- but a drop;

Yet, if embraced it presents enlightened apes with wings to

Soar beyond the cutlery and the bed and diamonds and

Roofs. Its there but never yet...

Why do I the naive poet type my verses on this machine?

Why does the rickshaw puller not opt to buy a higher 

Mechanism of sustenance? Why do you think of conquering

The space while the same increases in light years between us?

Where is that drop? That essence of intended genetics?

Or maybe intended is what we make of it. Individual freedom

And the consequent 'progress' or digress. A place where graffiti

Almost topples the la politica and, deaths of millions and voices

Of the troubled are channeled like the AM frequency. A drop to

Each one of you dear mortals!

Breathing free sans the fear of someone at the door, sleeping

In peace sans the unrest within, listening to the wind without

A play button to press and walking the muddied path without

The cacophony of horns. Some of the things we inherently want

When the body is born naked.

Then? We grow up and down and up again like a spiral. A 

Careful reduction of the equation that wasnt meant to be a

Circumspect effort. I equals to human so you equal to?

Oh wait! There's a square root on top... Tough luck child.

That drop is there somewhere but we are reduced.

We grow up but never grow back!

 © Malyaban Lahiri