We The Generation

When net-working on the net didn’t make sense
‘Catching up’ was possible without a mobile
Video parlours existed
And Bollywood was the only style
When even as teenagers we were quite innocent.

Hanging out for drinks at a plush joint
Still manages to thrill
Coz back then
Beers were just a furtive drill
And curfew at home indeed had a point.

Yup! We were not ‘connected’ 24X7
And yes, the cable was a revolution
We were the ones who heralded Coke
And got trapped in a strange juxtaposition
BPOs, Godhara, India Inc. and 9/11.

The generation grapples with its contradictions-
The need to be ‘living in’
And shaadi dot com profiles
Going through parental screenings;
Between the Bhagvad Geeta
and consumer addictions
We the first-borns of globalization.

Don't tell me how to live

Don’t speak to me of accomplishments
Or moving on with the same gusto.
I am just hanging in there
Burning the debris of sentiments
Scribbling a new manifesto.

It’s been a crazy year
And a crazier one before that.
It takes time to resurrect
Time to assimilate,
The world isn’t flat.

Don’t speak to me of love
Or the possibility even
There was a time for dreams
A time, when I was really driven.
The candle light has lost its sheen
And ‘foolish twice’ is not forgiven.

I am no Cinderella lost to cynicism
Just a woman trying not to lose.
Don’t tell me ‘how to’ live
Coz when it comes to survival
You don’t get to choose.

Ode To Useless Presentations

An opiated silence rushes
Through the alleys of brain
Diffusing the endless drones
To a comfortable torpor.

Through glazed eyes
I see intelligible squiggles
Interlacing the illuminated bed
Created by the projector.
Puddles of ludicrous raphsodies
Weave inside the skull-
Now a quagmire of absurdity.

Onerous doodles on the notepad
Attempt to rejoin the erudite whispers
Failing utterly
Denting the superego.
Id reigns the cacophony
Beckoning Morpheus
Until…
A sharp nudge dislodges slumber
Dragging conscious
Back to the listless ennui of presentations!