Surrender

All the fanatics,

and all their fantasies.

Never swallow the pride,

nor follow any rules.

Hollow are their minds,

but never act like fools.

Because they never surrender.

Never surrender to be

the slaves of the past,

nor masters of tomorrow.

Because they do not know

to grieve the loss,

nor they know to heave

a sigh of relief.

Feeble is their belief of war,

because they do not know

what they’re fighting for.

They will never win,

nor they will kill

the enemies.

Because they do not know

how it feels to bleed

on the battlefield.

They do not know to yield,

nor to lead.

Because they do not know

what surrender means.

To those who never lived,

nor loved a soul.

Giving up was never their trait.

Emotions weren’t that great.

And, they accepted their fate.

Like a poem never surrendered

to the prose.

Used brevity like a rose,

stories too never surrendered

to rainbows.

Wanderer

I am here,

thinking

of escaping

the mundane.

I must be insane

to even think

of a life beyond deadlines.

My mind - a wanderer,

reminds me always.

Do something else.

You’ve earned your laurels.

Let your mind rest.

Calm that beast.

Do that at least

and begin the conquest.

So speaks my mind.

So kind

of it to let me be.

It finally came to a halt.

“I’ll finally have my single malt”, I wondered

and began to wander.

My feet started to speak.

“Where’s the bloody peak?”

“How high is the mountain?”

“Why am I this weak?”

I didn’t have an answer.

I didn’t have any answers.

I was hunting for feats

and my feet had turned fragile.

“How will you wander now?”

“I can see the moon”, said the eyes.

“I can even dream.

when you can’t even scream.”

The eyes were confident,

full of love.

“Get ready for ascent”,

the eyes powered the feet,

and so the wanderer was reborn

from his own defeat.

God is a delay

I’ve prayed for You,

for quite some time now.

Deliver your blessings.

Yes, I’ve gotten aggressive.

I’ve gotten impatient.

Because You made me

a mortal, a human,

a dreamer.

I am here now,

demanding You

my dreams.

I cannot live long, to watch

my apocalypse.

I am here now,

challenging Your design

of my unfathomable mind.

There must be some glitch

in Your perfect universe.

The prayers must have been

lost in transit.

Fill the empty space with some air.

Spread love everywhere.

The message isn’t meant to die

in the letter.

It would be better,

if You were Speed,

and blessed me with Godspeed.

But, here I am,

waiting for You,

to show me the way.

What’s the delay?

Am I not loud enough?

Am I not clear enough?

Am I not yet ready for Your deliverance?

Speak with me. You haven’t bestowed

me with superpowers.

I am super-normal. I do not understand

invisible supers and subtitles of life.

Please listen to my heartbeat.

It’s wearing off with excessive hope

that You have named as “Optimism”.

It’s not even a religion like Buddhism.

Give me answers, or give me peace.

The world doesn’t take my word,

as it is.

God... is indeed a delay.

Now it’s time to save the day.

A Stone Collector gone rogue!

People are going bonkers over the rumours of a foreign man’s obsession with collecting stones for a living. For a brief period of time, people actually believed that this man was from Kashmir and was doing this as his hobby of stone-pelting in Pakistan occupied Kashmir region. Some even believed this guy is an ex-surgeon. He had an uncommon fetish for kidney stones and dissected his patients beyond medical limits. Here’s what they believe to be true –

In search of some of the weirdest stones, this madman has travelled to places unknown. He has a habit of putting those stones in his shiny glove and bullies good people. It’s just in the recent past that the timeline has had some glitches and he’s facing serious issues collecting them. Authorities have reported that the missing stone, popularly known as The Rock, has moved into a different universe altogether where it has gained the abilities to transform itself from a pebble to a boulder just by uttering one word. The Russo Brothers have also confirmed that their upcoming movie is not a biopic of an overly obsessed gigantic purple-blooded stone-collector.

Avengers: Infinity War might seem like one such movie. But, it’s not. It is a normal movie with some of the people whose contracts are overdue and the actors are fed up of playing the same characters, bulking themselves up every year for the past 10 years. Though there have been three versions of The Angry Big Green Guy, there’s still hope for the youngest member of Team Avengers. This time he seems to be confident about successfully featuring in a trilogy of his own franchise. But, there are speculations that Infinity War might be his last movie as this would be his third cameo (complete trilogy). Similar speculations have been made about the King of Wakanda. However, the studio doesn’t feel like letting go of any of its Chris characters and are hoping to get more of them in coming days. There are even rumours that Chris Rock would be that guy who would fulfill all the requirements of the studio. He can be the missing stone and the addition to Kevin’s “Chris Collection” as well.

People are unable to contain the excitement to see the stone-collector going rogue and beating up each and every character in the MCU. In some parts of the country, people are smoking a huge amount of marijuana and see if the stone-collector comes to them. They seem to miss the point – “He’s a stone-collector. Not stoner-collector”. The movie releases on April 27^th, 2018. It seems like they have anticipated such insanity and decided to rename the sequel of the movie as - Avengers: Insanity Wars.

No Sympathy Only Violence

Surviving a storm in the ocean,

or the darkness of the universe.

Here’s a verse, to express an emotion.

One that breaks a heart,

one that leaves a scar.

It’s a dying star

that becomes a wish.

I wish I saw one today.

Day

It shines, it shows,

it reveals the way.

A way out for

tears that break down,

in your empty lap.

A smile that’s somewhere lost,

in the communication gap.

It’s all melancholy.

Nothing holy.

It’s a cruel world and you stand there.

All alone, gazing at the sun,

with your naked eye.

It shows no mercy, no sympathy.

No matter you are human or not.

No matter you are happy or not.

No matter you are alive or not.

The sunshine hits you hard,

deep within.

Your soul craves for more pain,

and the clouds refuse to rain.

What more can the universe conspire?

What more can be furious than fire?

You feel the rage? Frustration? Wrath?

Or did you forget your math?

Who do you think outsmarts us all?

Who listens to our prayers in silence?

Do you feel you are heard enough?

Or do you feel there should be violence?

Only violence.

To live a life of suffrage.

To die a death of an outrage.

Or just survive like a ray,

till the dawn of the night?

No!

There cannot be any more anguish,

I wish!

But, the truth is bitter.

Life is no longer better.

Without you.

Or without me.

The singularity just doesn’t seep

in the minds of a poet.

So the entire world seems like a deep abyss

of an unknown unrest.

It kills you.

It fills you

with the most innate feelings

of love.

But now it’s all over because,

such is life!

Religion Marketing

It all started with a handbook created in each major religion. Though there were many other handbooks that propagated the idea of peace and salvation, these ones really topped the chart, just because they were the first to be published. First-mover advantage, huh.

Anyway, as the mankind progressed (or regressed), they began to fall in love with their religion (which is quite normal). Further, every religion felt the need to outgrow other religion (which was again, nothing different from the rest). How can just one ideology of “peace” be conveyed in different ways by different religions, was the paramount challenge. That’s where the creative thinkers, the mavericks, the eccentrics bathed in the spotlight. Someone somewhere created a concept of “riots”. The person challenged the very nature of peace. How can peace exist without a little unrest? They are like two sides of the same coin, aren’t they? There can be only one possible outcome. There can only be one religion. That was the entire hypothesis on which the cynic operated. So, what did that person do? He filled people’s minds with doubts. A human brain is only fragile when it comes to external forces. Internally, it can take blows and explosions similar to a nuclear blast (hypothetically, and metaphorically). Pain, rage, anger, wrath, darkness, were all inbuilt in humans from their birth. The cynic just triggered those negative energies by striking the right (rather terribly wrong) chords to create a perfect imbalance. NOW WE’RE IN THE GAME! It was all about the numbers. Who has the most followers? It was a sort of Ancient Era Social Media War, backed by highly political agendas.

The war took many ugly turns through the passing time - Holocausts, Plagues, Assassinations, Famines, The Great Depressions, and so on. Darkness challenged every religion in every possible way. Not many religious leaders could solve the problem. They just created an invisible conduit to channel their outrage through spreading infectious doctrines of their mindless philosophies. People in every generation, in every era, knew that peace could be attained. But, none of them succeeded because “religion” always overpowered “spirituality”. Religion always disguised itself as a “spiritual way” to attain Nirvana. The religious leaders failed to relay this ideology throughout generations. Religion became more of a weapon instead of a shield. Something that I believe “Gods created” now seemed like something like just another product/service in the market available for sale. In some places, religion is directly marketed where they accept cash/cards as payment. And in some, it is sold through surrogate advertising. Some religions make you dive into Holy Water, some make you sacrifice non-vegetarian food, wear a thread and grow a ponytail. Some religion makes you kill animals in the name of God and to an extent, indulge in conscience-free polygamy, even without seeing the woman’s face. And if someone wants you to join a cult, they’d even want you to sell your soul and sign the bond with your blood. The payment methods vary, but everyone wants you to buy their version of “peace”. Many kingdoms have fallen. Many governments have been toppled. Many human and non-human lives have been lost. Just for the sake of making their religion the bestseller in the world. This is the extremist’s angle. Looking on the harmless side of this business, here’s another perspective –

There are religions that have created innumerable foundations in the name of God. They are laundering millions and billions, just to evade tax. There are fake religious leaders who have become a laughing stock with their ridiculous actions. Some arrested for rape, some sitting in their ivory towers and shooting Fatwas at anyone and anything who/which doesn’t please them. Some simply declare their religion as the best in the world and nonchalantly sit on a golden throne. They even dare to preach the world about poverty, while they collect heaps of cash as a donation from billions. These ironical states of affairs are all sadly funny (yet another oxymoron). Sure, there must be a comic version of every religion. Or else, how could one read such serious books which aren’t fun at all? All this brings me to one vital question: Is marketing of religion necessary at all?

YES! Because not every religion was created with the same intention and not every human being is the same (except for your seven doppelgangers throughout the world). Religion can give humans a reason to wake up in the morning every day. It can make humans feel grateful for existing. It can fill them with an equal amount of rage. It can invoke every emotion – the one they have while they watch a movie. But then, religion should just be a way to live life. It shouldn’t empower them with energy that can destroy another human being’s belief systems. What religions are doing today is, they are manufacturing goons who act more like “Loan Recovery Agents” rather than “Torchbearers of Wisdom”. Imposing a religious belief on another human being has become a fashion and people have accepted it as their inevitable fate. Though everyone has the right to choose who or what they wish to follow, some of them find it impossible to go against the religion they were born into. On the flipside, some sacrifice their entire lavish lifestyle to become one with God. It is entirely their choice to become what they want. Nobody would stop them. But again, nobody would want to lessen the number of followers in their religion. There is a number game going on – who reproduces the most number of children in their family (read religion)? Is anyone still playing this? What’s the ultimate prize? Is there a coupon system? Is there an exchange?

Yeah! Speaking of exchange, the exchange (conversion) rate in religions is increasing drastically these days. Take a wild guess, why? RIGHT! Caste-based advantages offered by the government. Nobody today feels proud to be born in General Category because all the perks would have been swallowed away by the OBCs and SC/STs. If you ask, what’s the catch for buying the particular religion here’s a carrot. That’s how you get easy money and easy conversion ratio. Just play your caste “Trump” card and you’re walking away with wads of cash. “Do I have to pray every day? Do I have to circumcise myself? Do I have to remove the Holy Thread that’s on my body? Do I have to become spiritual?” NO! Just change your name and religion in the Application Form and BOOM! No! Don’t take it literally or we will get stereotyped as terrorists. But, we don’t kill people based on their religion, right? We don’t discriminate. We are spiritual beings who have reached self-actualization. Is spirituality free? Or do we have to pay a premium to have it? Nowadays, spirituality too has become highly commercialized. There are temples created by religious foundations that look like a replica of a multinational supermarket. There are illiterate, yet “religious” humans hiding in deserts and mountains learning how to operate guns, rocket launchers and heat-seekers, more than learning simple acts of kindness. There are people sitting in the highest corporate chair, and marketing their idea of “Religion” through a media that’s corrupted with insolence. There are organizations that run purely on religious fuel. Faith-based marketing is estimated to be a trillion dollar industry in itself. Religious Tomorrowlands, Miracle Performances, Religious Resort Living, Mega Pilgrimages, etc. All seem to be worthless without religion (and money, of course).

There are people still trying to figure out their career path and surrendering themselves to God, just because they are too weak to do anything on their own. Rather, there are people seeking help from God because the world isn’t as kind as they imagined it to be. True! The world is not imaginary. It is real. And reality sucks! And what’s real? Religion = God? Or, Spirituality = God? Or, Everything = God? Or, Nothing = God? Though “Religion” is a fast-selling product in the market, it is also the most used, misused, abused product in the market with a variety of brands. Though the products have all the brand identity, brand image, brand recall value, and even globally acclaimed brand ambassadors, they lack one common element – conviction. If the book had instructions on the usage, many lives would have been saved. Rather, it should have had just one simple instruction – “Don’t be a douchebag to anyone.”

कैसे

कभी पुछा है झरनो से,

कैसे

वोह नदियां बन जाती हैं?

कैसे

परबत को चीर देती हैं?

कैसे

वोह किसीके प्यास को बुझा देती हैं?

कैसे

वोह बारिश की दुवा नहीं करती हैं?

कैसे

अपने हर ज़ख्मो को छुपाती हैं?

कैसे

ज़िंदा हो अभी तक,

अगर पुछा नदी को,

जवाब उसका यही होता है.

नदी को समुन्दर से मिलते देर नहीं लगती,

अस्तित्व अपना पल भर में खो लेती.

जब तक बहते रहोगे,

तब तक शुद्धि से चहकते रहोगे,

जब तक निर्मल दिखोगे,

तब तक अपनी कहानी खुद ही लिखोगे,

जब तक संसार में रोष भरा रहेगा,

तब तक तुम्हारे अंदर नीरव कोष रहेगा.

कैसे

ये असंभावना को संभव हो सकता है,

अगर पुछा नदी से,

तो नदी चमकेगी,

सूरज के किरणों को हीरों में बदलेगी,

हम सबको यही कहेगी,

आशा करो,

ख़ुशी मिलेगी.

निराशा तो सभी करते हैं,

तुम बस बहते रहो,

और खुशियों के आसुओं को बहाते रहो!