Merchant of Dreams

I wanted to be a copywriter once. Make my way into the world of advertising and become a merchant of dreams. With the immense respect I have for all the copywriters and creative folk out there, today i look back to realize this. 

I spoke to a friend of mine who suggested some changes and decided to incorporate them. Keeping both of the poems up here eitherways.

You can listen to the poem in my voice here. 

गाभारा

दर्शनाला आलात?
या..पण या देवालयात,
सध्या देव नाही

गाभारा आहे,
चांदी चे मखर आहे, 

सोन्याच्या समया आहेत,
हिर्‍यांची झालर आहे.
त्यांचं ही दर्शन घ्यायला हरकत नाही.

वाजवा ती घंटा,
आणि असे इकडे या
पाहिलात ना तो रिकामा गाभारा?

नाही..तसं नाही,
एकदा होता तो तिथे
काकड आरतीला उठायचा,
शेज आरतीला झोपायचा,
दरवाजे बंद करुन,
बरोबर बाराला जेवायचा,
दोन तास वामकुक्षी घ्यायचा,
सारं काही ठीक चालले होतं.

रुपयांच्या राशी,
माणिक मोत्यांचे ढीग पडत होते पायाशी.
दक्षिण दरवाज्याजवळ,
मोटारीचे भोंगे वाजत होते
मंत्र जागर गाजत होते
रेशीम साड्या, टेरीनचे सुट समोर दुमडत होते.
बॅंकेतले हिशेब हरीणाच्या गतीने बागडत होते.
सारे काही घडत होते.. हवे तसं
पण एके दिवशी..आमचे दुर्दैव

उत्तर दरवाज्याजवळ अडवलेला
कोणी एक भणंग महारोगी तारस्वरात ओरडला
“बाप्पाजी बाहेर या”

आणि काकड आरतीला आम्ही पाहतो तर काय
गाभारा रिकामा!

पोलीसात वर्दी, आम्ही दिलीच आहे.
परत? कदाचित येइलही तो
पण महारोग्यांच्या वस्तीत,
तो राहिला असेल तर,

तर त्याला पुन्हा..प्रवेश द्यावा की नाही,
याचा विचार करावा लागेल,
आमच्या ट्रस्टींना.

पत्रव्यवहार चालू आहे.. दुसर्‍या मुर्तीसाठी
पण तूर्त गाभार्‍याचे दर्शन घ्या.
तसे म्हटले तर,
गाभार्‍याचे महत्व अंतिम असतं.

कारण गाभारा सलामत,
तर देव पचास.

- कुसुमाग्रज

ता.क. - कुसुमाग्रजांना भेटता आलं नाही हे माझं दुर्भाग्य, नाहीतर ह्या कवितेसाठी आणि त्या मागच्या विचारासाठी साष्टांग दंडवत घातलं असतं त्यांना!
असो, जिथे कुठे असाल तुम्ही, घातलं असं समजा!

हीच कविता ऐका इथे 11व्या मिनिटा पासून , खरं तर अख्खा कार्यक्रम ऐका, मुक्काम पोस्ट कुसुमाग्रज 

After the rains

पाऊस पडून गेल्यावर is a poem that has become a favorite of mine. It is written in Pune and on a study table with a window by it's side. Due to this peculiarity of the table I studied less and wrote many more poems on it. I believe half of my poems are written on that table. 

This particular poem takes me back to my bachelor/single days, which am enjoying again. In Pune I used to live in an apartment complex that was up on a slope and after the rains, little rivulets of water would flow down after falling drop by drop from the leaves. The whole atmosphere created in this poem reminds me of those पुणेरी days. 

This poem and the way i recite it does have a very सौमित्र (Kishore Kadam) like feel to it. The album गारवा is definitely among some of my influences that have inspired and affected me deeply. I hope i am able to achieve even a minuscule of what सौमित्र has with his poems. This isn't meant to be a a direct copy of his style, just saying that it has left a deep enough impact on me to imbibe it.  

I hope you enjoy the poem as much as I do. You can listen to the audio recording of the poem in my voice here पाऊस पडून गेल्यावर. 

Shikhar

शिखर (Peak) is a small poem i wrote some years back.

It was written around the time when most of my friends from Engineering, Pharmacy etc were graduating, while pursuing M.B.B.S, i had another couple of years to go. Most of them being the sincere students that they were, had done exceedingly well and now were moving to foreign lands for further studies. This little poem was meant to be a send-off gift for them. But it never got to fruition then.

I think it was meant to be combined with the amazing art of Deepti Bhadbhade, an old friend from JPP who gave it far more meaning and depth with an illustration. Eventually the whole thing came together as is when I landed on foreign shores myself to pursue further education.

Today it serves as a reminder to me, as i have completed the degree i came here for but a major exam awaits. As the poem says, अब आगे पुरा आसमान है लांघाने के लिये !

मन- भँवरा

भँवरा is a bumble bee or a black drone bee. भँवरा is a favorite device of poets in Sanskrit, Hindi and Marathi, and has been used in many ways to denote. Here it denotes the restlessness of one's mind.

As i would rather be open about my influences than hide them this poem has a highly Harvanshrai Bachchan-esque to it slant to it. Though I cannot claim to have even a percent of the understanding and grasp of शुद्ध हिन्दी as बच्चन जी does, still this attempt!  

Image courtesy - http://www.hdwallpapers.in/walls/bee_on_flower-wide.jpg

बहारें (Springs) - a love story

The road I take to walk to the University of Auckland, Tamaki campus is lined by huge trees. It is Winter in New Zealand and the trees had shed their leaves in Autumn. This particular sight and those leaves of many hues lying strewn on the ground was etched onto my mind for many days. I wanted to write something on that particular image for the longest time.

On one such walk I started mumbling to myself and by the time i got to the campus, this poem बहारें (Springs), was born. It is a love story between the Spring and the Tree.

You can listen to the audio recording here - Baharen

Hope you like it. Do drop me a comment below if you do or even more so if you don't.

Hiding from the Rain - पावसा पासनं लपत

पावसा पासनं लपत (Hiding from the Rain)  is a pretty old poem I wrote in 2005.

I used to go running in the University of Pune, which was very close to where I lived. The campus is particularly beautiful in the Monsoons. The internal roads are are lined with trees and these make for great rain shelters for the canoodling couples. This poem is about one such couple and there relationship blossoming in the rains. Being single as I was then, this poem is mostly observational not experiential. Hope you enjoy it.

This poem is also available to stream in audio form, recorded in my voice here Pavasa Pasana Lapat .

Hope you like it!