Minstrel Man

Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter
And my throat
Is deep with song,
You do not think I suffer after
I have held my pain
So long?

Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter,
You do not hear
My inner cry?
Because my feet
Are gay with dancing,
You do not know
I die?


- Langston Hughes

Of Excuses And Open Spaces

This Malhar, I had the most fun I have had in a long long time. The high water mark was reached when we had an awesome vounteer JAM session right after the (even better) real JAM session (JAM, by the way, is short for a game called Just A Minute, in which all you have to do is talk non stop subject to a few rules). The Raga was a massive success, I ended up selling 350 in total, and practically died of hurting limbs the next day, but that's another story. In the process, however, I came across some gems - excuses people gave for not wanting to buy the Raga. Check them out:
- The most common reason : "I have already BUYED."
- The next most common excuse : " I don't have change for 500."
- From a morose looking guy : " I just lost my cell phone, I don't think I wanna buy anything." (that after i spent 5 minutes with my best smile explaining why he should buy the Raga.)
- From a wannabe punk with long hair and sleeveless clothes (and no biceps) : "I don't read the news, I make the news." (I was sort of rendered speechless then and there but later i thought i should have told him, "Oh, so you were the one at the Gateway Of India.")
- From a bunch of guys watching the rock concert : " We're rockers, we don't read." (that was cute actually, partly because one of them did end up buying one a little later.)

Ganesh Naik, our minister for excise and, ahem, ENVIRONMENT, has proposed to sell off the racecourse, the Aarey Colony and the Vikhroli mangroves to whip up the money for paying off the state's debts. According to Mr. minister, Mumbai doesn't really need open spaces, and, after all, "even the poor farmer sells of his land to get his daughter married".

This, barely half a month after the city practically drowned in rain, for the specific reason that there are not enough open spaces to take the pressure. Where were you then, Mr. Naik, when the same daughter was being molested by the floods?

Oh of course, you were probably chilling out in your own 500 acre property in the city.

Thank You

This is not an original, but it is for all those who realise it is for them:


How can anyone ever tell you, you are anything less than beautiful
How can anyone ever tell you, you are less than whole
How can anyone fail to notice, that your loving is a miracle
How deeply you're connected to my soul.

I was researching something on the internet and somehow ran into John Milton's 'On His Blindness'. Milton was struck blind at the age of 44. This was a major blow, as it meant that his gift for writing, his passion, was technically rendered useless. The sonnet explores his despair and resentment at being thus handed a raw deal by God, and how spirituality finally comes to his rescue and shows him the real Light.
When I studied this poem in my last year of school, it was just another literary masterpiece to me. Today, 3 years later, it is much more.

On His Blindness

When I consider how my light is spent

E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,

And that one Talent which is death to hide,

Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, least he returning chide,

Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd?

I fondly ask; But patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts, who best

Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best. His State

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and waite.