As I sit in my living room, Shivkumar Sharma’s santoor fills the airwaves around me, as a 2002 album called The Flow of Time plays on my speakers. The musician regales me with phrase after phrase, building nuanced tension and releasing it, playing with dynamics and expressing an onward journey that reminds me […]

At last gaspFilling in the gaps of the pastMemory fairyOf a room bright and airyReminder botCleansing the mind of its spotsSea green wallsA cue for total recallWhat I can't remember:The look on your faceThe first thing you said to meWhat you wore that day,Just an overall impression-Losing you was my biggest life lesson,Even more than […]

I’ve made many mistakes and survived them wellThose I’ll admit to and those I won’t tellAs there are no prizes for how far I fellAnd remembering alone won’t get me out of hellNor will forgetting, though karma will have its sayYou reap what you sow so I plant seeds all dayAs often as I’m mindful […]

I wake up to the sound of the radio, broadcast over the internet from Athens, Georgia, the National Public Radio station known as WUGA. The fact is, though, I’m in Kolkata, India, not Athens, and listening to the late night (Athens time) transmissions of jazz or classical music which play all night with brief interludes […]

Poetry and philosophy,They make a pretty pair,She with the jet black flowing braid,He with the eureka hair.On every day of her children’s births,And every Mother’s Day,She pens again, new verses sentIn emails deep with night’s delay.As he stands and types,The books he writes,She cooks the dinner with delight,Vegetarian feasts, beyond belief,Especially considering her daytime briefs,Extending […]

I sitI waitI wonder how it's got so lateWords blockedVoice stoppedThey wrap me up from bottom to topMummifiedNext life rideBalanced with feather of wrong and rightTransmigratory soulTrying out a roleTravelling space in all its coldGolden caseA museum placeThe records of our human raceRiches piled steepBuried deepPreparing for the next life leap

Inkwells run dry, asMasks accompany gaspsPeople picked up like litterAnd deposited like trash,In detention centers made for profitsDespairing and vast,Not for the good of the public,But out of blustery political Bravado,By chest-beating chimpanzeesPlaying out their fantasiesOf a world dominance hierarchy:Blacks at the bottom rung,Browns one step up,Undocumented or not-White supremacy isn't as far-flungAs the silent majority […]

I read through the comments Of people on Instagram Going back and forth about what happened In history, Never without an agenda, Even if that agenda is simply To set the record straight. Though… Truth can’t be carved out of eroded valleys, Which time has already coursed through Leaving behind only fractions of remains— And […]

        At any given moment in time, we are faced with a moral imperative— whether we know it or not. That is, we can seize the moment by taking action in whatever various ways our situation, creative imagination and willpower allow us, or we can delay taking action until further decision. When is waiting […]

        In the school of psychotherapy called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, though based on positive psychology, there is a list of “cognitive distortions” that are pointed out to each patient as a matter of educating them on flaws in thinking that could be causing psychological distress. The idea is that by changing one’s thinking, one […]

Walking up the stairs,The same stairs I’ve hopped, skipped, andPondered over, most of the vacations of my life,My mind flashed to the happy scenes of pre-marital bliss,Those first co-vacations,The occasions When photographs could not hide my joy,My happiness, myGratitude—Now bereft ofThat source,Who must be scattered far and wide even if self-contained,Deep and vast and across dimensions,As […]

Grateful this Thanksgiving week for the Athens community, a special place in my heart that feels hard to part with, when Athens has taught me so much thru schoolyards, classrooms, bar patios, and the most blessed days when I could write and draw on my father's collegiate blackboards anything in chalk, easily eraseable with a […]

 The Best Days of my Life:"some lessons are learnt too late"some customs are burnt by fatesome immigrants are usually latesome locals share the exact same fatemet my Sita at the circle Kagua linda, la montana, light and gayCaliNTitos and fine museumshistorically a part of my dreams"death is a part of life" you saidAs an MPH, […]

This pie we share, ever expanding,Could be more gracious, less demandingMore generous and kindOn our neighbour's porchesMore responsible and justLike Polaris Northest'Cause the value of a chartIs not in its appearanceIt's how it leads our wayAs we think about experienceAnd as we think about ourselvesAnd the gifts we want to openMade by Santa's elvesOr by […]

Stairway to stairwell Enjoyed the Athens porchfest festival is dupehar aur sham. Caught the whimsical early wisps of the hair at the nape of my sky friend in the form of a pinkish blue sunsetting, not on the phone but in my arbitrary access memory. Chose wisely today after starting a quibble with my source, that was […]

Tabalchi, Yours TrulyThrowback to the last time I had the great honour to meet Anindo Chatterjee in-person, touch his feet, with my guru Masterji (Amitabha Buddha), a disciple of Anindo Chatterjee. Through learning tabla and doing my best to return to it no matter how many hours, days, weeks, and even years I may have […]

Reflecting on the days events, so far. Today was a good day. A young man and woman of our community got married in peace (I stayed home to watch the Dawgs beat up on Ole Miss- Rebels? that's a little archaic of a mascot, don't you think? Are they talking Confederates or Luke Skywalker? Definitely […]

If I free myself today, how will you? Hearing and seeing from close and far, We remember, forget, and remember more, But I wouldn’t dare assume,  I’ve been in your shoes News reaches my ears and eyes, A child’s crying, A Mother’s wailing, A Father’s derailing, An elder statesman’s heart failing, News reaches my body […]

 Friday 5 September 10:56 PM – 11:59 PM (Midnight’s grandparents) How can we on Earth bring ourselves closer together, or at whatever distance is most necessary to maintain an established harmony of our own, individual freedom, in a way in which we all personally find the happiness we may so easily reset and rest in? […]

I used to write in images- now I just speak my mind. Have I lost my footing in the world that wraps around? Wind sweeping on a cold fall day, slapping my face and bellowing through soft clothes, reminding me of my fragile bones chilling, convulsing in a shiver.  I used to feel the rhythm […]