Royally Flushed*

Brands Make the Man

Came into a cool couple of million through a Nigerian scam
Thought I’d go splurge to better who I am

Clothes maketh the man, so with a craving for all things luxe
What better way to spend a few easy bucks

Donning these fancy labels and tags
They’d add way more style to my swag

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Dowry be Damned

Though outlawed, dowry is a sad and disgustingly regressive fact of life in our parts of the world. I’ve tried to tackle it in a light manner, using broken Indian English and examples of what matters in larger Indian society, but I hope the message comes through strongly. Leave poetry aside, it’s an issue that needs to be outright and permanently rejected through a drastic change in collective mindset. Is education the only answer?

Coffee & a Conversation

So I met a bunch of fellas over an imaginary cuppa in a cool cafe called Gaia’s, with soft, puffy, white clouds around us.

There was a slim guy with longish hair & a crown of thorns; another with blue skin wearing a peacock feather in his hair; one with dreadlocks, tiger skin & a crescent moon; a bearded & ochre-turbaned man; another bearded fellow in pure white vestments; one with long earlobes, a beatific expression, wearing a robe & carrying his hair in a top bun; a grandfatherly old chap with a flowing white beard & a staff and another whose face was cloaked so I couldn’t see it. They looked vastly different from each other, but all had a similar, strange glow around their heads.

MA SHAKTI

Against the backdrop of the recent murder of a Pakistani model by her brother under the guise of “honour killing” and by similar unfortunate occurrences, including female foeticide, in our part of the world, here’s my (admittedly oblique) take, with my friend Nandita very kindly doing the honours in Hindi. With all the progress our countries have made, some social evils very evidently, still need to be stamped out.

3 Notes of Caution

Deja Vous

Hi! Haven’t we met before?

FOUR LETTER WORD ABBREVIATIONS

I came across a new word recently; an abbreviation, really – FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out. Purportedly explaining why, like lemmings, we are all jumping onto the same bandwagon that we see others doing. Be it at work, running at a frantic, frenetic pace in the race to corporate head honcho-dom or megabucks. Or in our personal lives, to acquire bigger, better tangibles before the other guy.

THE PARIAH PREACHER

Praising the Lord.
Proclaiming peace.
Proffering hope.
Promoting brotherhood.
Pledging heaven to all.

Reflections

I don’t quite like that guy.
That fellow standing in front of me.
Looking back at me. Looking just like me.

He stands tall, his heart is fair,
But I don’t like some of what I see.
His form’s not perfect.
It’s tarnished in places.

I can see his flaws up close.