What I Learnt From Life Today

What did you learn from life today?

My teacher asked me

I learnt that friendship is a two way street

More precious than platinum

I learnt people often don't say what they mean

And can be toxic to your existence

I learnt you don't have to believe in God

To have faith

I learnt bad people may not always be bad

Nor good people always good

I learnt to keep my true self hidden from most

And visible to few

Most importantly

I learnt that life is never black or white

Just different shades of grey

The Bilge Master

The Death of Art

It's five in the morning

And the basement is flooded

All the art we ever had is gone

This is a tragedy for those who remember art

Like Van Gogh or Picasso

Or Hardy or Tolstoy

There is nothing left

The will bring up a generation

That will never know what it's like

To gaze mesmerized at a painting

Or to be lost in a book

And yet sometimes

We believe that artists aren't necessary

And ridicule them

Now close your eyes and when you open them

Art will have died

For the artists have spoken

No more

No more

No more

The Bilge Master

Engineers Aren't Nerds- Breaking the Stereotype

When I was a kid, I got glasses. Plus power. As a reward for getting them, my mother gave me a book. That is how I started my journey into the world of literature; and what a journey it has been! I love to read. I carry books everywhere. Previously I carried them in my schoolbag, taking them out during lunch break to hastily read a chapter or during a free period when I was bored. Keeping up with the times, I own a smartphone and carry books on my memory card. I also adore music. I listen to all kinds of music-from American music to that in Iceland.

By the way, I'm an engineer.

Are you surprised? I think you might be, because after all engineers are supposed to be nerds who don't do anything but study and solve huge sums aren't they? You're right I went there, to the forbidden realm of the stereotype.

I've faced this so many times. You read? You write a blog? You listen to music? Why are you an engineer? You should have taken up Humanities! I have heard these statements from strangers on the metro or on the street, from friends and acquaintances and even from my own professors! That's right, my own professor told me I was wasting my talents studying engineering and I should have been a Humanities student. She said this after I had won a debate.

Yet, I went to college with an actor in plays, a great guitarist, both of whom were part of my batch. I also had a senior who played the sitar and another one who took great photos.

So without further ado, let me smash this stereotype to bits. Reading a book, writing an article or story or poem, taking a photograph are all hobbies that can be pursued with gusto by anybody, even engineers. I am not apologizing for bursting your comfortable stereotype filled bubble that you spent so long constructing and hiding behind.

My point is this. Engineers are some of the coolest people you'll ever meet. We love chatting about everything under the sun. Some of us are guitarists, others poets, photographers and even singers. We are not "nerds" who spend all their time studying but we aren't lazy either. Our course is challenging, it is interesting and rewarding- just like any other course you may find yourself enrolled in.

So the next time you meet an engineer, ask him about Kafka on the Shore. If he hasn't read it, give it to him/her to read. Broaden your mind a little and look at the person behind the label you've stuck on. Above all, befriend an engineer and you'll never stop laughing or running out of things to say and do. Our imagination can be phenomenal!

The Bilge Master

The Art of Exile

This is the story of a man

Living in a city of masks

Where everyone puts one on

And rarely takes it off

Such is the culture of this city

The man also conforms

But inside of him beats a rebel's heart

And so he dares

To imagine the city without masks

And he sketches faces in his spare time

Some smile, others frown

And society treats him as an outcast

They find his ideas a threat

And shun him

But still he draws

And draws

'The Bilge Master

Memories of My Grandmother

It has been eight years

Since my grandmother breathed

Her last breath

So much changed that night

A person became ash

A boy became a man

And someone we all loved

Ascended

Eight years hence we

Have seen two graduates

And one job acquired

Yet still her recipe books

Litter our shelves

Filled with magical combinations

Of spices and utensils

Her memory

One which will never fade

From my mind

As I cling desperately to those memories

Wishing she was here

Because I need her

And that will never change

The Bilge Master

Weight

Have you ever wondered why the sky has not fallen? What keeps the sky up there all the time, day and night?

The answer to your query is Atlas, son of Iapetus and Clymene. Like Iapetus he is also a Titan and he was punished by Zeus to hold up the sky for eternity. Got to love the Greeks, their mythology is so vibrant and diverse.

Let me paint a picture for you. Picture if you will, a man with a great weight on his shoulders, going towards his work place, bogged down, unable to move at greater than a snail's pace, with sweat pouring down off him in rivulets, gasping for breath and yet still moving. You can see the blood pour from his knees, smell the stench of his clothes and were you to touch his hands, they'd be clammy.

What would you say to such a man? He has no way of setting his burden down that he can see, and also nobody to take over his responsibilities. He is alone, carrying that demonic weight on his shoulders as if shackled to it by some invisible chains.

I present to  you a man who should in all aspects put that weight down and start running free. But, like Atlas he too has been tricked into carrying that weight on his shoulders, even though it makes his knees buckle and ruins his posture and takes away his strength.

Now imagine fifty such Atlas clones, each carrying a heavy weight on their shoulders. The weight is made up of anger, fear, negativity and depression. What would you tell these people with their illnesses to do? What would you tell Atlas to do?

I would just say one thing to him and these other hollow men and women with weights on their shoulders

Shrug

The Bilge Master

14 Park Lane

Situated at 14 Park Lane

Is a book shop

It is not too large and not too small

And it's owner has read 'em all

Customers frequent her book shop

Which smells of jasmine and cinnamon

To sit in seclusion with a cup of strong tea

And the latest in prose or poetry

The book shop holds all kinds

From mystery to romance

And to its owner

Is the oldest friend I have

Whom I know from childhood

To be a Thomas Hardy fan

In this book shop, nobody is an enemy

And come rain, sleet or snow

It remains open

So the next time I go there

Come with me

And let us meet there time and again

The Bilge Master