Monday, November 5, 2007

A lesser known Poet

It has almost been ten years now, since I last put pen on paper. Now don’t take it too literally. I agree that I haven’t touched either a pen or a sheet of paper in past 2 years I have spent in Software Industry. And thanks to MS-Word, xls and several other tools emerging from the gates of Gates-Factory in the recent past. These tools are helping our environment by replacing paper, ink, pencils and pens by floppies, CDs and microchips which are less harmful and self destructible in 5 seconds (the self-destructible part, I had seen in some movie, whose name MI memory is not able to recall right now). Another thing that MS-Word and its kin have been able to do is, save valuable amount of money spent by writers like me, who waste 1 notebook and 1 ballpoint pen, just to scribble a single page of ideas. Writers of my kind can now save valuable Rs 5 and valuable Rs 3, otherwise spent on a notepad and a pen respectively. Rather, they can use a PC, which is now a household commodity, costing as less as Rs 15000 only.


Without wavering from the point anymore, I would like you to understand the figurative meaning of what I said earlier regarding putting pen on paper. It was in Standard 8th, that I last composed a poem. I can call it as my masterpiece, as it received a standing ovation from each and every classmate of mine present in the room. It was composed as a part of home-assignment given to me by Sister Agatha, my English teacher. The poem that I had penned was titled “My favorite movie”, and was an ode to DDLJ, that was released previous year. The first lines of the poem went something like this:

“Raj was a boy who lived in London,
He fell in love with a girl named Simran.”


That was in 1997. I usually am not very good in remembering dates (you can find the proof in my history grades, or you can ask my ex-girlfriend who broke off with me on the her birthday.). However, I can remember the year 1997, because that year, I had marginally escaped failing in English. When reprimanded by my parents, I put the blame on Sister Agatha for her lack of knowledge of literature, poetry and art (cinema included).


So that was the end of the beginning of a new era of poetry. A poet was killed as soon as he was born. And soon in his thoughts, literature and art was replaced by science and mathematics. Probability replaced poetry, electronics replaced essays and arithmetic replaced art. The likes of Picasso, Shakespeare and Milton had to make way for Newton, Pythagoras and Rutherford. And like every other kid in the block, my second ambition in life also changed to becoming a rocket scientist rather than a poet. (No need to mention that the first ambition in life of each kid in each block of India is to become Tendulkar.)


Now you must be wondering, what inspired me to put pen on paper again after 10 long years. Well, most recently, I happened to see the Leisure section of my company’s bulletin board. Under normal circumstances, I am among those who avoid reading BB, as it is normally full of avoidable topics like “I hate Canteen Food” or “I put an injured bird on staircase, but when I came back it had disappeared”. However, that day the circumstances were, by no means, normal, as I had seen a stray dog in the company premises. I had to post the incident on BB by any means, in order to start a meaningful discussion. And as I opened the Leisure section of the BB, the first thing I saw was a beautiful poem, written by a person whose name I would not mention in this article, because I am too busy for such trivia, with project going live next week and still 5 programs to be tested. So I went down the memory lane to those days of yore, when a poet in the making was lost in the trivia of science, maths and Tendulkar worship.


So, my dear friends!!! I promise you all that very soon, you will see a beautiful poem from me. And the poem is going to be much much better than the one I wrote in standard 8th, not because my style of writing has changed, but because my taste in cinema has moved towards more sophisticated and meaningful movies like RGV ki Aag.

2 comments:

LifeRulzz said...

hi poet!!
m from your IT firm and read ur poetry that u posted there some time back.just loved it .and m loving ur blog too..............keep posting!!

Unknown said...

good work dude
Keep it up.....
turning out to be a good experience visiting yr blog...

arindam