Poetry

Lyrical words are better served

If used where more deserved

Useless are lamps held in the daylight

They must chase darkness of the night!


Pravin Sabnis

24 December 2015

Fearless

The brave heart and her friend gave a valiant fight...

But the brutes were prepared in the dark of the night...

As she slipped to unnatural death, a nation was awake...

Resolving to put to the beasts to the hangman’s snake!

The fearless was resurrected as did indignation...

The streets represented the anger of the nation!

Determination rent the air to protest the brutal kill...

Young and old faced water cannons, cold and chill!

The emotion of fearlessness was deep and true...

But time is a healer, as the pressure went askew!

Now years later, the emotion comes back to haunt

As a culprit leaps a loophole to his freedom jaunt!

The fearless resurrect again as does indignation...

The voices are raised as angry again is the nation!

Some voices are from my zone, then and now again

But things seem to change as nearer gets a cry of pain!

Again another innocent is crushed by brutalisation

But this time it is nearer home in a closer situation!

The fearless are changing masks... and changing how

Some have turned fearful and some turned mute now!

For the culprit was wearing a dignified drape

He was one of us... how could he ever rape?

That silly girl must have asked for it for sure

And now she plays prey to victimize the teacher!

Then the fearless had put together a valiant fight

Now so many are choosing the option of flight!

Some flee to obscurity in the indifference wavelength

As others mobilise mobs to show their violent strength!

Fearless are the ones, who are steady in every zone,

Who resist the wrong even in the confines of the home.

Fearless are the ones who do not play dead while alive

Fearless are the ones who do not play selectively naive!

Choose to be fearless in intent, action and spoken words

Choose to stand up above the indifferent or collusive herds

May the fearless resurrect again with fiery indignation...

To bring the brutes to heel... with greater determination!

- Pravin K. Sabnis
(written in context of the brutal sexual assault in Delhi, three years ago... and a recent one closer home where the brutalisation of a school girl is being met with indifference or threatening mobs)

Great company

Revisiting the dream that emerged last night
On splendid poetry, the dawn set my sight

Of those who carve out water's flow to sow
And those who sleep under the astronomical show

A great company to have of sensitive minds
An insight into interpretation beyond the grind

Many have a voice that stays unheard
But here I find voices that rise above the herd!

Pravin Sabnis
22 July 2015

Silence! The Court is in Session!

Wear the robes of a sage

Bring in the witness-cage

Start the drama of indignation

Silence! The Court is in Session!

The accused is yet unknown

But their team appears grown

My message hates interruption

Silence! The Court is in Session!

Lay down the rules and how

Raise up the morality brow

Don’t insist on free expression

Silence! The Court is in Session!

It is a fight for power and authority

Convert everyone into a liability

I am the judge and prosecution

Silence! The Court is in Session!

- Pravin Sabnis (20 July 2015)

(inspired & influenced by Vijay Tendulkar’s Play) 

UNDER THE RAIN TREE!

(based on my childhood ordeal of being caught in a rain-storm under a rain tree… to divert the fear, I imagined the tree speaking to me and this is what it seemed to say )

Hey little one, trembling in the rain…

Rest the doubts… that rise in your brain.
Why does this rainstorm, overwhelm you?
This earth is yours… and this sky is too!

Look at me - the rain tree… that shelters you now

And the route of my roots, how they plough

They go deep down, so that my trunk may rise

But what matters more… is my canopy size!

So often we find trees… that grow very tall

But they have no shade, for the seeker’s call…

Now you are sheltered… under me - the rain tree

Can the truth of interdependence set you free?

Learn from the little birds… that rest and nest here

They too are drenched… but no longer by fear!

When they are born… they too shiver in the rain

But grow up to know… that it will happen again

It isn’t about the rain, fright storms within

Fear grows larger… if belief is lean
You got to believe… this fact to be true
That this earth is yours… and this sky is too!

Don't be submerged… in the intensity of the rain…
Don't fret and tire out, under an illusory pain
The skies will clear, seven colours will gather...
Diverging from the spectrum… but staying together

Together we can create: the rainbow way...
From Mother Nature, don’t ever stray away...

The cloud burst, the thunder… the scary storm

Are worse in the mind… when there they form.

Hey little one, dance in the rain…

Overcome fears that storm your brain.
The eco-logical truth includes me and you
This earth is ours… and this sky is too!

-         Pravin K Sabnis (1988)

God of clay!

First they deified me
Then began the worship
Now when cast in divinity
Arises the dreaded wish...

The dreaded wish of magic
To script for them a new destiny
Why didn't I stop them
from taking away my humanity?

Now they cheer my powers
Powers they saw they say
Then they will jeer my inability
And call me God of clay!

- Pravin K Sabnis
5 June 2015

I KILLED AN OLD MAN

I have my justifications for stomping his devious plan
I have my explanations... for killing that old man!

It was time for him to recede and retire
But the old man chose to stoke the fire...
He ignored the violent reaction of our rage clan
He paid for his crime... that stupid old man!

Might is right is the brutal fact of my dare
I hate those who stand for values they care...
Imagine the audacity of  doing what he can
He deserved to die...  that obstinate old man!

He should have played dead to the things I do
But he kept asking those damn questions too...
I have the support of many an angry fan
They will argue my defense... for killing an old man!

Don't call me a murderer,  I have a better word
It was to stop those who step out of the herd...
Those who step out of the herd, deserve a tan
He deserved to die... that foolish old man!

Don't you call me a coward just because I hide
Don't you forget that I have powers on my side...
I will kill again those that oppose my plan...
I will kill again and again... all such old men!

How dare he play alive in the Kingdom of the dead
How dare he put proactivism in many a head...
This killing will deter his colleague young men
If not, they too will die... before they are old men!

When I look into the future, I see me as a celebrated hero
As my actions will not be challenged by the modern Nero
Like before, I will kill again to a similar plan
Yet he keeps alive... that bloody old man!

- Pravin Sabnis
20 February 2015
Triggered by the cowardly killing of yet another old man who stood up to the crooks