Skip to main content

A City in Ruins


A CITY IN RUINS

It's past the witching hour,
As my lonely heart cruises, the silent streets of a sleeping city.
The muted barking of dogs can be heard and echoes the loneliness of my heart.
The garbage littering the streets is the detritus that is my life.

A curse hangs over me, 
The curse of karma!
The curse of deeds that cannot be undone.
The curse of the tears that I have caused,
The wrenching sobs still echo through the city alleys, imparting ill-will.

The city has no redeeming features at this hour,
It is just a shadowy landscape,
The shadows could be concealing grand structures,
Or like the landscape of my mediocre life could be a mass of nothingness.

The city has no tall buildings,
It has no great ruins,
It has no attraction for tourists,
It definitely attracts no settlers,
It is just a cesspool!
Is it why it feels familiar to me?

The city entrances no one,
The city has no refuge for anyone,
The city once had a beautiful garden, well nurtured by a loving heart,
The garden exists no more, it has languished,
Just like my Life.


The later the hour, the darker it gets,
This darkness holds no hope of a dawn,
This inky blackness shrouds the city,
The darkness swirls unmercifully,
It is slowly permeating my soul.



The only sign of life in this arena of destruction,
Is rodents and cannibals,
If I were to stop,
They would pick the flesh off of my bones,
Should I ward them off?
Or should I just submit to being ravaged, like this city.


There is a foul odor,
It emanates from the stultifying morass lining the streets,
The gutters are overflowing with decayed hopes and dreams,
Are these mine?
Or do they belong to ships that have passed in the night?


Is the city redeemable?
Even if no grand buildings are built here,
Even if there are no whistling fountains,
Even if the streets aren’t teeming with human life,
Could there just be some soothing greenery?
Could there just be a peaceful brook running through?
Could there be a small, neat, clean hut that would provide refuge?

Is there hope?

Or was it this city’s destiny to be a carcass?


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monica, O My Darling

Straight off the bat, let me tell you that I went into this movie cold. I just saw the trailer and put it on my watch list. I was totally enamored with the cast and the premise. I knew I was going to watch this one, so I didn't delve into the promotional shenanigans.  So if you are of the same bent of mind, stop reading and start watching.  And on your behalf, I did Google Ankola, it is a town in Karnataka and is not to be confused with Akola in Maharashtra. Ha ! Ha! Netflix has been delighting us with gems like Raat Akeli thi, Haseen dilruba and Bulbul. Add this one to that list and think Gehraiyaan. I need not stress on the proficient star cast. They are masters of their craft. Starting with the sneaky Rajkummar Rao, the sultry Huma Quereshi and the wily Radhika Apte, the ensemble includes the creepy Sukant Goel, the beleaguered Zayn Marie and many others. For me Sikandar Kher was a standout. A shoutout to his intensity and his baritone.  The dialogues are spot on and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Qala

Anvita Dutt, is a master story teller. And she, tells this one well too. She and Kanika Dillon have a knack of painting their leading ladies in shades of grey. Whilst Kanika brings in the whacky and the wild, Anvita brings in the angst. It makes for great entertainment.  This movie seeps in slowly and is for those of you who like the slow burn. There is drama and angst and tragedy and it leaves you wondering, what did I just watch? Was this a movie or sheer art? And it is a movie that stays with you for a bit.  The visuals are stunning, particularly those of the boat on the water. The noir-ish feel of the movie fits the mood perfectly. One does know what has happened and why, but the visuals and the artistry keep you in thrall. This is the story of a woman, who learns to be competitive in her mother's womb itself. Her quest for survival began in the womb itself. She then spends all her childhood and teen years having only her mother and constantly craving her validation. Is ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shades of Grey

For a very long time I have held a rigid view about what is right and what is wrong. And never have I ever allowed myself to be deviated from what I thought was correct and incorrect. I am not saying that I always did the right thing, but yes even when I was doing the wrong thing I did know that i was wrong. No one had to hold up the metaphorical mirror and tell me that I was wrong. I knew it all on my own. So veering between being an absolute Gandhian and a naughty imp, I had more or less kept my moral compass due north. In fact I was quick to judge people on their actions, without trying to place myself in their shoes and walk a few miles, to see what the impediments were. I was always pretty  smug about knowing what was white and what was black. But as they say, its only when we experience something do we truly realize what it was to have stood in someone's shoes and made a decision which felt totally right at that time. Would you condemn a hungry urchin for stealing food? ...
Post a Comment
Read more