Another day, another bomb

Yesterday another half a dozen bombs went off across the city.
We're still counting the dead
Fitting together the jigsaw pieces of flesh,
Hosing down the red streets
Helped by the heavens which opened up
To add to the usual official chaos.

The news-hyenas arrived in packs
Drawn by the stench of blood and meat
To a feast of breaking news.

Nothing was new.
Nameless, faceless men giving succour
Without fanfare
To others equally anonymous.
A picture a bomb-weary city has grown used to.

For countless households
The long night has just begun.

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The Nests of Nandigram

Is it my imagination
Or are there far fewer birds singing ?
What dawn do they mutely await
Through the long night of terror ?
Silence speaks of pervasive fear
And of the loss of ancestral nests.

The protector has taken an axe to the trees.
Trees fall; the earth shakes.
Raucous cries of dispossession supplant birdsong
As the khaki-clad hunters pot sitting ducks
While Zeus' swans feast on Leda's flesh.

Rejoice, my countrymen, for the prophecy has come true
-The state has indeed withered away.

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Autumn Harvest

Words, once obedient servants
Now claim suzerainty over ideas
The age of meaningful verse has yielded
To gobbledygook.

Poetry, a grey mist half-understood
Through which I stumble blindly
A mirage I chase through the sands...

The wells of creativity run dry
Neither outpourings of emotion nor tender murmurs
Mere craftsmanship remains
Lines dolled up in tawdry baubles
Literary whores, soliciting passing readers
Fireflies, impotent
In the face of the darkness within.

The autumn harvest of verbosity is ripe
For the scythe of the Grim Reaper

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LIAR, LIAR

Manmohan Singh said in his statement in the Indian Parliament:

"the agreement does not in any way affect India's right to undertake future nuclear tests, if it is necessary."

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said :

"The proposed 123 agreement has provisions in it that in an event of a nuclear test by India, then all nuclear cooperation is terminated, as well as there is provision for return of all materials, including reprocessed material covered by the agreement,"

Both of them can't be right. Ergo, one of them is lying. Take your pick.

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Song of a Tuneless Nightingale

In the Garden of Verse trills many a nightingale
Of the advent of spring
Fertile, bountiful, pregnant.
Of clouds turgid with the fluid of life,
Of rain, and of lush green meadows,
Of starlit, silvery nights

Silenced are the mutterings
Of those in whose veins courses
The brutal, parched thirst
And ravenous hunger
Of searing summer unquenched.
Their deep, frightening voices
Out of place in Eden.

Autumn permitted to weep
Only in the silent shedding of leaves
And winter mute, frozen
By the chilling demise of the senses.

Here may be sung
Only chaste, bejewelled verse
Set to uplifting metre.
Shut are the doors
To tuneless wolf whistles
Prurient, irreverent, defiant
Yet far more spontaneous and heartfelt...

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Sunjay Dutt and John Donne

Sunjay Dutt committed a crime, was caught, tried, and after fourteen long years, was finally found guilty and sent to jail. But this piece is not about him, not about whether he was guilty or innocent, nor about the quantum of his sentence. It's about the high decibel clamour from Bollywood protesting against his sentence. It's about everyone from Dilip Kumar to the newest wannabe shouting from the rooftops about what a saint Sunjay is, about how he was just a victim of the circumstances, about how he has reformed. To a man (and woman) they declaim before the cameras that "poor Sunjay" must be set free. The touching camaraderie almost brought a lump to my throat. The man must be a really lovable type, I thought, for all his colleagues to jump to his defence like this. Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends And Influence People" come to life.

Just then, my brain's resident cynical imp woke up, took one look at my train of thought and hooted with derision. "You poor mug, do you really believe that they are all so deeply concerned about Sunjay Dutt? Most of them couldn't care less about what happens to him! My poor innocent, this outrage isn't about Sunjay Dutt at all. What has got them deeply worried is that the invisible wall of immunity they have always taken for granted has been breached."

As usual, the imp was right. These people have played fast and loose with the laws of the land, firm in their conviction that the laws did not apply to them. Up to now they've got away with murder. Money, and the aura of stardom ensured that they were never called to account for their crimes - ranging from drugs to bigamy to tax evasion to posing as farmers to grab agricultural land to mowing down innocent men, women and children while drunk. To be above the law was the birthright of the stars. Sunjay Dutt's case has violated this very birthright. That is what the shrill hysteria is all about. Dutt is simply a cloak for the fear that has taken root in their hearts - the fear that tomorrow the law may call them to account for their crimes. The fear that finally the law may actually implement what was till now a pleasant fiction - that all are equal before the law.

Unbidden, John Donne's lines sprang to mind :

Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

The Bollywood bigwigs have heard the bell tolling - and they don't like the sound one bit!

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Yahoo Mail Cleaner

Yahoo e-mail account-holders are familiar with the irritation of losing nearly one-fourth of the width of the browser workspace to advertisements. Grit your teeth and bear with it if you want a free web-mail service was the unspoken message. Now, for Firefox users, there's a way around this. First you need to install the Greasemonkey extension. Greasemonkey is one of the best extensions available for Firefox. It enables the user to customise the way web pages display by installing scripts. Once you've installed Greasemonkey and re-started Firefox, install the Yahoo Mail Cleaner script available here. Re-start Firefox and go to your Yahoo Mail. Abracadabra, hey presto, no ads and a full width message reading experience. Firefox's customisability wins hands down again. If you're still using Internet Explorer, do yourself a favour - get Firefox.

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