Solitude is my lover.

 Solitude is my lover &

Silence is my muse

However, though it’s a curse

When the choices I prefer are

Conversation and comradery.

 

I speak less these days

For fear of being misunderstood

Misinterpreted and boxed into a

Category of not my making.

 

One sentence that results from

Employment of commonsense and

 

Meat eaters call me a hypocrite

Hindus call me a Muslim lover

Vegetarians brand me cruel

Liberals declare me blinkered

Conservatives label me a radical

Dalits accuse me a privileged Brahmin

Old announce I am an iconoclast

Christians slot me a heretic

Young stamp me orthodox

Muslims assail me a closet Sanghi

Women call me a misogynist

Brahmins name me a populist

Men ridicule me as a feminist

Educated say that I am that rare specimen

That can exist without a brain

The idiots call me names

And the educated idiots, resort to troll

 

Clueless and clobbered

I resolve never to utter another word

Retreat into my shell

And nurse my wounds!

 

Bob Dylan sang

How many times can a man turn his head?

 

Provoked and concerned

Or probably

Provoked because I am concerned

I utter my next statement and am

Drawn into the same whirlpool again.

 

Give up this torture

Advise me, my well-wishers.

You can’t change the world

Discourage the pessimists.

Can’t ignore the power of one

Goad me the eternal optimists.

 

Torn between hope and despair

Tormented as my default state

Vacillating between the

Desire to effect a change

And the inability to endure the pain

I immerse myself in

Challenging tasks and imposing tomes

Candid conversations and constructive thoughts

New hobbies and enervating workouts

 

I stay away and lie low

But beneath the ash

The embers continue to glow

And sooner than I know

Am drawn to shoot the next arrow.

 

I have been fighting for long

Trying too strong

The older I get

The more tiring it gets.

Even though I love the company

I am now forced to confess

Solitude is my lover &

Silence is my muse.

The photograph was taken by me  somewhere between Pune and Goa cca 2009.