The Holy War

In today's world, my friend
I am unable to comprehend

Why is it that anyway you turn
Heads have wounds, hands have guns

Eyes are tearful, the dove's afire
And every act arouses a new ire

Another one killed and someone cries
They're barbarian, we're the good guys

If God is omnipresent, is in everyone
Can one kill someone, and not Him some?

I am not a Muslim, nor a Hindu
I am not a Christian, nor a Jew

Love is the religion on which grew
Where did we get the venom to spew

Let's go out again, bask in sunshine
I'll hold your hand, you hold mine

An Italian's Holiday to Scotland

This is a funny little piece that we were given at a charming little Italian restaurant in Edinburgh. The place is called La Lanterna, is located at Hanover Street, and has a dainty hostess in Antonietta Zaino, popularly known as Toni. Enjoy the humor of the pleasant people of La Lanterna (verbatim):

An Italian's Holiday to Scotland

One day I ma come to Scotland to a bigga posha Hotel. I goa down to eat some breakfast. I tella the waitress I wanna two pissa toast. She bringa me only one piss so I tella her I wanna two piss, she saya go to the toilet, I say you no understand I wanna two piss on my plate. She say you better no piss on the plate you sonna Ma bitch. I don't even know the lady an she calla me sonna Ma bitch.....Then I goa to eat soma lunch. The waitress bringa me a spoon, ana knife, but no fock. I tella her I wanna fock. She tellsa me everybody wanna fock. I tella her, you no understand, I wanna fock on the table. She say you better not fock on the table you sonna Ma bitch, I don't even know the lady an she calla me sonna Ma bitch. So I goa back to my room inna hotel, an there's no sheet on my bed. I calla the manager and tell him I wanna sheet. He tellsa me go to the toilet. So I say you no understand, I wanna sheet on the bed. He say you better not sheet on the bed, you sonna Ma bitch. I donna even know the man ana he calla me a sonna Ma bitch. I goa to check out ana the man at the desk, he say peace to you. I say piss anna you too, you sonna Ma bitch. I goa back to Italy!!!

Ba(Sin) City

Are you expecting something like Robert Rodriguez's previous feats El Mariachi, Desperado or Once Upon a Time in Mexico? Or some standard comic-book fare like Frank Miller's Elektra?
You have no idea what you are getting yourself into. Perhaps you missed the "guest director" part of the credits. Quentin Tarantino, yells (everything yells in the movie) this special credit. Achtung baby! Don't put a foot inside the theater if Kill Bill made you queasy.

The credits also say that the movie is an adaptation of graphic novels of the same name by Frank Miller. To tell you the truth, I missed the adaptation. I just got the graphic novels. And thoroughly enjoyable ones at that, I must admit.

The movie has three intertwined stories. Chief of them, is the story of Marv, a tough-as-nails misanthrope out to avenge the murder of Goldie, a prostitute that he had fallen in love with, in just one night. Dwight, the clandestine lover of Shelley, is out to protect his beloved from Jackie Boy. He ends up fighting to defend Gail and her Old Town girls. What a sucker for the damsel in distress! Oh, and there is Hartigan who takes on the most powerful politician of the slimy city to protect a girl's honor. Love truly brings out the best and the worst in men.

Initially, as one story gave way to another, I was reminded of Prawal Raman's Darna Mana Hai, which I thought was a good movie, though not even close to being in the same vicinity as Sin City. Anyways, while the friends give narratorial support and interconnectivity to Raman's stories, characters of Sin City touch each other's lives in invisible ways in the "normal" course of things. Also, Sin City makes the protagonists moonlight as narrators. That is probably what gave me the impression of reading a novel. I enjoy reading books much more than watching movies based on them, partly because movies don't let you get into the mind of the characters. This movie lets me know what the protagonist is thinking, and that's cool.

The director has chosen to use exaggeration as a stylistic element, as is appropriate for a comic-book of this kind. So, there are monster-from-hellish characters, unspeakable evil and incredible action-feats. And you watch all that without batting an eyelid. The most striking manifestation of the art of exaggeration, though, is in the chromography of the movie. It is a black and white movie of the film noir genre with certain elements like blood and lipstick in color. This exclusivity accentuates the colors and works magic on the screen.

For all that sorcery, the stories are simple but amazingly human. You start feeling for, rooting for, and praying for the protagonists as if they were real people. Marv achieves the amazing coup by simultaneously activating in you a feeling of awe and pity through his invincibility and vulnerability. The crooked photographer Dwight seems like the most upright man in the world.

And your heart goes out to Hartigan when he says, "An old man dies; a young woman lives. Fair trade."

Method in Madness

Rrriinnggg...the shrill sound of my barely-functional, minimalistic landline telephone rudely pulls me out of my slumber and dumps me into a half-awake state.

It's 4.30 pm. I had gone to bed just a couple of hours earlier after 5 days of hardly a wink. "I don't wanna get up", I mumble. But the phone is insistent. So I crawl to the phone and grudgingly pick it up.

The conversation makes up for it. "So, you are about to leave for Scotland, even before I go back home to Trinidad for good? How about catching a play?"

I think that's a wonderful idea.

"There are two options: one is Shear Madness - it's a comedy and a murder mystery surrounding the death of a retired pianist planning a comeback; the other is called Five Guys Named Moe, also a comedy. Both are running at the Woodruff Arts Center. We may get the Thursday tickets."

"Well, go ahead, get them," I say, secretly hoping that we go to Shear Madness as the combination of a comedy and a murder mystery sounds interesting.

Thursday arrives, and Shear Madness it is. After a false start, and a silent nag over my walking-speed (or the lack thereof), we manage to board the MARTA bus that will take us to our destination.

Tickets collected from the box-office, we walk into the opera store where some souvenir-shopping is done. Of course, broke as always, I haven't bought anything. Then comes the frantic search for the Hertz Stage, which is not exactly inside the Woodruff Arts Center, contrary to what the Woodruff Arts Center website may lead you to believe.

Upon entrance, it amazes us how small the auditorium is. With a capcity of just about 200 seats wrapped around the stage, it is definitely the smallest theater either of us has ever seen. The stage is set up like a barber's saloon, and even the wallpaper features the tools of the trade. As we take our seats, I can't help smiling with amusement as I notice several Coca-Cola advertisements on the background-wall of the stage. Now I'm certain that this indeed is WOODRUFF Arts Center.

Shear Madness is the name of the saloon that the whole play is set in. During the course of events, the audience discovers that a retired stage-artist has been killed upstairs. Two undercover cops, who passed-off as customers earlier, assert that the killer is one (or more) of the four people present in the saloon. After investigation and interrogation, when a clear picture doesn't emerge, the cops ask the audience to step-in and join the dots.

Access Atlanta calls the play silly. I think Shear Madness is why theater is not about to die anytime soon.

Movies and television have taken away much of the entertainment value of theater, and used that as the foundation to build skyscrapers. Compared to theaterical productions, they have huge expert teams, unlimited access to technology and special effects, great possibilities in terms of visual presentation, the triple-comfort of retake-edit-dub, massive budgets and, of course, countless viewers.

In the face of such formidable competition, what can theater do? Should it continue doing the same old thing that it has been doing for centuries, hoping that the audience would turn up for the sake of tradition? That's the Broadway formula. And the opera formula. They seems to have a unique brand of reverse-snobbery fed continuously by their "art savvy" patrons. In fact, I've heard people say that stage-play performers are better actors than those in movies. I find the idea ridiculous. Granted that theater actors don't have retakes, and therefore no room for mistakes, but then again, to cater to large live audience, they rely on acting-by-body rather than histrionics.

I believe that as long as theater keeps doing the same things, it will continue to be a poor cousin to movies and TV.

Shear Madness is not a passive, run-of-the-mill theater production. It leverages the unique advantage of theater - live audience! Thus, not only does it weave-in city-specific and contemporary jokes, but actually gets the audience involved by making the script interactive. So, every show is different.

Admittedly, this is controlled and programmed interactivity since there are 4 different but scripted endings depending upon what the audience wants. Not quite like improv-comedy shows. But this is certainly heads and shoulders above any interactivity that I have seen in any theater-play. And the quality of interaction is great - completely engaging.

Besides, it is very funny. Not the kind of raunchy comedy that stage-comedies have come to represent, but genuinely funny, and the kind that you can watch with your mother and your kids. It's got something for everybody. From the burly, moustachioed, gay & funny barber to his girly, full-of-attitude assistant, and from the eager-beaver cop to the old, high-scoiety lady, the characters will make you smile and lighten-up.

Thumbs and toes up for Shear Madness. Watch it.

The Inferno of Heaven on Earth

"Gar firdaus, ruhe zamin ast, hamin asto, hamin asto, hamin asto"1 (If there is a heaven on earth, this is it, this is it, this is it)
- Jehangir [1569-1627], 5th Mogul2 emperor of India (1605-1627)

"(Kashmir is) the most dangerous place in the world today."3 (March 2000)
- William Jefferson Clinton [1946-], 42nd President of United States of America (1993-2001)

Something, somewhere, obviously went terribly wrong. So wrong, in fact, that in 2002 the world came dangerously close - the closest since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 - to a nuclear war.

So, what happened? What is Kashmir all about? Why can't these two nations that are literally joined at the hip, live together in peace? If you've ever wondered about those questions, you are in luck. This article attempts to uncover the background that few know, and fewer care to explain. Even if you are an Indian or a Pakistani, you have to keep reading, for we are seldom, if ever, shown the complete picture by our politicians.

While the ultimate genesis of the Kashmir issue can be traced back to the division on Bengal on religious lines, what is of utmost importance is to understand is how the territorial dispute begun.

After 1858, when India was formally declared Britain's "Crown Colony", colonial authority was exercised in dual fashion. About 60% of the territory was administered directly, while some “princely states” continued to be governed by local rulers – Maharaja, Raja, Nawab, or Nizam – who acknowledged the “paramountcy” of Britain. Under the doctrine of paramouncy, the monarchs could do pretty much what they wanted as long as they deferred to the crown on defense, foreign affairs, and communications. The status of these princely states was ambiguous and resembled the 'protectorate' system. This played out at the time on independence in 1947.

At the time of independence and partition, there were 562 princely states that varied in size from tiny fiefdoms to giant states like Mysore, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kashmir. Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy, decreed that the states were free to join either India or Pakistan, but three principles would have to be taken into consideration. One was geographic contiguity, so if you were deep in the heart of India or what was going to become India, you couldn’t reasonably expect to join Pakistan. (Or for that matter, as the Nawab of Pakistan’s Khairpur and Sindh found out when he wanted to join India, and Nehru4 declined, saying “You’re in the heart of Sindh, we’re not going to have a Berlin corridor linking you with India.”) The second principle was demography. Pakistan would be the predominantly Muslim areas. Hence you get this peculiar geographic anomaly of countries separated by about 1500 miles of hostile territory; and third, which was somewhat contradictory, the final decision was that of the monarch. So the principles were not all exactly congruent.

Within weeks of independence, most princely states acceded either to India or to Pakistan, with a few notable exceptions.

One small state – Junagadh (now in Gujarat) – which was geographically far from Pakistan and contiguous with India, had a Muslim ruler, and a Hindu-majority populace. The ruler chose to join Pakistan. Revolt against him occurred. Using the revolt as pretext, India invaded the town. The Nawab fled and Junagadh was absorbed into the Indian Federation after a plebiscite in which the population voted overwhelmingly in India’s favor.

Roughly the size of Egypt, Hyderabad was the largest of the princely states. The Nizam (Muslim ruler) – reputed at the time to be richest man in the world – decided that he wanted to remain independent. The overwhelmingly Hindu population of this state in south central India, without access to the sea, revolted. In September 1948, a mechanized division of the Indian Army moved into Hyderabad and integrated it into India.

Bear these two accessions in mind as they are critical to Pakistan's claim over Kashmir. But for the moment, let's hold that thought and move on to the third principality.

Kashmir, in size larger than Syria, posed a peculiar problem. It was contiguous to both India and Pakistan. It had a Hindu monarch and a predominantly Muslim population. So where do you go? Both Indians and Pakistanis made representations to Maharaja Hari Singh, who entertained visions of independence. Both India and Pakistan signed a "Stand Still Agreement" with him allowing him time to decide.

Ultimately, as the maharaja refused to accede to either India or Pakistan and vacillated on the question of accession, a rebellion broke out in the Kashmiri district of Poonchh in late October 1947. The rebels quickly started to march on Srinagar, Kashmir's capital city. Faced with this rebel onslaught, the maharaja panicked and appealed to India for assistance. India promptly sent in troops, but not before one-third of the state had been occupied by the rebels, who were now assisted by Pakistani regular troops dressed as local tribesmen.5 India had also put a price on this help: Kashmir’s accession to India.

After the Indian Army stopped the Pakistani and rebel advance, the maharaja acceded to India on October 25, 1947, but with an important proviso: that at some point a plebiscite would be held to determine the wishes of the Kashmiris.

The government of Pakistan refused to recognize the accession and denounced it as a fraud even though the Indian government announced that it would require an expression of the people's will through a plebiscite after the invaders were driven back. Pakistan launched an active military and diplomatic campaign to undo the accession.

Pakistan has two major objections to the accession. Firstly, it questions the maharaja’s authority to accede, as ruler of Kashmir. It argues that since there was a rebellion, and the fact that he asked India for military aid, Hari Singh did not have control of the territory and was therefore not a competent authority to sign the Instrument of Accession.

Then, it questions whether the Instrument was ever actually signed. While Lord Mountbatten, Prime Minister Nehru and Maharaja Hari Singh are the declared signatories, the Instrument of Accession was neither presented to the United Nations nor to Pakistan. UN directives state that every treaty entered into by a member of the United Nations must be registered with the Secretariat of the United Nations. While non-presentation does not void the treaty, it does mean that India cannot invoke the treaty before any organ of the United Nations. Moreover, further shedding doubt on the treaty’s validity, in 1995 Indian authorities claimed that the original copy of the treaty was either stolen or lost.

Well, actually, Pakistan has a third argument as well: it points to the precedents of Junagarh and Hyderabad and demands plebiscite. India counters by saying that Junagarh and Hyderabad were not contiguous to Pakistan while Kashmir is to India, and therefore the analogy does not apply.

Indian Prime Minister Nehru, on the advice of Lord Mountbatten, sent the Kashmir case to the UN Security Council for adjudication, thinking that it would be a neutral ground where things could be decided along the canons of international law. That’s the last time India’s referred anything to the Security Council or believed in the neutrality of international law.

Very quickly the Kashmir dispute became entrapped in the warp and woof of the Cold War. Since the region had significant Soviet presence (Afghanistan etc.), the US was interested in maintaining a substantial Anglo-American presence in Pakistan and thus translated its profound anticommunist impulse into a strong pro-Pakistan sentiment.

The UN decided in a series of resolutions, especially two important ones in 1948-49, that three things have to happen in Kashmir. Pakistan had to vacate its aggression, India then had to reduce troops commensurate to the maintenance of law and order, and third, a plebiscite would be held to determine the wishes of the Kashmiris. None of these three things have happened.

After about 1960, the UN basically withdrew from this conflict for all practical purposes. Since then, Pakistan has ritualistically raised the issue in the UN every fall when the UN opens, and similarly the Indian representative has exercised his or her right of reply.





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1 From “Jahangirnama” (memoirs/ biography of Jehangir)
2 Mogul is the Persian name for Mongol. The Mogul dynasty, established by Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babar who invaded India in 1526, was ruling a large part of India at the time imperial English entered the country as traders. The term has since entered English vocabulary to mean a rich and powerful person
3 From "President Clinton arrives in Bangladesh for historic visit", March20, 2000, http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/south/03/20/clinton.bangladesh/
4 Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India
5 Maj. Gen. Akbar Khan in “Raiders in Kashmir”, where he proudly talks about how he gave leave to his men and organized them, trained them, provided them weaponry, trucks and the like, to aid the rebels.

Vegas Baby!

This was my Vegas weekend. But don't get any ideas already. I was there on business.

You are already aware that Las Vegas is called the sin city. I'd rather call it the city of indulgence. And I did see some posters hailing it as the city that never sleeps, though technically, New York is the city that never sleeps.

You know where you are as soon as you land in the city. There are slot machines in the airport lounges! As you walk out of the airport, you can see the skyline dotted with tall casino/hotel buildings.

Apparently, the bulk of action is on a small patch of land called “the strip”. The casino/hotel buildings are typically architecturally interesting and theme-based, unless you are looking at an old-school casino like Treasure Island.

Some of these are quite remarkable. MGM Grand is bathed in green light at night, but otherwise looks pretty much like a regular 5-star hotel. Inside, it has some elegant lighting and is relatively subdued.

But then you get out and see something like Disneyland across the road. You go there and find out that it is called Excalibur (like in the tale of King Arthur), and is built around the theme of medieval times. I thought it was very cheesy. It’s connected to something a called Luxor which is constructed as a pyramid.

Opposite the Excalibur is a casino I liked quite a bit. It’s New York New York. It’s built like, well, New York. You see the statue of liberty, the empire state building and a commemorative laser where the twin towers of world trade center should have been. Inside, it’s pretty cool…makes you feel at home pretty quickly. Feels nice to walk in the streets, grab a pizza or enjoy some idiot’s singing in a karaoke bar. Oh, and they also have a roller coaster and a great kids’ section.

Then there is the Bellagio. I didn’t go in, but right outside it are dancing fountains, and that is worth watching – day or night. Caesar’s Palace, the next in row, is built like you know what. It's under construction. Even so, the section open for public is huge. It's the biggest shopping destination in Vegas. In fact, I wasn’t aware that so many luxury brands existed as have showrooms in Caesar’s (just kidding, but its huge).

Opposite it, is Paris. It’s got an almost life-size Eiffel Tower. I didn’t go in, but apparently the people inside have an attitude, just like the French actually do. Oh, on the outside, there’s also a replica of the original hot air balloon.

Venetian is another casino, apart from NYNY, that I loved. It's got canals complete with gondolas and canal-side shops. Since they have to keep it clean, they have chosen pathway stones that look dirty, so as to match Venice as closely as possible.

Not to forget Aladdin. This one, of course, is set up as an Arabic adventure. I couldn’t find the time to visit it, though it looked interesting from the outside. Flamingo, as the name suggests, appeared to be a damn loud place. There are others like Bally’s and Imperial Palace on the strip, which are not worth mentioning. Further down the strip are Monte Carlo, Sahara, Circus Circus, Hard Rock, Stardust, Stratosphere, Riviera etc. but I didn’t get a chance to go any further than Harrah’s.

Harrah’s is where I worked on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a damn loud place too, but compared to Rio where I worked on Friday, it would be put down as tasteful.

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, a much feared gangster, is often credited with creating Las Vegas by setting up the first major casino Flamingo. He is credited with having the vision and foresight to create this business in the middle of the deserts of Nevada. He wasn’t the one to invent Vegas, though.

In fact, initially Siegel didn't see any worth in Vegas at all; it was hot, arid and in the middle of nowhere. However, Vegas did have one major advantage that was it was in the state of Nevada and in Nevada it was legal to gamble. He saw a standard mob related opportunity and decided to act on it. Bugsy Siegel is associated with gambling in Las Vegas so much even though his work in Vegas came at the very end of his life and his project of building the finest casino ultimately lead to his death. But he surely was the man who made Las Vegas into the gambling Mecca of the United States.

Overall, the casinos are the lifeline of Vegas.

The locals, however, don’t like to gamble in the casinos on the strip. They say these casinos have their machines “tightened”, meaning that the odds of winning are low. So they go to off-strip casinos that are meant for locals – have better odds, and accept smaller bets.

Though each casino is unique, the typical business model is the same. In one building, they have essentially 7 activities – casino, hotel, comedy show, magic show, semi-nude show, shopping mall, and eateries (including a buffet).

Off the strip, there’re helicopter and boat rides of the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead. There’s an ATV tour of the Grand Canyon as well. Heck, they even have bungee-jumping. (I never went off the strip – no time. A friend of mine who returned from there the day I left told me all about it) Then of course, you can rent Ferraris or Harley Davidsons or even scooters right on the strip.

That’s the family Vegas. Then there’s the Vegas underbelly, off the strip with strip-clubs and rampant prostitution. It is widely believed that even the casinos on the strip are the mob’s way of legalizing black money.

Anyways, the locals don’t like casinos. On one hand, they provide them employment whiled on the other, they suck money away from them. There is an angst against bankruptcies caused by casino gambling, and the couple of old ladies who helped me with my surveys also talked about how the traffic is very bad due to drunken driving (alcoholic beverages are typically free in most casinos) and also because of an overwhelming transit population (people visiting Vegas).

All in all, I think I’d like Vegas, if I went there for a pleasure trip. But I probably won't be able to handle more than 4-5 days of it (which is in stark contrast to my aforementioned friend who says she could live there).

Add some color to your lives

Happy Holi
The festival of colors

One of the two biggest Hindu festivals, Holi is often described as festival of colors. Indeed, it is a very colorful festival, in every sense of the word. The most obvious manifestation being the color play that marks the day. People smear each other's face with gulal (fragrant, dry holi color), squirt each other with colored water and dunk everyone in tanks of colored water. In fact, if you were in India at this time of the year, you couldn't walk a street without "becoming colorful".

But there is much more to Holi than colors. It is the day of unbridled laughter, ranging from the silly (biggest fool conferences) to intellectual (conventions of humorous and satirical poetry). Fun is the general theme of the day, and even as people color each other, they go about to homes of friends and acquaintaces in groups - always walking there, singing aloud in streets. There are several festival-specific delicacies including the sweet gujhiya and the mustard & cinnamon flavored ferment called karanji.

Most of all, Holi is the day of the embrace or the hug, as people meet each other, close the book of the last year, forget past enmities and embrace everyone as their own.

Holi, also known as Holikotsav (Holi Festival), Vasantostsav (Spring Festival), and Madanotsav (Festival of the God of Desire), is celebrated 20 days after Vasant Panchmi (5th day of Spring) - a festival marked by a kite-dotted sky and worship of the Goddess of Learning. It can also be thought of as the new year of the farmers (Diwali being the new year of traders), and is the time when the harvest of the season is just ready.

For a quick primer (4 very short pages) on Holi, visit http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa030401a.htm

You can send Holi eCards to your desi friends from http://www.123greetings.com/events/holi/

You may also want to check out the rather amateurishly charming game Rang De (Color Me) at http://games.indiatimes.com/gameslist/gameshow/47845680.cms

Quotation of the Day

"Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand."
- one of my MBA professors

America says Kerry on Bush

I’m running late for a class and cursing the elevator for it’s speed, or the lack thereof, when it halts at a floor. But I don’t mind because as the door opens, a very attractive girl wearing a rather tempting dress enters. We nod at each other, and I struggle hard not to make my stare too obvious.

She speaks, “I’m considering whether to go for the class at 1.30 or watch Kerry’s speech at 2.” That was abrupt, but I gather myself together, “What? To watch him concede?” She agrees that it would have been so much more worthwhile had Kerry won, and decides that attending the class may be a better idea.

By now, my interest is aroused. So I go down to the business school lounge at two to check out the mood. The lounge is jam-packed with somber looking youngsters. While some show frustration (“Why did he have to concede? What did he have to lose if he waited?”), the general mood is of disappointed resignation.

I check back at three (the time of Bush’s acceptance speech) only to find the lounge largely empty. Those who are present aren’t ecstatic either. The dominant emotion in the Bush camp is relief. This is a southern state, a Republican stronghold, so one can well imagine the reaction across the campuses in pro-Democrat states.

Young America cares and more youth voted in this election than in any before it. According to The Boston Globe, at least 20.9 million Americans under the age of 30 voted in this presidential-election, which is an increase of 4.6 million over 2000.

It is abundantly clear that the young voters favored Kerry. I jokingly paraphrase Churchill “If you are not a Democrat at 20 you don’t have a heart. If you are not a Republican at 40, you don’t have a brain.” A student sitting on the next couch, says sagely, “Just because the young voted for Kerry, why did everyone think he would win? America has a very grey population and a lot of the old, ‘very American’ people came out to vote for Bush.”

The president to have won by the thinnest margin ever is also the president to have received the highest number of votes ever. That is America’s democracy for you. Quirky. Intriguing. Alive.

Quotation of the Day

"Life is dangerous; it has a 100% mortality rate."
- yours truly The Maverick

The Irony

True, I was sad but at least I didn’t know as much
Sure, I didn’t know that I was waiting for your touch

Yes, I was alone but at least wasn’t lonely
Till I hadn’t seen your face so lovely

I used to think that I was in control of my life
And then you walked in and bared the strife

You have turned everything in my life topsy turvy
An acute pain of the realization that I was unhappy

I have been longing for you since I was born
Didn’t know you but eternally love-lorn

Watching your bright smile light up the room
Makes me believe that I can ward off the gloom

The way wind blows up your tress
Reassures me that I am capable of bliss

I have the whole world in my control
And you have control on which way I roll

So near – just need move my hand to touch yours
Yet so far that I’d not try and sit still for hours

My dream that steals my sleep, My life yet not in my life,
My love, are you my greatest joy, or my biggest plight?

Quotation of the Day

"There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who can read binary, and those who can't."
- yours truly The Maverick