Corporate Planning

Plot is planned, a clever trap laid
Money spills as spin machines trade

Effulgent in smart labeled suits
Pert fleet footed those high fliers

Billboard images that entice
With painted dreams of fancy lies

Deceived by the glitterati
Sizezero-sixpack guarantee

Mind, the body image controls
Beauty begets fame and laurels

Not all are blessed traffic stoppers
Most numskull dream-body hopers

In a bank vault his laughter rings
Beauty hunter an old song sings

The fat man’s mind bestirred berserk
Pills and drills and suctions at work

A cruel diet gives way soon
To depression binging of doom

Self loathing and neurosis stays
Constant companions for days


2008
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.

Choices

Walking along the shaded avenue
Raintree canopy close-fitting over
Velvet red orange carpet strewn under
I hardly noticed a little path new
Between the bushes to the far yonder.

Every road is made by walking, they say
And so down the road I stealthily walked
What awaits me at the end I wondered
Not once on the walkway wander nor sway
Absorbed abundant turns of twists offered

Chided and coxed by them fairies and gnomes
Each solo into ears whispered and hissed
Choices a hundred to be picked and tried
Not hard nor fast were these destiny games
End special is, I guess, if a fair game played

A road is made for walking, I reckon
On thorns, stones and silky flowers that beckon


August 25, 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.

Cards of Life

A deck of cards-

The cards of life

A few open

Some closed

A few candid sunny

Some mysterious dark.

A change in life

With the luck of draw,

A new friend,

A useful skill,

A fresh outlook,

A missed chance,

A dormant talent,

A misused gift,

A useless card that

Drops away with time,

Que Sera Sera,

What will be, will be!

Among discarded cards-

The unsung card

Horribly trampled

Underneath feet.

Miles in time to go

Before you know,

A fitting choice

Or the draw of death?

C'est la vie!

What can you do?

A new card awaited,

In childlike pizzazz,

Cards are drawn

And cards are dropped

Goes forth life

A happy bumpy ride

Bright open windows

Of the house of cards,

Hold back or dive in,

The gamble is fate.

Oh Kismat! Oh Moira!

October 25, 2009

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind - all rights reserved.

Brightest Star

If you ask me what I want most in life
Freedom, I'd say, to fly the skies
Free as a lark with unclipped wings
Like a lone bird that new pasture searches.

If you ask me what I treasure most in life
My mind, I'd say, that sets me free
on the highway to the world, then to see
the open sky, now to be the sea?s invitee.

If you ask me what I cherish most in life
Friend, I'd say, to wipe those tears.
A sounding board to bounce my worries.
With a simple word puts back the smiles.

If you ask me what I love most in life
My son, I'd say, my brightest star,
An unwanted birth to say the fact,
A birth, which tested my love to it?s fullest.

Never thought when I named him 'Ashwin'
there was a 'winner' in so small a being,
That little life, he came back fighting,
in a contest with death, awe-inspiring

Took to cricket at the age of seven.
With bat and ball, the ground his heaven.
He loves challenges and oppositions.
Full of initiative and nervous energy.

Fond of speed and loves things done quickly.
As if on hot bricks he fidgets impatiently
his energy and spirit never ceases to amaze
as he waits for others to keep up pace.

So darling 'Potti', as we lovingly call him
Sail forth to unknown calm or choppy water,
There waits a world for you to conquer,
So here's to a win, dear Ashwin the winner.



(May, 2006, Nellore)
@Nalini Hebbar/openmind - all rights reserved.

Ethics Annexed

Ethics and morals are tricky ciphers
ciphers used to set down limits
limits that bind society together.

Lines drawn in thin air by laws
laws seem made only to be broken
broken by people living perilously.

No one questions the source of money
money buys respect and status in life
life of immunity smiles on them

Loopholes are unearthed to be exploited
exploited by people living close to the line
line that cracks open in money?s shadow.

Nations have camouflaged lines of ethics
ethics that conveniently amend and revise
revised perceptions of murder and abuse.

Rich people and nations both progress
progress made by the loot of graves
graves of the weak crushed in the march.

Wars cross limits as bombs are dropped
Dropped on ethics foreign but cherished
Cherished lives forgotten as power corrupts.

All around are ethics misused and modified
modified to help the rich get richer rapidly
rapidly are ethics swept under the carpet.

What then are ethics that we hold so close
close to our heart in the name of God
God?s name when uttered by an exploiter too?

Does that mean that ethics are for fools
Fools who live in a fantasy of goodness
Goodness that buys poverty and weakness?

The Day the Wind Read My Dairy

The wind read my old dairy
One page every second
Pressed flowers and peacock feathers
A pale letter and a picture postcard
Triangular stamp - an envy at school

My life replays before my eyes
One scene every second
Memories flood to clog my throat
Tears and smiles fight to reign
My face an emotional seesaw.

Nameless faces, the spoken word
One line every second
Frozen in space, face and word
Stream into my ear, out the other
Tingling braincells dance like hell

I will call out to the wind
One day every year
Visit me as I sit at the window
Old diary waits to be opened
To add life to memories missing.

Thursday, July 23, 2009
@Nalini Hebbar/openmind - all rights reserved.

Born for Each Other

The feeling of hollow in her only deepened
As she sat at her window watching kids play
The giggles and the smiling faces wounded
Her heart, her barren life hopeless and empty.
Mocking remarks rung loud and offended
As she got up to get the dinner ready

Her husband, her second, a soul very kind
Her need he understood with sympathy
But one fateful day her distressed mind
Could no more take the mocking kindly
In her a three-month life she now carried
To all snide people she declared boldly.

Ridden with guilt of a lie so hastily spoken
She slipped further into sleepless depression
With those around her doting with concern
A baby she now needed to find in desperation
Delays in adoption only made her worsen
Too many questions, no quick fix solution

What mother would give her a baby she wanted?
With time against her she decided to try
In different towns she desperately hunted
Till in a slum living in grave poverty
She found a mother with a child unwanted
Grateful she fell to her knees to cry

She took into her arms the baby with care
Terribly distressed to separate the pair
But as her white lie loomed large before her
She turned for last glimpse of her saviour.
She saw her silent mouth stifle the screams
And two eyes filled with unshed tears

With hardened heart she quickened her steps
A sudden change of heart she half expects
Not until she was finally safe in her house
Did she dare look at her baby girl?s face
She fell deep in love with the weak little lass
For she had entered her being as if was hers.