Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Friday 29 May 1970

O POWAI



_____________________________________
O , Powai :

End of the road
For these non-animate
Buses and trucks
Full stop !

And yet
The very beginning of a road,
Of a career,
Of a search for happiness
-    material for most
-    spiritual for some,
To the thousands
Very very animate
Humans,
A place of work
Of worship
Of daily pilgrimage
Sacrosanct

O Powai

These people breathe
Beneath your boundless, blue canopy
An air, full of dignity
Of human labour,
And give you a soul,
These people,
Your children all

O Powai

Give you a soul
To make you come alive
With their joys and fears
And their frustrations
And their dreams.

They breathe life
In your machines,
In the glass and steel and concrete
Of your edifices,
In your asphalt roads,
In the red of your gold-mohur
And the greens of your lawns.

These people sweat
From dawn to dusk,
To deliver
No mere goods, but
Promises
Of a better tomorrow,
To the teeming millions
Of this ancient land.

Return to them,
A thousand fold
What they give you,
O Powai

Your soul.
----------------------------------------------------
Written : 29  May  1970
Later published in Powai Pageant
------------------------------------------------
______________________________________________________






O Jawahar



_______________________________________________________
Write a hundred
A thousand
Ten thousand lines ,
To only find
A Picasso of his image
Enigmatic ,
Almost
Like the cosmos
Manifesting in
A thousand ,
Ten thousand ,
A million
Moods :

To sometimes
Rise above
The teeming multitudes ,
Lonesome
Lost to his own self ;
But always finding
In narrow , winding ,
Lanes of love
A way
To the hearts
Of his countrymen ;
And trying
Not to live in vain ,
This Apostle
This voice from beyond
The stellar wind ,
O Jawahar
Sayonara ,
Al Vida ,
Jai Hind !

----------------------

29 May 1964

______________________________________________________




Tuesday 26 May 1970

Since Time Began



_______________________________________________________
On this busy street
By noon ,
The city writhes in agony,
The clamor of the cars and trucks
Shatters every nerve :
The rush
The mad , mad rush is on,
The motion reigns supreme
The only manifestation of life .

On this very street
The quiet morning tip-toes
To waken me,
To waken the birds cuddled
In their nests,
To fill their throats , once more
With the same song
They have sung everyday

Since time began

______________________________________________________



Monday 25 May 1970

Heart is Weary




_______________________________________________________
My heart is weary
A heart that knows
One Master
Who delivers from bondage ,
But perforce
Obeys
Enslaving another
Whose chains
Forever cut deeper –
And whose lashes
Lay bare
Such wounds ,
I wonder

If time would ever heal .

______________________________________________________


=========================

Hindi transliteration dt 05  March  2018


ज़ख्म गहरे होते चले है


-------------------------------------

अब दिल थक चुका है  ;

वो जानता है उस मालिक को 
जो बंधनो को काटता है ,

मगर मानता है उस को 
जो बंधनो से बांधता है  -

जिसकी ज़ंजीरो ने 
उम्र को जकड रख्हा है ;

और जिसके घाव से 
ज़ख्म गहरे होते चले है ;


क्या आएगा कभी 
वो समय 
जो 
मरहम लगाएगा  ?

Friday 22 May 1970

The Burden of your Soul



_______________________________________________________
And for me
It was not just “ half the fun “
But all the fun
In getting there.

So you have lost your fun ?
So what ?
Why aren’t you thankful
To be alive ?

Your limbs can move
And you can breathe
And make a sound ,
And sometime share
With your friends
And even your sweetheart,
An illusion of happiness.

What more can you hope
When you can propagate
A breed your kind,
Your name
Made of the eternal alphabet .

Oh , stop being an ingrate
Oh , stop worrying me,
Oh ! Oh ! Oh !
Won’t you stop being
Such a prude :

And if you cannot bear,
The burden of your soul ,
Please ,
Do me a favor ,
Go jump in the river
And stop
Stop breathing

Full stop .

_____________________________________________________




Tuesday 19 May 1970

Darkness of the Night




_______________________________________________________
If you could only
See the darkness
Of the night
That is me ,
Perhaps your love
For me
Would find the strength
To cast away
Your sense of fairness
To the others ;
And find me.

______________________________________________________


=====================

Hindi transliteration dt 8 / 6 / 2019

Saturday, 8 June 2019


जरूर देख पाओगी

'गर तुम
रात के अँधेरे को देख पाओ
तो समजो
की वो तो मैं ही हूँ  ;

'गर तुम
भूल पाओ की ,
औरों के अलावा
तुम्हारी जवाबदेही
मेरे लिए भी कुछ हैं ,
तो शायद
उस काले , घने , अँधेरे में भी ,
मुझे
जरूर देख पाओगी 

Monday 18 May 1970

Now You are here ( I am here )



_______________________________________________________
You were long to come
But you have come.

I had expected you
To come by early morn ,
So I woke up with the birds
And brought some flowers
From the garden .

I sat there at the door
Looking down
The narrow path
Where it turns
At the edge of the forest .

I wondered
If you would come singing
The song of young spring ,
And look lovelier
Than the morning dew
On rose petals .

But
I could hear nothing
Except
The echoes of my thoughts
In my empty heart ;

And it was almost noon
When you came ;
On my closed eyes
You touched your lips .

I thought I was dreaming –
But then you whispered
In my ears ,
“  I am here “ .

You were long to come
But I know

Now you are here .

______________________________________________________





Tuesday 12 May 1970

True Love ( The Dawn )




_______________________________________________________
And lo !
True love has dawned ,
Like sun
Upon a ravaged earth ;

In the morning silence
Brooding ,
The fury of
The dark

And stormy night .


Bombay
12 May 1959



______________________________________________________



Monday 11 May 1970

The Shape and the Shapeless ( Who am I ? )



_______________________________________________________
Many worlds,
My many worlds are all
Suddenly upon me ;

The world within
And
The world without ,
The world beyond, and
The world to which
I am bound.

There is an utter chaos
Of fleeting thoughts
Of meandering moods ,
These eternally changing
Colors
On mind’s canvass :

Am I forever lost
In this
Wilderness of worlds ?

These
Seemingly endless
Worlds of words,
Of thesis and anti-thesis,
For and against
The man
And his credo :

Of love and hate
Truth and untruth
The myriad isms,

The man
Torn twice
By the self – negating gods
And the self – exalting goddesses.
Vacillating between
The shape and the shapeless
The real and the ethereal ;

Who am I
Or what ?
The formula ,
The bio-chemical chromosomes ? 
The all pervading DNA ?

Am I ,
The transcendental knowledge
Or the perfect anti-matter,
The one and only illusion,
The unknown,

The unknowable ?

_____________________________________________________





Saturday 9 May 1970

Awake my sleeping soul



_______________________________________________________
Deliver me from all the fears ,
True love ,
That chill my heart ,
My fetters cut ,
For these hands , again
To mould our future
Together ;
These chains
That bind to earth
Remove ;
With a gentle touch , awake
My sleeping soul
And lead thru this
Dismal darkness
My ferry

To love’s haven .

_______________________________________________________



Friday 1 May 1970

No one knows



_____________________________________________________
You have suffered much
My poor little heart !
And for naught ,
Have you undergone
Great pains
Amidst what pleasures !

O my miserable soul !
How should I praise
Those tears you shed
Trickling down a smiling face !

No one knew
How torn were you ,
Tossed by the waves
Of the raging blues ,

My restless soul !

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
( May 1956 )

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