Slaughterer rain

Some other day,
I would have fallen in love
with this cool breeze,
Light drizzle falling on lush green trees,
Would have looked like pearl, the drops on the leaves,
From my hectic schedule, it would have felt like a breather,
But today I hate, I abhor, I detest this weather!
These drops look like tears of blood,
The small puddles look like sorrowful flood,
Today can not forgive this murderous rain,
For killing an innocent brother,
a saviour gone in vain,
We just pray
for we don't know
how to prevail over
this agonizing pain!!

किसी और दिन
मेरा मन मोह लेता
झोंका ये ठंडी हवा का,
ये मंद-मंद बारिश कि फुहार,
नयी कोपलों पर बूँदों का मोतियों सा हार,
मेरे मन को फिर से रोमांचित कर देता
किंतू इस मौसम से धृणा होती है इस वक्त
यह पानी प्रतीत होता है भयावह रक्त,
कैसे आनंद देगी ये हत्यारिन वर्षा

साँस में संत्रास

न हवा, न घटा,
तिमिराच्छन्न सकल आकाश,
हर साँस में संत्रास,
प्रचुर प्रकृति अक्षम देने में स्वांस
आसन्न प्रलय का आभास !

धुंधलका एक ठहरा हुआ,
भय और गहरा हुआ!

क्यों शोर है इतना
है किस बात का उल्लास

मत छोड़ो पदचिह्नों में प्रांगार
हो अंकित धरा पर पदचिन्ह बारम्बार,
भूगर्भ का ईंधन न हो प्रदाह,
चर्म प्रच्छन्न चर्बी करो स्वाह !
अल्पव्ययी हो, प्रकृति की ऊर्जा मत व्यय करो,
केवल स्वयं में समाहित 

Being a fool keeps alive the hope

One often needs to be stupid to be optimistic!
If one has inculcated the habit of being pragmatic, it may become very difficult to think out of the box. Prudence reduces one’s risk taking capacity or to take a chance where odds are against. Sometimes, one faces a situation where logic and science do not offer any hope. At that time, being doltish can come to one’s rescue. Hopelessness can push one into dark and deep realm of depression and wisdom stops one from being hopeful. In such circumstances, being ignorant, uneducated or simply foolish can keep one’s hope alive and serve as an anchor. 

Ooty

This trip was very different in certain terms! Usually we plan and finalise our trips much in advance. On this trip even 2 hours before the flight I was asking my wife, whether we were going or not. We, especially children direly needed the break, but my father-in- Law’s health was definitely a priority where we didn’t want to take a chance and we had left it to destiny.
This post is a proof that we embarked on the journey. We took a taxi from Coimbatore to Ooty to cover the 90 kilometres in 3hours, that costed us 2500 Rs. Unlike Delhi, Sedans were not fitted with CNG and so had sufficient boot space to accommodate all our 4 strollers. Coimbatore is a suitable airport as one can reach Kodaikanal in 4hours and Ooty in 3hours, in opposite directions. Time did not permit us to visit the Adiyogi statue of Lord Shiva in Coimbatore that is the latest attraction of the city. The route to Ooty is via Mettupalayam and Coonoor. Mettupalayam has an adventure water park, where one can spend many hours if one reaches before noon. The toy train or the Nilgiris Mountain Railway, made famous by the song “chal chaiyyan chaiyyan” of “Dil Se”, can be boarded from here to Ooty.  I am aware of two other Toy trains or hill trains in India: Shimla (http://deshdeepakwritings.blogspot.in/2016/06/a-man-without-ambition-is-dead-man-but.html) and Darjeeling (Batasia Loop). By train or road one reaches Ooty via Coonoor, that has many sight seeing places!
Ooty is known by the sobriquet,’Queen of Hills’! It is definitely the queen of Nilgiri hills that form a garland between Wesstern Ghats and Eastern Ghats. I have mentioned in some details about various mountain ranges of India in my Pachmarhi blog (http://deshdeepakwritings.blogspot.in/2014/10/pachmarhi-caves-foresthills-waterfalls.html).
Ooty is the nickname of Ootacamand as the place is known in the Toda language. Now called Udhagamandalam in Tamil. Ooty seems to be a classic example of how the british colonisers, came here looking for a cooler place to be made as their summer capital; removed wild forests and started plantation of commercial crops they needed.
We reached with a mixed feeling as many people had conveyed to us that after having visited so many other places, we were not likely to find it exciting. We had booked a hotel online provisionally and that is what came handy as no other place was available due to 4 days long Easter holidays. Kids were disappointed but we had no choice. Next day we didn't get a cab and managed to reach the Botanical Garden hitchhiking!