A Bozoical balance ....

Bozo, Mumbai's blogging Dog is thrilled to bits.

His folks are back from their visit to see the Queen, or should I say Princess.....    and have returned with a bag of goodies for him. 

In the meanwhile, things have happened in Bozo's world, and he recently lost two of his friends Sam and Chinnu.    So he has turned a bit more philosphical (actually, he was always philosphical)  and learning to  how to enjoy stuff in a kind of balanced way.....

 

Life has a way
of teaching you
to keep your feet
on the ground.

I leaped with excitement
on seeing my folks
back
from their visit
to the Queen,
and kept a surreptitious eye
on the  bag
which I know
has been sent specially for me.

I just can't stop
following folks around,
sitting and getting
my neck rubbed and scratched,
just enjoying
the return of the Family,
and I love the goodies
I get to sample
one at a time....

Maybe it is age,
maybe I am like that only,
but
it's just that
I lost two dear friends
recently,
Sam and Chinnu,
and can't help thinking
of them.

They say
happiness increases
by woofs and bounds
when you share it.

I wish they were around to share the goodies....

Letting it all out......

My blog and FB friend Bhavana Nissima, recently went on a trek through the country which took her up from the south , a bit towards the eastern coast , a bit up north, and then down to the central area, all the while, really studying how the slogging, non powerful other half lives,innovates , learns .  Then some travels through the capital New Delhi, and a washing off , of , maybe old doubts, in the confluence of three rivers, at the Kumbh Mela in Varanasi.

Her old faithful Power "shoes", greatly at variance with todays interpretation of Power, finally gave way at some distance away from her parents home in Chennai, her eventual destination.

Sometimes, inanimate beings surprise us with a sudden  outburst  of self destruction.    When it simply gets difficult to understand  news coming in from a land you just walked through.....      

The couple,
two healthy hardy soles,
on a teerth yatra
across rice fields,
so slush
they gave
parched lands a complex.
Then lands smelling of dung
giving way to
the unity of rivers,
and they emerged
fresh again
after
despairing
on Capital lands.

An urge to come home,
and the couple
enriched but skeptical
kept on
now on the final track.

Till one of them heard the news
from the capital lands
and burst out
unable to comprehend the horror
of it all.

The other slowed down a bit,
helped her along,
saying ,
"Everyone thinks
we are so tough ,
but once in a while
it helps to let it all out
and scream..."

The Real Jungle

My FB friend Pandit Gourang Kodical ji  posted this visual , and  I was struck by the sheer distrust and helplessness in this mother's eyes.

Given what has been happening in our country's capital and elsewhere. 

While real jungles are being trashed by spurious industrialization, land sharks and poachers, new dangerous ones are being created . 

In cities. In minds.    

No world
for small children, this.

Who must I trust,
with so many
predators
amidst my own ?

I cannot
leave her alone
and go out
to look for food,
and
I cannot
carry her with me.

And so she clings
in hunger
picking at
some straws
in the wind
as we take a breather
on a branch...

A question
for so many jungle folks.

Particularly,
those
who have devolved
from being bipeds,
and created
horrendous jungles
of their minds.

There used to be
a Law of the Jungle .

Is it,
like protection and safety,
extinct now ?

Flowers of the Earth

Sometimes you read certain meanings into visuals based on some perceptions of current events. In the country. Events that disgust, disappoint, and make you despair.

Then you think of a peaceful Valley of Flowers in the foothills of the  Himalayas, and think how lucky those little flowers are....

My FB and blogger friend, travel writer, photographer Nisha Jha, posted this visual
and made me think all over again.....

Today,
you are probably
luckier than most
if you are such a flower.
 
A firm chaperoning
by a no nonsense stem,
the company of so many others,
younger and older,
a lovely playing field,
amidst meadows and valleys,
a few birds and bees
communicating with great respect,
a fresh blooming every morning,
and
one day,
a gentle drop into the
hands of an earth
that makes you its own.

No wild slashing
by demented opportunists,
no killing off as buds,
and no fake words
from those who have never known
what it is to be a
flower...

What do they know,
who only
indulge in making rules
to enter gardens .....
and then forget
for who they are meant.....

In High Places

A great capture of an individualistic standing tree posted by my FB friend Pandit Gourang Kodical  of Bengaluru. 

Brings to  mind,  what must go through the minds of those, who inhabit high places , way at the top, reaching for sometimes turbulent skies ....

And I often wonder why trees so high up, are never huge shady ones encompassing so much  and so many .  They are usually alone, upright, and successfully battling troubles way up there...

Ways of the world .....

In high places,
touching the skies,
those supreme
at the top
often forget,
those barren amorphous
unlucky
but dedicated rocks,
those small
hardworking grasses,
and those selflessly networking
invisible
subterranean streams
of thoughtful water
that nurture
all that growth.

A supremely individual
standing
in this scheme of things
with no shade
for those around
who slog.

Bozo Waits.....

Bozo, Mumbais dog-blogger, is absolutely restless with anticipation. His folks are scheduled to return shortly from their visit to the Queen's country and nearby places.

He has seen some of the pictures they have sent, specially from Dog shows in Birmingham.    All those glistening golden and jet black folks, performing  for audiences, with smiles and yoga and stuff.....   Makes it sound like Miss World-Doggies.

Somehow, it is not the real thing.   Give him a nice random run through Bandra on a cool morning, sneezing at cats and butterflies,  snorting at badly parked cars, and cracking up at Lassie types who think they are performing in Birmingham ; that too, on Carter Rd.... :-)

 

I've been up
with my legs
on the balcony railing,
searching the traffic,
looking at the pictures,
in the Facebook of my Mind.

All those
drizzling days,
orderly traffic,
rarefied crowds,
wax statues,
monuments,
pasta,
pizza,
and restaurants in the snow.

A friend
got figured
in the A-Z blogathon , at L;
I thought B would be me,
but alas,
it was
the Day of the Black Dog.

Never mind.


Give me
a cool floor
on a hot summer evening,
a walk amidst rubble
a drive
in a car with windows down,
a growl at troublesome types,
an interesting bird chase
in the balcony,
the fragrance of dosas
as we return,
lurking near the kitchen,
and a house that is full.


Waiting for folks,
and practising
my highest jump
to greet them
on their return......

पग कॉलर बांध, तू वापस आवे रे .....a Bozoical plea....

Bozo, Mumbai's blogging dog, has taken to highlighting  problems of dogs, who have gone abroad chasing the arclights, have seen the real life, and wish to return.

One of his old friends from Mumbai, an erstwhile fellow walker,  this pug , was clicked by Magiceye  on his ongoing trip to the Queen's country. 

There is a story behind why this fellow is upset . Not that he looks different at other times, since this is his God given beauty,  but it takes a friend like Bozo, to look deep inside....

पग कॉलर बांध, तू वापस आवे  रे .......

This friend of mine
is upset.

A nice friendly chap,
great with children,
he
walked the talk
for Vodaphone
on TV,
and then
like "curry"
and "chicken tikka"
went to the UK
where he appeared in Dog Shows
and got clicked by Deepak.

The Vodaphones
who have jilted him
now run after zoo-zoos,
he hates
the cold weather,
and wishes he was
with me in Mumbai,
where
there are
so many interesting things
to smell
on an average road....

Given the Uncle system
that works here,
anyone
having an Uncle
working with Airtel....?

The Sunflower Airport

This visual was posted by FB friend Prasanna Shiroor. It so happened that I had just seen a posting by him , featuring the new International Airport Terminal  scheduled to open in Mumbai, along with photos. And the butterfly landing situation bore an uncanny resemblance to semicircular plane parking bays that we often see. 

There is an uncanny similarity in the concepts of an aeroplane and a butterfly flying in to land. 

But the similarity ends right there.

Read more to find out why ....

It flies in,
resplendent in the
species colors,
unfazed by the
architecture
of the premises,
the gates,
the landings;
no humans waving flags,
no trolley cars
lumbering around,
and no jeeps
guiding
the huge flying machines.

An
inbuilt navigation system
powered by
the smell of nectar,
shapes of structures,
and colors;
protected
and walled in
by silken petals,
a free run
of the premises,
with possibly
only a bee,
buzzing around,
staking its claim
to what could be
an infinite supply
of nectar...