INDEX

The Absolute Gifts

Arrival and Departure

Ascent of a man

Becoming a Being

Beyond the twilight zone

The Creatures in the Basement

Creature of Rhythm

Cluster Bombing

The Dance of the Breeze

Death is such a waste

Dream of a Sexagenarian

The Elusive Lotus Flower

The eternal Artist

The fallen Beauty

The fantastic Web

Fingerprints of the Force

The four-letter word

My Grandmother

The Horizontal Journey

The Killing Field

Land Of Amorphous

Looking for Something in Dark

The Meaning of Life

Midlife Crisis

The milk ocean churned

The other Path

Path of no return

Picture Imperfect

Pollen Count

Query in the Twilight Zone

The right way to live

The River of life

River Run

Follow the Script

Seventeen Years Later

Listening to the Silence

A sojourn in the wonderland

Thriving with Poison

Voyage of a Swan

Waiting at the bus stop

What Am I Doing Here

When a Person becomes a Body

When does the life begin?

 

What Am I Doing Here

Many moons back
Sitting on a banyan tree
A boy looked into himself
And asked
What am I doing here?

In the shadow of the clouds
In the sweetness of the bananas and ripe cucumbers
In the giggles of the naked kids running around
In the noisy quarrels of the village women
In the chanting of the Brahmin priest
In the ever changing color of the paddy fields
He wanted to find the answer

Tried again and again
To read the essence of life
In the color of the saris
In the scent of the sandal paste
And in the dusty and dirty faces of the beggars
In the yelling of the grumpy old men
And in the pleasant cries of the new born babies
And in the wailing of the ladies in a death in the family

The search continues
And the answer eludes and skips from the gripe
And laughs at me
The tiny fish
Trying to fathom the ocean
((*.*))
January 03, 2000