City days and nights

This City is alive
with the dreams of a million hearts,
with the hatred of ten million,
with the love of everyone who lives here.
The city has been serenaded since before my birth,
And faced a million outrages.
But this is not its story my friend,
This is not its story.
This is your and my poem,
I see a girl in front of me,
with brown hair and blue eyes,
deep in written work,
homework from school maybe.
The iPod lies on the table at a side.
I see a group discussing the terms of a loan for their business.
Many thoughts, many ideas, many words flow through the room.
Sometimes, sometimes, you make yourself think and believe,
You'll be happy, you'll be happy and live in bliss.

Monsters of solitude

Monsters of solitude haunt me in a city of millions,
Monsters of solitude never leave my side,
The world seems to be in constant turns,
All alone.

Somnolent moods in a late Saturday evening,
Keeps me under the clouds.
A victim of globalization,
A victim of the young professional syndrome.

Hidden clauses make me wonder,
Make me think,
All these mixed emotions,
Have nowhere to go.
All alone with the Monsters of solitude.

love in the time of sedation

Sedentary lives
Loving for stability,
Expectations unbridled,
Not knowing what was needed.
Love is not what I find,
Love is not what I find,
Love is what I seek.
Creation of safe haven,
Sedated lives,
Sexual tension,
Rises and falls,
Never meaning anything.
Then it fell apart,
Then it tore apart,
Then it went away and became
A memory forgotten soon.
Rationalization of madness.
Reasoning love,
Defining parameters.
Ending with lovelessness.

The sweet respite

The calm that comes in the midst of activity,
The peace of being at ease in the bustle of the day,
The sweet respite from battling the tides of destiny.
Riding the wave,
Pleasant as a midsummer day's siesta.
Having found the gates to graceful existence,
The mind settles.
It focuses on building,
And enjoys the sweet respite.
Time holds it's breath,
A time to grow in continuum.
It feels lazy even in the busiest of day,
It feels like summiting,
The flag just got planted.

Grand Canyon Pictures

It is truly a big country. The views that greeted early pioneers of the Grand Canyon and during the long road to the Wild West are still present at many parts to this day. Little adventures on the way kept my journey eventful. There are more pictures and stories to tell but I'll keep that for another day.

Day 1

Waking up at an ungodly hour of 4 am to catch the flight to Phoenix via Atlanta was not fun but expected. All previous doubts about whether it was worth doing an unplanned trip which was decided a few hours back was removed when I started the drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff, a town on the way to Grand Canyon. Flagstaff is a good base camp to visit the surrounding area which has a lot of beautiful places, the most famous of which is Grand Canyon. Sedona, which was on the way is also a very charming place. Another national monument on the way was the Montezuma Castle where I took a photo of myself. The vast open spaces and driving on the highway in my car was indescribably joyful. I managed to snag a last minute room for a discount price on none other than Route 66. Tomorrow morning I'll be hitting Grand Canyon.

I'm finally off

The new plan is a shorter road trip but nevertheless it aspires to be a good solo one. I will be flying out of Lexington tomorrow and reaching Phoenix in the morning. Now the fun begins!

Torpedoed!

Due to lack of communication and some unexpected twists and turns, Soham has resigned from the journey. All bets are off!
Now I have to think of something more financially feasible to make a trip happen. I have 10 days to spare and some money. The late realization dawns upon me that it is practically impossible to do a solo road trip from a financially moderate viewpoint. I begin planning alternate options.

The die is cast

So it's settled. After a few initial hiccups about whether Soham would be coming for the trip or not, it was finally settled that Soham and I were off on a road trip starting on Tuesday after he spoke with Dr Craig Douglas, his Thesis Advisor. The basic idea was to drive across US from Lexington and end up at Grand Canyon National Park. Then roam around in the general area and fly out to Lexington and Philadelphia respectively.

Our conference room where the trip plan ( the "load bearing structure" in Soham's words ) was made, was his dorm room at the University of Kentucky, Lexington.

Prelude to the Road Trip

An intent to roadtrip alongwith a concomitant opportunity to realize that dream begun these days on the road.

The first road trip was the one to Washington D.C., with Michael in an Infiniti G35.
D.C. , with it's gargantuan goevernment and foundation structures truly felt like the capital of USA and so did the accompanying grammatical error on a D.C. building in bold. The Hoover building and the policy of fear was evident just outside the building. The brilliantly sunny day lifted my spirits and it was a great start to a period which had been preceded by a marathon job hunt which ended at lightning speed when all things sorted themselves out.

The next warm-up trip was a relocation/house finding trip to Boston. This was my first exposure to beautiful New England and it was my longest drive till date.

Having sorted out all pressing matters, I proceeded to plan on the major road trip that lay ahead.

Spring life

Having lived and not loved,
Having lived and not explored,
Having explored and not realized,
Having lived and not been in the change of seasons,
Is not having lived at all.
Life is in it's spring
The winter is a memory of wasted days among wasted men and women.
I return to my innocence.
I return to claim what is mine.
Destiny beckons.

Music drug

Something plays in your head,
A neural connection of slow pleasure,
On music fed.
A reality of music,
Playing and telling a tale.
Oblivious to your physical reality,
Shaping it constantly,
It envelopes you.
A sense creating feeling,
Sound unleashing potential.

Elusive Love

Memes in your head,
Moments in time frozen forever,
The Elusive Love.
Found only when not searched for,
Lost when found.
Retrospect realizations,
Tell me today what not to look for.
Life and love like woven silk,
Smooth when together,
Hard silk strings when separated.
Desire to look for the Elusive Love,
With fear in my heart of losing it when I find it.
Best left unexplored,
Unsearched for;
Best left for it to find you,
Like it once did.

Authentic

A little sadness,
A little isolation,
Permeates the consciousness.
All that is authentic,
All that is true,
Will come through in retrospect.
Save your soul ?
And your body ?
Fodder of worms,
Fodder of intellectual research.
A simple quest,
Is to find meaning,
which is however,
Retrospective.

A short night song

I am not dead,
Hope eternal shines brightly.
Caresses of the wind,
Feel the same as they used to before.
Kneeling to God and Fate,
At this point,
I know not where I go.
Rising to meet the day,
I live on.