To the world outside, my window
Midnight oil by choice
Silver screen for music video

For most part my face
The saamne-wali khidki – (yo!)
Where chatting all day she stays

Chessboard, canvas, casino
Newspaper; At times
My window shopping nuncio

A pet parrot for all purposes 
Manager portfolio, President and CEO
Online and off the net, my pride and pathos

---------------------------------------------------
* Computer monitor, of course




                             Roerich Paintings

Harmony of colors washed to a tone
Azure shades hazy and mystic 
A blooming streak of peach blows a horn
A vision inlayed, sober as an ascetic
Thinking aloud, Roerich father and son

A dialogue in silence with The Infinite
The blushing frost breaks from a dream
Where eyes fail to take you at first sight
In huskiest of voices the hues does scream
Filling vacant curfew hours mine with delight



______________________________________________


Reading ‘On Other People’s Shoes’
(For Harriet Walter, whoever she is…)

How I Wish I Were You

_____________________________________________



             Razi Rozario

Dots you see them burnt and mellow
Some bold some misty all serene 
Pigments in concert – a spotless curio
Lyric on canvas in his very own phrasing
A poet with paints, a poet at heart – Razi Rozario

Rozario, his pal left him alone in pain
To sail down the awful river of death
Razi now lives with his alter ego’s name
Honouring a friend never to dispense with
Loud does bountiful acts in obscure times chime

Play on with colors and brushes dear virtuoso
Usher in that intimacy the world needs so


_____________________________________________________

            Minutes of despair

Its two minutes to that den 
And just a minute to home
Got some bombs to sell, and then
Have to go see my mom

Its four minutes to repentance
And half-a-minute for little sense
Things aint the same when its tense
Everywhere, O!  The air gets dense

Cannot just run out of fear
My brother is fighting for his life
He is killing for ideas dear
But have to bury his dead wife

How long is it from my heart to yours
Guess its the same as from yours to mine
Will it take, my friend, many long years
I guess not, a heartbeat is a very short time

Two minutes to the den
Half a minute for little sense
A long minute to home, got to run
A lonely prayer of repentance  

________________________________________________________________


                                     Grammar blues

This ain’t the story 
‘bout the unholy affair 
Of double inverted commas
With the so-called 
Crème-o’-the-earth; demi-gods
Ministering angels
 
This ain’t a hymn 
Of the fetish worship
The pronoun has
For the head that wears
Someone else’s crown
On swindled times

This ain’t the story 
Of the false praises
Sung by the adverb
Of the hands that enjoin sin
Intoxicating despotism
And gluttonous epicurean

This is an elegy
Of the vacuum that remains
And reminds of the salt-o-the-earth
The real VIPs
Who kept out of 
The yearning embrace
Of sexy quotations

This is the ballad
Of the noun
Unerred scum-o-the-earth
Carrying a misplaced badge
Of a malignant pronoun
All life, and beyond

This is some performance poetry
Dedicated unofficially
To that verb
Unrecognized unsung by 
Its larger-than-life secretary:
Adverb, pushing to shade
All good deeds
All tears it stopped
And smiles it brought



________________________________________________________________________


                              Nov…Dec…Jan…
(Maimed by a fall, injured cervical spine, neck,..blah!)

November
Listening to the folk protest songs of the 60s
And all those dusty long-forgotten records

Rereading Hard Times, ‘Queen’ biography
And all kinda strange books and mags

December
Pampering a few chords on the guitar (my
            Spanish hollow Monalisa)
Interrupted by friends on the phone, missing them
Trying to be Bob Dylan tangled up in blue
Over the staring looks of study materials, text-books
Wondering when VKN will win a Nobel
Channel surfing, getting bored, sleeping listening
To Ghalib ghazals, desperately needing an 
Urdu-English-English dictionary.
Saving a deep breath in my lungs
For the newyear, tomorrow…

January

__________________________________________________________________


                             Indifference Blues

Leave him alone, or get ready for
His kicks and self-abuse. Let alone dear
He’s tried his best to love you fair
Oh, but not anymore fear

Better a hell than false heaven
For in trust and love, months seven
Did, pledging his soul this man
Spend taking your smile for a token!

He earned him a mighty cadence
Carousing in love he loseth prudence
Sobering down, rising from your shallowness
That drowned him, its only natural indifference

When a man stands upright to see
The folly of love that never would let free
Ashamed, still in love he cries, ‘Ah me!’
And with that revelation he grins in glee



____________________________________________________________________________


   
                          THEATRE
                      (for all at ‘abhinaya’)     
    
MINUS PRETENTIONS, A LITTLE
ASHAMED, LOOKING DIRECTLY
IN THE EYE, EXPERIMENTING
PLAYING  PLAYING   PLAYING

ON A FLIGHT OF FANCY, FORGETTING 
STOPPING IN QUIZZICAL TRANCE
MISBEHAVING, ACTING OUT OF FASHION
WORRYING ACHING WORSHIPPING
SHOCKING DEJECTED IN PAIN
MOVING ON, HERE, THERE
BLOCKING  BLOCKING  BLOCKING

IMPROVISING, FALLING MISERABLY
SEEING SHEER BRILLIANCE
AGAIN INVENTING ENLIVENING 
SPORTING SWEATING OUT GETTING TIRED
SMILING, SHARING, RELAXING
LAUGHTER, FREAKING AROUND
READING  READING  READING

MEDIATING, NURSING THE FLAME
INTERNALIZING, TIGHT ROPE WALKING
ON OTHER PEOPLE’S SHOES, CONFIDING IN 
YOUR SELF, IN OTHERS, IN NOTHING,
EGO-SMOOTHING, SIZING UP
REHEARSING  REHEARSING  REHEARSING

DESIGNING, CONCEPTUALIZING IMAGING
LEARNING A BIT OF LIFE, EVERYTHING.
INDULGING, WANDERING THE STREETS
WATCHING, ARGUING , SHUTTING UP
GETTING BEHIND A MASK, SCREAMING
TALKING  TALKING  TALKING

QUESTIONING, NOTING THE TIPS
INITIATING, CONFUSING, RUNNING FREE
VOICING, HEARING, DREAMING
PERFORMING  PERFORMING  PERFORMING

GETTING SERIOUS, CHANGING TO
COSTUMES, PACING, SPACING
TIMING, BUNKING, GETTING BACK
THE INNOCENCE, SUPPORTING
GETTING READY….(BACK)








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Hola! Here is a lyric of one of the songs that i wrote and had the pleasure to compose.. enjoy!

Almighty Dollar

Rubbin' shoulders with the bankers
Or maybe those money lenders

Bargaining at a counter
Or somewhere at a costermonger
Walkin' high places
There's that worthy license
(My goodness!)
Almighty Dollar ( hey hey hey  almighty Dollar)

Teasing, with o' sexy eyes
Making, me ill at ease
She is..
Almighty Dollar 
Whose got her 
(One) whose got the almighty dollar

no-no- utopia
cuz u have almighty dollar
bit of a big-wig you are
 when you are 
out there with the almighty dollar

(I'm a) green-eyed monster
(seeing the ) almighty dollar

I get scratchy eye sore (baby)
Seeing almighty dollar

Hey hey Cry out in Chorus
Almighty Dollar

Kick out that scholar
In search of the bloody collar 
Give him the shocking color
Give him the flithy power
Of Almighty Dollar

Rolling in riches
Almighty Dollar
Dear sister teller 
Gimme gimme
Gimme almighty dollar

Having pleasure
Eating almighty dollar
Causing a stir'o
Almighty Dollar

Off on a world tour 
With Almighty Dollar
Sing out in chorus( Almighty Dollar)
Get the flithy power ( Almighty Dollar)
Cry out in chorus ( Almighty Dollar)
Hey-hey-hey-hey ( Almighty Dollar)
 Almighty Dollar!  (Almighty Dollar)