Choose Not

Choose Not

You have lived life

With all the possibilities defined

Of dooms and the fall.

You have seen and felt them and lived them all.

All the mirages are now dissolved

The Distance and the horizon stand not apart;

They are merging in a single stratum of time .

But be it known to you that they will ever be away from you

So long as you stand apart from them,

Because you saw them with the human eye.

Now all the choices sound hollow.

The destination near, the pilgrimage over,

It’s time now to give yourself over to the river.

But something is still pulling me back

And telling me to hold on still:

Hold on and watch the flow

And be with it till the end,

Till the hope leads on

And the gorge of the ocean

Is still a distant dirge.

Here I have seen a world of another dimension—

So close to my heart

But unknown still and out of reach.

At this very moment here and now,

I am watching from my apartment-window

A school-boy sitting by the opposite window

Of another apartment in front of me.

He is busy collecting his books and tools.

A stout woman, probably his mother,

Suddenly emerges on the scene

Giving shrill commands that carry no significance for him

But as I watch him closely, I realize,

She is no mother and he no son.

He is just a servant of the household, docile infirm,

But sincerely devoted to the task in hand,

Throwing a furtive, fearful glance

In the direction of the woman who has vanished from the scene.

The boy does not know that someone is watching him from another window,

So immersed in the small details

And vainly in love with the task is he!

And I in love with his foolishness,

Am sending a wave of a blessing unknown to him.

My world is a world of another dimension.

It is the same world as the one I found

In this worldwide web

Of what is called the virtual reality,

Very much resembling this apartment window of mine.

It was a   virtual  window I opened on the world

Out there beyond my real reach.

But once it was opened it ceased to be unreal;

The dream turned into real moments of magic.

It was a dense forest at first.

At least, it is less scary when you look at it thus

Than be a soul floating on its wide ocean-tides

I told myself, “YES, this is a forest

And there has to be a way out of its depth.

Wild animals and vampires are lurking there in the dark.

Watch out; be wary.

These are vengeful beings,

Out to pour their wrath

And quench their thirst for some real human blood.

It was then that I heard a different voice-

A voice from yet another dimension-

From far beyond the forest I was in-

A voice distinct and clear-

And though it was hard like a crystal,

Soft like a white swan’s feather to me.

As I watch this boy from my apartment’s window

The memory of that voice comes back.

The streams gush forth and wash me away

And that voice comes riding on the wave.

To be contd.

(c) Sushama Karnik