For, Happiness Endures.

Utopia is a crumpled 100 buck when you're dead out of fuel.
Utopia is 300km/h.
Utopia is passing in challenge reval.
Utopia is not having semester exams on new years.
Utopia is the xerox machine.

Utopia is Calvin and Hobbes when you have an exam.
Utopia is flipping your car over 7 times and escaping with bruises.
Utopia is a pair of guinea pigs.
Utopia is Pink Floyd.

Utopia is an old monk on a winter night.
Utopia is half a smoke on a frozen hilltop after a midnight trek.
Utopia is closing your eyes to find colors dancing.
Utopia is the rain when you're high.

Utopia is eating a cloud.
Utopia is full meals at an Andhra mess on a remote Highway.
Utopia is canteen chai when it pours like hell out of the blue.
Utopia is free doughnuts and coffee on a random walk.

Utopia is "Macha"
Utopia is "Sounds like a plan"
Utopia is "Lets do this!"
Utopia is "What happened last night?"

Utopia is talking to an eye.
Utopia is seeing through your ears.
Utopia is hearing the colour.
Utopia is slow dancing in a burning room.

Utopia is a gramophone record.
Utopia is finding your guitar on the bed when u wake up at 3 am.
Utopia is a new drum kit.
Utopia is a time machine to Woodstock 69.

Utopia is a dream that lasts.
Utopia is a hug.
Utopia is half a smile.
Utopia is the daily abuse.

Utopia is the losing battle of the conscious and the conscience.
Utopia is the lie that tells the truth.
Utopia is the impossibility in your hand.
Utopia is the pain that reminds.

Utopia is a very cozy jam-pad.
Utopia is a one and a half gig you've waited half your life for.
Utopia is a friend who knows that the song isn't finished.
Utopia is the green.
Utopia is psychedelia.

Utopia is Peace.
Utopia is Love.
Utopia is Rock and Roll.

27

The freckled ball, lit the sky,
and showed the phantom's face.
I asked him why, all my gods,
had died in curious ways.

A boon so vile, a curse benign,
a deal you cannot refuse.
The divine sound, from his hidden mouth,
reeked of the devil's hues.

Should you find what lurks beneath,
would you reach for it?
Or shun it as the devil's work,
and run away from it?

Well if you're in a paradigm,
You've waited far too long.
Just sell your soul to rock 'n roll,
And move the hell along.




Bluesmans' cross, a moonless night,
the devil walks alone,
If you chance by the mister then,
He'll divine your guitar's tone.

The diabolical deal, you must but sign,
and join the long lost line.
You'll be a god, the darkest one,
The fame, the women, the wine.

But darker still, the ol' mister,
will come but knocking again.
Years from now, when the time is up,
his property he will reign.

Well if you're in a paradigm,
You've waited far too long.
Just sell your soul to rock 'n roll,
And move the hell along.

An exercise in Integrity

Last week, I decided I wanted to be licensed to drive throughout the territory as India, a Light Non-Transport Motor Vehicle. (A Car DL, for my less verbose audience). I have been driving through narrow gullies and jammed highways at all times of the days these past few months without incident or accident, so I figured I'm not that bad a driver. So when I drove to that place at the edge of Bangalore, I wasn't nervous like I should have been.

But i knew my chances. A friendly delicate flower had once bestowed a piece of wisdom upon me: If you go without a driving school tag, its likely you're going down. I nearly didn't get the application since I was late and the good lady there had decided to throw a tantrum because she was delayed by us late comers. A cheeky fellow found a way to soothe her down and I got my form. After the harassment of filling the form, I went up to submit it to a person who'd just heard of the good lady's antics and was conspiring to get her fired! Bureaucracy, I thought. That and Engineering- "Who needs stand up comedy?"

When it was my chance to drive, or park it rather, an excited lad parked his bike right behind me just when i was about to reverse. Happened again, when I moved it a bit to park by him. It was quite a circus to get it parked. A hefty soul came and sat in the car and asked me to drive. It was going smoothly until I had to reverse. Then the girl driving behind me decided she had enough and left the wheel, got out and started crying. What am I to do? So I stood there till the scene was cleared. But the Inspecter had decided that I cant reverse the car. (Yeah!)

Institutionalized testing failed again. So I walked off knowing I could still drive, driving back my good friend home.

-- THE END --

But you just KNOW that there's no THE END, without someone getting totally screwed over. I was stopped by the same cop who had failed me. Lets call him, Mr.Integrity, for jest. There was a mistake in paperwork and I was to pass? Unlikely. Man needed a lift. (Yeah!). So this man, who has just deemed me incapable of driving, is telling me that he trusts my driving with his life on a highway, just to get a ride. So my testing continued for another half hour, where Mr. Integrity graciously told me things I already knew about driving, and again and again and.. yes, again.

When we questioned him why I failed when I could clearly drive, he said I couldnt reverse. When we explained what happened, he spent the next 5 minutes giving me reasons well short of funny. The answer to why he'd never admit anything was clear at the end: the man made me take down his number and to give him a call after a week. *cough* bribe *cough*

Prophecy

The face of agony is seldom concealed,
The scars on a pretty face seldom healed,
Save for the young damsel i portray to thee,
None hold their pain as elegantly as she.

She cries in the corner all alone
She weeps in the dark on her own
And when she aint by herself, no,
She smiles like an angel and more.

The roof above us is dark as is cold,
Reminds me of the night her fate was foretold,
A monk prophesied the misfortunes galore,
Of broken hearts and devastation, no lore could hold.

She'd eyes that could kill and a smile better still,
An aura of charm that none but her knew,
Its such a shame that the prophecy had to come true,
For those lovely blue eyes are no longer blue.

She cries in the corner all alone
She weeps in the dark on her own
And when she aint by herself, no,
She smiles like an angel and more.

She was the fairest of maidens that I ever met,
And I speak in the past lest you forget,
She died this morning before the sun shined,
and when she did, she looked up, she smiled.

Bad day

Last Sunday I rode through my college road. It seemed like such a long time since I'd seen it. So the next day I got all geared up and decided I would go to college. And I did. Only to find a company had come to hire us engineers. What the heck, a couple of friends and me wrote their screening test. Since we had no eligibility, no preparation, no interest, or knowledge of software engineering, we walked out citing excuses. But curious as to who'll make it, we came back to hear the results. And as the names were read out, I was naturally shocked beyond words when I heard mine: I hadn't a pen with me, let alone a resume!!

So I made up a resume from a borrowed sheet and sat for the interview. Nothing to lose, I talked my way out of it with empty confidence. And then the wait began. Minutes turned into hours before they shortlisted six. And as I got up to congratulate my friend, God laughed up yet another one as my name was called again! I was confused as to how and why this was happening. Maybe that confidence helped pull me through. But this meant further interviews and lengthy waits in that empty corridor. I endured two more rounds of technical interviews telling them I knew naught. At this point I was a hungry zombie. But things brightened up when I heard them calling for an HR interview - at last I'd have something to say. But I wasn't given a chance and I knew it wasn't a case of overlooking. Then the results were announced. I hadn't made it. In that dead of the night, to an enervated man swinging madly between hope and reality, nobody could really explain why 7 software engineers with a world of experience had taken 13 hours and 3 rounds of technical interviews to tell whether an electronics engineer with no knowledge of the subject was fit for a software job. I prepared myself for the condolences and walked out.

When you've had a bad day, the ride back home offers the only solace. It reflects the loneliness of misery and hands you a power you're dying to have. And in the dead of the night, your only friend is your guitar. But sometimes even that F note on the guitar just doesnt sound that awesome anymore.