Another Mortal Life

The thing with freaks is.. everything can freak them out, but few do.

... (with due apologies to Rudyard Kipling)


If you can think,
But can postpone thinking indefinitely,
and yet, can pretend to think,
and can make others believe you're thinking..

If you feel sleepy a whole night,
but can reserve your sleep for the lectures next morning,
and can criticize the prof. afterwards,
for his outdated methodology of teaching..

If you can go to the reading room
with a determination none ever had,
and return next morning after attending the first lecture
sitting beside the same person you passed the night looking at..

If you can trust your ability,
only by recalling the rank you got in an entrance exam,
Even if there is nothing on your grade card,
except the 'SRC advice' you must follow as a command..

If you can bear to hear that you got an E in a course,
and can go to PVR or Chanakya the same day
(After all, this grade has given you
a valid reason to tell your parents for summer stay..)

If you can escape bathing *ahem*
for not less than a week,
and can admit this with pride enough,
and yet, can maintain an image of someone nice and clean.

If you can write articles on brain drain in this magazine
in your first and second years,
And try your best for abroad
probably after another two years.

If you read this text with disgust
but in front of me, can praise it
and yet, can speak to the editor
asking him the reason to include it..

You are an IITian, monsignor,
by the core of your heart..
You have got the qualifications
any recruiter would find hard to discard.

[Wrote it in first year for the institute magazine, a copy of which I've come across in a pile of old notebooks today.]

A very long time ago
love sank into my pillow.
A little part of this potion
gets into my head often.

But every time before today
the rest of it pulled it back
(This was the only good thing
about the good old rack.)

But today,
I'm overwhelmed.

S***
F***
J****
Stop. Stop.

How long would I
keep writing poems
out of thin air?
(keep writing poems)
out of thin air?
(keep writing poems)
out of thin air?

How long would I
keep writing poems
out of thin air?
(keep writing poems)
out of thin air?
(keep writing poems)
out of thin air?