Padmatheertham Pond

 A pond in the city center 

Having spiritual association with  

Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple 

The richest temple in India

By the means of hidden treasures 

Built during the 13th or 14th century

From a small natural spring-fed pond 

It was expanded into a bigger pond 

By the King Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma

Pond received water from the Killi river for some years

Now it relies on its old aquifers 

It is spruced by the renovation

of walls and bathing ghats

New lamps and a tiled road on the left

Facing the Padmanabha Swamy Temple 

Changed the look of the pond itself 

The smaller temples in the perimeter 

Draw people for devotion

Evening fills the pondside with 

devotees, locals, and the city dwellers 

I used to meet my friends 

At one end of the pond

Facing the waters and shared 

happiness and sorrows over the years

Enjoying the light breeze from the pond

I remember a man being drowned 

In the pond by a man on live television

I remember a giant inflated sculpture of

Lord Vishnu laying over the serpent 

On the pond during a festival 

The visual of the old clock 

Getting wooden goats to bang heads 

When the time reaches the hour mark

It is still exciting during special occasions

We used to feed the big fishes in the pond 

During our evening hangouts 

It remains a dream to enter the bathing ghat

As it is restricted 

But big rats used to hang out there 

I've seen the pond fully drained once 

But didn't notice any treasure beneath the mud

A lot of devotees come during the Sabarimala season

And they hangout on the walls of the pond

A myth tells that there is an underground tunnel

That connects the pond with the sea 

When the temple is lit with a hundred thousand lamps

The reflection on the pond is mesmerizing 

This is an iconic temple pond in my city Thiruvananthapuram. The image is taken from the Stock. 

Happy Hours In The Sky

Lightyears away 

There's a constellation 

of alcoholic gas 

A space brewery

Spread across millions of miles 

With a bit of dust 

It's a dreamland in sky for the boozers 

It gives hopes about life formation 

In planets with methanol and other 

Life inducing molecules 

Methanol is not safe to drink 

Those wishing to drink heavenly booze

Should take filters with them 

To enjoy happy hours in the sky 

I hope some boozers will reach there 

Someday to steal the heavenly booze

The alcoholic rings with dust around 

The planets give insights into the 

Formation of planets from the stars 

There's a comet that has spilled

Millions of gallons of ethanol and sugar

Gives hope to finding booze self-sufficient 

Comets for happy hours life 

I dreamed of a planet with alcoholic

clouds lagoons with liquid alcohol 

It has nice caves to live with gas masks 

Big craters to hold the water after 

Splitting it from the alcohol 

Inside the pressurized enclaves 

We can have happy hours with 

Planetary booze and leafy veggies 

From the vertical gardens 

When earth becomes poisonous to live 

Living in planetary colonies become

A necessity to survive 

A poem inspired by the discovery of alcoholic gases and a comet spilling alcohol he space. Image from India Times. Thank you :)

A Blank Mind

 

A blank mind 

With no memories of the past

No knowledge of the present 

Lost in thoughts 

Most of the time 

Now a homeless man

At a bus stop shelter

Talking aloud alone 

Screaming at the travelers

Living a life of a strange man 

In a city, he came for something

He had a long beard and long hair  

He wore trendy outfits, but now unclean 

No masks to wear during the pandemic 

Living at the mercy of  nearby restaurants

He kept water filled in leftover bottles 

He slept on the bench at the bus stop 

Be it rain or humid day, he remained there 

He must have come from a far away place

He talks in a strange language

Not belonging to the region  

His family might be waiting for his return 

Did he lose his mind over a heartbreak?

Or due to a head injury? 

At night, he becomes the guardian 

Of the bust stop shelter 

Even stray dogs don't mess with him 

Even the Police didn't mind his presence 

He survived there for so many months 

And then he vanished without a trace 

I wonder if he got back his memory

Or his family traced him for good 

Image from Unsplash. Picture taken by Patrick Robert Doyle .Thankyou :)

Falling In Love

A pretty smile from her teenage 

That stayed in my heart secretly 

As we grew into close friends 

Spending hours sharing little things 

Like happiness, incidents and secrets 

I realised she looked up to me faithfully

I felt a spark in my heart about her 

Her smile over the years became prettier

My mind couldn't stop thinking about her 

Her way of telling things first to me with 

So much excitement made me feel good 

Conversations with her became special 

Butterflies flew in my tummy whenever 

I heard her voice rumbling her things

I used to wait for her monthly call eagerly 

Sneaking away from her college or home

The calls became frequent over the time 

I couldn't tell her that I fell in love with her 

As her best friend,I couldn't let her down

I wrote many poetries about her secretly 

She let me flirt with her on valentines day 

I felt an intense bond thriving between us

Without uttering anything about love 

She became romantic and we became 

Mad lovers separated by the time zones 

She showered me with so much affection

Her husky voice became my morning light 

I shared my poetries about her, she liked 

I saw a life with her closer to a beach 

She invited me to her city to move ahead 

This poem is based on prompt "Describe what it was like to fall in love".

A Recurring Nightmare

 

Days after my father's demise 

I started seeing him in my dreams

It brought some relief to my heart

But it turned into a nightmare soon

I ran around to find an ambulance

And taking him to the hospital 

Only to be told that he was brought dead

I saw it again in my native place 

I had to run all the way to a junction 

To get a mini-ambulance 

To take my dad to a hospital

Again I Was told that he was brought dead

I started losing sleep 

I was living in a loop of a recurring nightmare 

That took me to the night where 

I struggled to get a vehicle on time

To take my dad to the hospital 

Where I was told, it was five minutes too late

I've seen the motionless body of my dad 

My mind felt guilty for being irresponsible

Not acting briskly enough to save my dad 

For nearly four months 

I kept seeing the nightmare and kept waking up 

In the middle of the nights 

I felt it was real and I was trying my best 

But every time I failed 

Until I tried a meditation 

Suggested by a friend 

I started getting good sleep 

And I stopped seeing that nightmare