Summer Rain Romance

A balcony facing the paddy fields

Steaming black tea and fritters on the teapoy  

They were watching the summer rain 

Together like for the first time 

The rhythm of rain fall on

The paddy leaves and trees

The mosaic floor was cold 

The air had the fragrance 

of soil, Lillies, and Jasmines 

Their favorite flowers 

They leaned on to each other

Whispering the sweet nothings 

She blushed and her dimples bloomed

While the rain droplets dripped toward them

From their roof in the direction of the breeze 

They stood up and cuddled for that rainy breeze

Drenching with the excitement of new lovers 

Their summer vacation in a village homestay 

They saw more rain than the sun and the scenery

They remembered how they met on a rainy day 

Drenched and shivering in a tea shop sipping tea

Their eyes made contact and froze while the steam

Took them back to senses and they talked excitedly 

It seemed like they have gone back to that moment

They took their tea cups and walked towards their room

With desires from the past luring them for nostalgic romance

This poem is inspired by the extended rain sessions during the summer in Trivandrum. Images are taken by Dagmara Dombrovska and Miliju Varghese

New Forests In The Deserts

Countries are reclaiming deserts 

Through raising new forests on sands 

To stop the sandstorms in cities 

To create farms for food security

To increase the green cover of a nation

To save the rainwater from draining away

To create a new ecosystem and biodiversity 

To bring back the birds and animals 

Egypt used wastewater to grow a forest 

In the desert to fight climate change 

The Great Green Wall in Africa is aiming 

Eight thousand kilometers long arrays of trees 

An irrigated afforestation program 

To stop the expansion of the Sahara desert 

And combat the effects of climate change 

Saudi Arabia is planning to plant billions of trees 

In the desert with modern technology 

To reclaim degraded lands into forests 

China has grown millions of trees in the Gobi desert and 

Mu Us Over the decades to generate a new green forest 

With an ingenious technique to store water for trees

Thousands of Chinese people have contributed efforts

This is reducing the sandstorms in Beijing 

It has increased the overall forest cover of China 

An engineer created a small forest in the 

Thar desert in India based on ancient paintings

Israel has converted desert land into Yatir forest 

A new eco-system has emerged there 

The trees have adapted to the harsh arid conditions

Relying on a lesser amount of water to grow

The coastline of Abudhabi is witnessing the 

Planting of thousands of mangroves to provide 

lush green cover and another forest closer to

Abudhabi city is aiming to create an ecosystem

To give a hangout for the city residents 

The world is witnessing various forest projects

With an aim to improve forest cover and prevent

desertification of the land or afforestation of deserts

That could positively help in controlling climate change

Reducing greenhouse emissions and global warming 

Deforestation is the previous poem related to this topic. During the lockdowns related to the Corona pandemic, I saw a lot of videos on growing forests in deserts in various parts of the world. It take a lot of painstaking trial and error methods initially before they succeeded. The trees that can adapt to arid conditions are primarily used along with some shrubs that can grow in sand. Watershed programs that help in the absorption of the rainwater for replenishment of groundwater is also a significant step. Thousands of people took part in the forest projects in China and Africa. Some of the projects are decades old and now they have lush forests with birds and animals and enough water. Images are taken from Science Photo and Great Green Wall. Thank you :)

Deforestation

The greed of humans is exploding deforestation

Felling trees without an afterthought 

To meet the needs of a construction industry 

To clear the land for the expansion of settlements

To prepare land for cultivation 

Deforestation affects biodiversity, 

Loss of habitat for countless plants and animals 

Many rare species are facing the threat of extinction 

Without trees to stop the fast runoff of rainwater

Climate change implodes flooding and soil erosion

Untimely monsoons and flash flooding make people 

Take refuge in camps, with damages to their homes 

Kerala and Europe have seen the effects recently 

Without trees storing water, droughts occur in places

The temperatures are increasing in many countries 

Affecting the availability of potable water

Desertification is posing a threat to more population

Deforestation leads to more greenhouse gases emissions

As trees are the best storage medium for that

It is a major factor in the global warming that 

Caused drastic increase in sea level over the years

Putting the lives of thousands of islanders in 

Tuvalu, Kiribati, Maldives, and Marshall Islands under threat

The manmade fire in the Amazon that lasted months 

Burning everything down in a rainforest 

To make way for soybean plantations 

The clearing of rainforests in South East Asia 

To build monoculture palm tree plantations 

It destroyed the entire ecosystem over the years

It is causing conflict between humans and wild animals

The captive tree forests for claiming trees 

Too ruined many thick forests for commercial revenue

And the natural bushfires in Australia and California

Seeing more devastations with climate change 

The images of barely alive animals seeking water 

The seasons and weather are changing drastically

Across the world in different ways 

As people uproot more trees daily without replanting

A search in my blog by someone about deforestation led me to read about deforestation and its effects worldwide. It is a rather complex issue. I touched upon some aspects of it in this poem. Images are taken from istockphoto and dreamstime. New Forests In The Deserts is the continuation of the topic of this poem. 

Ray Of Hope

When all doors of opportunities are shut 

All roads towards new avenues are closed 

You see your dreams withering away 

You see a dead end of the tunnel with

No light coming from the other end 

You are resigned to accepting the end of a 

Long journey you've toiled hard for years 

The promised calls don't ring as they don't

Have any good news to share with you 

And when you are letting go of the dreams

Somebody come with a ray of hope from

nowhere, As the messenger of God to 

Inform you that your prayers are heard 

Don't lose heart and keep believing in God 

It might be in the form of your dearest

 friend or someone you don't even know 

Giving hope and belief to continue the 

battle, To survive and chase your dream 

Without those who have given up on you 

Without any fear to complete the journey

I have seen these messengers of the God 

When I have hit the rock bottom, And I 

have no means to move any further 

Pray from the bottom of your heart and 

Keep working hard towards your dreams 

It will come true, in the end, despite all 

odds stacked against you to fail!

Yesterday, I was hopeless after my last straw seemed non-existent to make a comeback, I wrote the poem closing doors. The late-night my friend from. abroad gave me the ray of hope to continue to pursue my dream. This poem is dedicated to her. The picture is snapped by  Ahmed Hasan .

Closing Doors

A positive phase of life has turned 

Into a nightmare within a few months 

Omicron started the fall from the wall 

A slide down into depths of depression

Upon variation of dosage of medication 

Led to a volatile mind drawing the focus 

Away from the research and the writing 

While my mind readjusted to new dosage 

The doors that brought prosperity to me 

Started closing without any warning bells

While mind was rather waiting for the due 

payments, The change in management 

Closed the door for payments and work 

The smaller firm that gave work regularly 

Started running out of orders to give work 

That door was my big hope for this year 

I had made a deal with a supportive friend

Another door to fallback during hard times

But delay in delivery owing to depression 

Took away my credibility and reliability

Leading to that door getting closed hard

Now I am stuck with three reports unsold 

Company after company giving a no for sale, 

A wicked man wants them at cheap rates, 

Months of research and analysis lay 

in a folder, Awaiting a fresh lease of life 

Now that all doors are closed, I am just 

letting my mind write poetry, Blog a poem

 a day until I see a door opening for me 

I am not ready to succumb to depression 

Depression cost me my career. I had to become a freelancer. I am just a day away from a disaster if my mind struggles to focus. I rely on medicines for focus and concentration. I can't write a word even if I have done all research if there is any variation. It happened on multiple occasions in the last 5 years. Meditation, positivity, etc sounds nice. But the battle inside the mind is not easy to tame.