A Little Lamp

A Little Lamp

If you are the fire, Oh Lord

Make me a little lamp

That brightens up the space around

With all the wick and oil it has

Though small, insignificant

Though not the mighty forest fire

Though not the mammoth disc

That adorns the sky

But still, a source of light

A guide

Something that cuts through darkness

And beats the sickly cold

Something that spreads your divinity

And spread calm around it

If you are the fire, Oh lord

Make me a little lamp.

Omnipresent

Omnipresent

You spread light to places

The sun has not touched

You hear voices

That has never been heard

You see through the opaqueness

You walk through solid

However unseen or unheard

You are felt and thus, you are known

There is a part of you in us

And all of us in you

The fact that you surround and protect us

Remains the biggest truth

Cure

Cure

Oh Guardian, I keep faith in You

You cure every ill

Do scrape the cataract of my eyes

To see through every lie

Do soothe the deep burns on my skin

By fire of jealousy

Take away the numbness from my fingertips

To distinguish right from wrong

Do heal every wound caused

By different pains of life

Control the pressure of my blood

That rises when I am enraged

Do fix my backbone

To stand up against every wrong

Do suck the poison from my heart

That spreads hatred through my veins

Pardon

Pardon

I know not, Oh Lord

How many lies escaped my lips

How many words, like poison stings

Have been shot by my tongue

And how many bodies in which

Their veins spread the poison

From the pierce of these stings

How many faces I punched with my fist

That left a permanent mark on them

how many drops of salty water

I’ve extracted from damp eyes

Knowingly or unknowingly

With intentions good or bad

I’ve given woes to different souls

However near, however dear

Pardon me, Oh Lord, for all those deeds

So I shall do it no more

Digital Painting- A Girl

Dark Cloud

On a day of sunshine
You see a dark cloud
Pacing towards, slowly
to swallow the yellow disc
Then darkness spreads....

But no, do not despair
The grey mass may soil
The bright matte of the sky
But from these dull giants of the sky
come little drops of water
falling fast, to embrace the soil
soothing wounds of tools
washing away the dryness and
waking up dormant life

These dark clouds
so dull as it seems
are never to be frowned at
as it made earth blue and green

Indian Super League- Coming soon...

Happy Onam

Gratefulness

When we win something, we are elated. We feel that it is all because of our own effort and nothing else. we then celebrate this in a grand manner and walk around with this ego.
But, on the other hand, when we lose, we get irritated. Here, we never take responsibility for our loss. We then blame it on God, or everyone else around us.
What happens around us is the result of a uniform mixture of our own efforts, our surroundings, and of course, divine intervention. We must acknowledge this every moment of our lives, sad or happy.
Have a good day

Faith

Faith

I shall be happy

As long as I have faith

I shall be safe

As long as I have faith

And no fierce tempest

Shall drown me

Nor I get lost

In a dense forest

No fire of anger

No arrow of pain

Shall burn me

Or hurt me

As long as I am in

Your palm

I shall be happy

I shall be safe

I shall have faith

The Infant

The Infant

Smiling through the chubbiness

And its wide eyes

Capture every drop of beauty

In every morsel of nature

With full of faith

In its caregiver’s hands

It laughs at the most funniest

To the darkest of faces

Making even a monster’s heart melt

As its young red blood

Flows in a lighter heart

Go Back

Go Back

When I was little

And knew nothing much

About the world

There was only light

No bars of fear

No thorns of hate

Where I lived was a beautiful place

But later,

I know not why

And what eclipsed

That light in my heart

And how, through these years

Imaginary shackles around my wrist,

Cactuses around, and pricking

Appeared

But what I pray for is now

To go back

To those prejudice free, carefree days

When though tiny, seemingly helpless

Was when I was bravest

And stop time

That makes my limbs grow

And shrinks my heart

I want to go back

To when I was little.

True

True
Treading on the sand
Of the endless desert
And not enough water
even to sweat
even to cry
Fatigued legs and a dry throat
Try to walk, even crawl
To the destination
Then those drying eyes
Capture a soothing green
A delightful blue
Palm trees beside a pond
Treasure more valuable than gold
But then, I paused
And I thought
I have seen mirages before
and every time I followed them
It led me deeper in this plain land
But this visual had a shadow
The dark patch, brewing hope
I walked towards it
Not in plain blind joy,
but in solid victory

Digital Painting- Mahabali

Digital Painting

Happiness

Happiness

Happiness is the elixir

That keeps you going

Happiness is the destination

Where everyone wants to go

Happiness is that treasure

You search even in the dirt, to find

Happiness is that thing you want,

But all you have got is sadness

When you pursue the former

You seem like a magnet to the latter

You think, and think and think

And search every corner in the world

You find yourself sad every day

For that feeble fire, that can be extinguished

By even a small blow, you feel

That fire, you do not realize

In you, unseen by your opaque eyes

-          Arathi Menon

My Birthday

My Birthday

When I was young, my birthday

Was when I expected

To stay happy throughout

A day when

Everything happens perfectly

You make wishes and expect

Some unexpected magic to happen

A day with promises

For the future

Then later you realize

When things go wrong

On the day when you wanted it right

You lose your special feeling

And feel it is just another day

With those usual woes

And you hate it even more

For it being your birthday.

              -Arathi Menon

Gone are those days

Gone are those days

Gone are those days,

When you perform your art

However amateur it was

You get a pat on your back

Gone are those days

When you weep

Your tears are wiped

And you are made to smile

Gone are those days

When you are made a star

Your cheeks are pulled

And you are cuddled

Gone are those days

When your sorrows are listened to

And every other problems

Are kept away from you

As years pass by

You slowly realize

Not all what you do is approved

Your sparkles wane

When you have a stain

You will not be thanked, when you do your duties

But will be held up for your faults.

You weep alone, and no piece of cloth,

Wipes your tears for you

You are no longer adorable,

There will be no basket

For holding your sorrows

A disaster is a disaster

A mistake is a mistake

And life is no longer a fairy tale

You are still in your path

And your training wheels are off

So balance yourself to the end.

Arathi Menon

To My Parents

To My Parents

In my first hour, when I was little

You held me in your hands

Your eyes filled with pride

Your heart with extra warmth

Your loved ones surround you

And the cute little baby you had

‘My child shall grow up, be pretty and successful’

And every block of it

Built something beautiful

Something to look forward to

As I grew up, my every move

Made you excited,

And you  waited for more

My little successful ventures

Built confidence in you

But as time passed by

You found

There were even more failures

Your child is not how you wanted her to be

Not an all rounder, not a class topper

Not any prodigy you read in the papers

But someone, worse than ordinary

Someone, who wouldn’t do even a simple thing right

You may find her lazy, selfish and clumsy

She does not even know the basics

Others know at her age

Other parents have better children, you think

And yours, an ugly little thing

Whom your loved ones have started to detest

And slowly you, yourself felt,

And wished and prayed,

If you had someone better

To call as your child

She grows up and wails, and throws tantrums,

Loses her temper and shouts absurdities

People feel sorry for you, and you for yourself

But hides all this, and wears a smile

A bright satin sheet that covers the mess

Beneath it, here your erupting woes

And when I am sad, you wrap your arms

Around me and tell me

It will be alright, when it won’t

You give me the confidence to pursue my dreams

Even when I have no ability for it.

You tell me you love me

But what you do not know is

How much I love you.

My thoughts revolve around you, and every move

I make depends on you

I tried to fit in the mould

The society and you made for me

I tried to build the castle you dreamt of

But forces pull me, drag me down

From being your ideal child

Desires and distractions make me sway

But nothing forgetting you, had been done

But alas, I failed in my attempt

I do not know how parents feel

As I was never one myself

But you, my two pillars of life, must know

That little monster you see externally,

Is a little child, who loves you deeply

Arathi Menon